The story, set in the 1930s, centers on a pilot named Will who ends up flying through the Bermuda Triangle into parallel universe called the Void. This world is controlled by a malevolent race called the Watchers, who are staging an all-out invasion by crossing through the rift. It isn't long before Will falls in with a group of human resistance fighters who are also stranded in The Void and works with them to overcome overwhelming odds. Among the resistance fighters in Nicola Tesla, who uses his genius to invent and modify retro sci-fi high tech weaponry.

Players are rushed from one action sequence to the next, and although it mostly works to keep the energy up, the downside is that the story ends up feeling a little rushed. We never fully understood how Tesla ended up in the Void. Since there's little interaction with the characters outside of cut sequences, and it's difficult to feel any attachment toward any of them when jumping from one fight to the next. To get a better idea of what the Void is all about, players have the option to pick up journal entries hidden throughout the levels, left by others who disappeared from Earth and passed into the Void, including figures like Amelia Earhart. However, some of the journals are so well hidden that it's hard to get motivated enough to pick them all up. There's also no way to properly organize collected journals so that they're grouped together by authors, so collecting them results in telling disjointed stories.

Unfortunately, the game is short and can be beaten in a few hours. What's worse is the fact that the final boss is incredibly easy, even on the hardest difficulty setting. Half the weapons require heavy upgrading before they pick up impressive properties. While there's a decent variety of guns, ammunition is most readily available for weapons picked up from Watchers, so it's generally impractical to stray from using the energy rifle and heavy blaster. There are two guns that don't have ammunition constraints, but they don't offer significant enough benefits to make them worth keeping and upgrading. Even so, Dark Void provides a good and entertaining experience. The game features some excellent level design that twists around perspectives. Vertical combat shifts the camera angle as players hang off of or peer over outcroppings, using them for cover and making for some fantastic visual effects. The feature forces players to think in three dimensions as they make their way through the world, but at the same time, it can be difficult pinpoint where shots are coming from.

Switching back-and-forth from combat to flight controls takes some getting used to, and although the keyboard and mouse work acceptably, a gamepad is preferable - especially with the flight. Dropping into a fight by hovering down slowly more often made us feel more exposed than providing a tactical advantage, but there's a freedom in blasting-off and engaging enemies in the air. The jetpack moves at a constant speed, and all players can do is either slow down or hit the after burner for a boost. Players can pull of some nice aerobatic moves, and there's a thrill in being a single person taking out huge targets, but the experience comes off altogether as a run-of-the-mill combat flight sim. There are opportunities to hijack Watcher aircraft, but it involves a somewhat lengthy series of quicktime events, which is really problematic when time is a consideration. There's only one type of fighter and players would be trading in some maneuverability for the small amount of protection the ship provides, so it's usually far easier to blow them out of the sky than to steal them.

Dark Void succeeds in provides plenty of action on the ground, in the air and everywhere in-between, it doesn't leave a deep impression. Although the game is generally well-done and a promising start to a brand-new series, it's not compelling enough to replay and unlock all the secrets. The rushed story combined with brief gameplay prevented us from fully engaging with anything that was going on. Vertical combat is a great innovation, and we'd love to see more games, but Dark Void is the kind of game that gets a single play through and is soon forgotten.

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