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Dark Void Gameplay Impressions

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the borrowing-is-a-time-honored-tradition dept.

Kotaku has a great writeup on some of their gamplay impressions from the new game, Dark Void. "Dark Void is basically Crimson Skies with on-foot combat. That may be overgeneralizing things, but Ed Fries co-founder at Airtight Games and former Microsoft Game Studios guy essentially pitched the game as such at Capcom's Captivate 08 event as the type of game that the team wanted to make. With a mechanic the studio is referring to as "vertical cover combat," Dark Void looks to distinguish itself from the 3D action game crowd by way of Crimson Skies know-how and a sci-fi mythology that pits man against alien invader, selectively borrowing from classic science fiction properties in intelligent places."

11 comments

  1. remake? by moderatorrater · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hmm, on the ground, firing upwards, fighting aliens, and you take cover. This sounds familiar. Perhaps they should call it "Space Invaders 3D".

    1. Re:remake? by lymond01 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yep. Aside from the 3-D open terrain, the upgradeable personal jet packs, the ability to hijack alien ships after bypassing their security code and taking out he pilot, it's basically: "Stop the Alien Invasion."

      Just like Mass Effect, Aliens vs Predator, Half Life 2...Might as well just lump those together as Space Invaders 2. ;-)

  2. Hmmm... by DJNephilim · · Score: 1

    The gameplay sounds an awful lot like Warhawk on the PS3. That isn't a bad thing.

    --
    Enemy of the Sun
  3. Crimson Skies was fantastic by Murrdox · · Score: 3, Funny

    One of the last great flight-sim games of our time. The true way to play Crimson Skies was the PC version with a Sidewinder Force-Feedback Pro. The game was marvelous and wonderful in all the ways that it is possible to be. The XBox version was surprisingly good.

    I'll be looking forward to this game if it is in any way similar to Crimson Skies. I haven't heard of this title before.

  4. All we needed to know. by Capitalist+Piggy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Dark Void is still said to be at least a year off, with plenty of room for improvement and development beyond the brief portion we saw at Captivate. The team at Airtight have already ruled out multiplayer, something that may not sit well with gamers expecting that feature as a givenâ"especially after they see the UFO combat and skyjacking gameplay. Being a big fan of the Crimson Skies series, all I needed to see was the above paragraph and stopped reading the article.

    With map generation being a rapid process, the availability of multi-player shooter source to look at and the hordes of people who won't buy a single-player game out there, it seems like a bad idea to skip it.

    While I am aware of how hacking was destroying the multi-player experience in Crimson Skies, it seems like they could have learned from this instead of just giving up.

    Plus, the game is over a year away. The "impressions" are not going to be much of a gauge of the final product by any stretch of the imagination. The article could have just been named "I spent a few hours with game developers looking at the early stages of a project" and been a bit more accurate, as it is very uncommon for a retail game to represent something in this stage of development.

    1. Re:All we needed to know. by witchman · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'd rather have a great single player game than a crappy single player game + multiplayer. It takes a lot of extra time and money to add multiplayer to a game and that distracts from development. Also, I didn't read anything that said the game was in "early" stages of development, it just said that the game was "at least a year off." Sounds like they are just putting more work into the game, or did you actually get to see it?

    2. Re:All we needed to know. by Thedeviluno · · Score: 1

      Single player game seeks additional players for good times.

    3. Re:All we needed to know. by Capitalist+Piggy · · Score: 1

      I see games as social gatherings. I have no desire to sit in a quiet room and play against lack-luster AI for a few hours when it would be more fun to group up with some friends and play against lack-luster AI or human opponents. Multi-player code is easy to implement these days, unless your developers are a bunch of loons and if you want to write the next blockbuster, it had better have MP support as there's a majority of people out there who will buy the shooter with these features over the one without. It's all about the replay value.

      Good nit-pick on the early development remark, though. :)

  5. Re:GLORIOUS GREETINGS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dude, you totally forgot to leave your contact info! Now how am I supposed to become a millionaire?