From this point on our adventure is split into three episodes with various chapters making up each episode. In the first the main plot centres on our attempts to escape the crash location as well as rescue Ava. As the story develops it soon becomes clear that it is not just humans who inhabit our location but an army of robotic soldiers and “gods” who are worshiped by the locals. From there we begin a fight to save Earth from The Watchers.
At the start of Dark Void the gameplay experience is very similar to most action adventures as we explore the jungle on foot and soon after enter a village where we are approached by a native then taken to meet another outsider, Nikola Telsa. He kits us out with a hover pack at which point the style of gameplay begins to differ from the average adventure. Using this hover pack we have a much larger range of movement so rather than be restricted to climbing and walking/running the game allows us to boost up to high ledges and areas which would normally not be accessible. We can also “jump” further and fall greater distances by cushioning the landing using the pack.
This expanded range of movement is easily picked up and on the PC version of the title accessing higher ledges is a simple case of aiming at the area and hitting “C”. Once we have grabbed the ledge we then shimmy along using left or right and finally hit space to climb up. Much of the first episode is taken up with this style of gameplay as we essentially continue to move upwards and battle through various groups of enemies.
To aid us in these battles we have a selection of weapons at our disposal, the Liberator is the gun we used the most and is well suited to dispatching the standard ground based enemies. Throughout the game we find weapons lockers which allow us to select higher powered guns or enhance our existing item by purchasing upgrades. These purchases are funded by points which we collect from orbs dropped by the enemy as they die.
During battles our health is represented by a blurring of the screen, as the damage becomes more serious our vision becomes worse. To recover there are no health packs, we simply take cover until recovery has taken place.
- Video example of airborne gameplay including PhysX effects
By the time the first episode is finished, a couple of hours into the story, we obtain the Jet pack which allows us to fly and at this point the game becomes more than just the average action adventure. With the jet pack attached we are able to seamlessly move from ground based gameplay/combat to airborne with the latter being a huge amount of fun.
Air based control is reasonably simple when using the jetpack or a ship on both PC and console, though the Xbox and PS3 are a little easier to adjust to than the PC. Each system allows us the same control over the character though with standard flying motion and special moves which are accessed through key combinations. The jet pack is also equipped with weapons which are fired using the mouse buttons.
After the initial chapter of air based action the control system should be well understood by the gamer and we certainly had no issues controlling the character as we progressed further into Dark Void and its Sci-Fi based plotline.
>> Page 2 - featuring PhysX Analysis
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