Certainly a nice surprise at this year’s big show is Dark Void, developed by Airtight Games.  There has been some good buzz around this title, though so far it’s had a low press profile; it was even accused today by one summit attendee of “totally coming out of nowhere.”  If it has come out of nowhere, then the fact that it was scooped up by third-party heavy Capcom would hopefully speak to its quality.  We’re happy to report that it does.

If you’re at all familiar with Airtight’s previous entry, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, you’ll feel right at home when dropped into the world of Dark Void.  As Crimson Skies before it unfolded in an alternate 1940’s air-pirate universe, Dark Void seems permeated by a certain retro-future vibe that gives it a unique look.  This vibe exists only as an undercurrent though, and it infuses with the game world’s technologies to arrive at its own singular graphical vibe.  After seeing the photos of the game and reading about its interesting flight mechanics, we were quite intrigued to get our hands on this one.  Thankfully, the showcase floor’s demo plunged us right into the action. 

Dark Void is a third-person sci-fi shooter that features lots of shooting action tossed together with some fantastic jetpack mechanics.  Yeah, we said “jetpack.”  You’ll quickly notice that not only can you shoot your trusty gun and toss your trusty grenades, but you can also use your jetpack to cruise over some huge gaps and gain some ground on your enemies. 

The game, essentially, at first takes its moves right out of the Gears of War playbook: cover, cover, and cover.  You’ll shoot at your evil, robotic enemies, and when the fire is laid on too thick, you’ll hit the X button to duck behind a pillar or parapet.  Yes, on its feet, the game doesn’t do anything new.  What really starts getting your pulse pumping, however, is how the game takes these ideas and literally runs ‘em up a wall.  For the first time in a video game, Dark Void introduces a vertical cover system.  It feels like a truly new experience.  Your character grabs onto ledges, struggles to hang on, then uses a rocket boost to shoot himself up to the next ledge – all the while striving to take down enemies above.  It’s a superb feeling the first time you start scaling a cliff – it’s jarring and exhilarating and great fun.

It doesn’t stop there, though.  After a number of cliffside battles with our enemies – scaling, shooting, and scaling – the game “took the training wheels off,” as they say.  Standing at the top of a mountain, the game suddenly allowed us to unleash the pack’s flying mechanics – and it was a real doozy.  Airtight Games has gone to some lengths to get the exhilaration of flight out of this project, and it really hits home.  The first time our character dove off the cliff and his jetpack kicked into full gear sending him soaring through the air, we got a few butterflies in our stomachs.  After that, banking and diving were a breeze, and it never felt like we were working too hard to get our character to fly where we needed him to go.  Couple that with the fluid character flight animations, and it made us feel like we wished the Iron Man game had….

Story-wise, we’re not quite sure what’s at stake for the game’s protagonist, or even who HE is, but maybe that was due to the fact that we were on the Showcase floor amid all of the bells and whistles.  On second thought, we’re glad that we didn’t have any story to get in the way of what a game demo should be – a demo of the game part of the game.

We are very excited about Dark Void’s 2009 release, and we can’t think of anything really bad to say about it.  Well….. I guess we could do without half of the various quick-time events in the first level.  Beyond that, however, our only real hope for the game is that they take the time to spice-up the game’s ground combat a little, as well.  That would go to make a great game an awesome one.  Cross your fingers…