Dark Void



Dark Void is a video game developed by Airtight Games and published by Capcom on the Unreal Engine 3 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows. In the game players must face an alien threat that humanity had previously banished. The game mixes on-foot and mid-air combat. It was released in North America on January 19, 2010, and will be released in Europe on January 22, 2010.

Plot
The game's story will center around a cargo pilot named Will Augustus Grey (voiced by Nolan North) who crashes in the Bermuda Triangle. From there, he is teleported to a parallel universe where he encounters other humans, called Survivors. Together, Will and the Survivors must battle an alien race known as the Watchers to return to Earth. The Watchers came from afar, making humans do their bidding, while being treated as gods. Eventually people known as Adepts emerged and banished the Watchers to the realm in which our pilot is trapped. With the help of Nikola Tesla, they retrofit Watcher technology to fight the Watchers.

Gameplay
The games make use of a new "vertical cover system", as well as a standard cover system.

The game will include a hover pack, and later, a rocket pack, allowing for a quick transition between traditional shooter gameplay and flight. It has also been announced that everything unlocked in the first play through will be transferred over to new games.

The game also features "tactical freedom", which is different ways of achieving the same goal. For instance, in the game, the player must take down an Archon, a large robotic enemy manned by a Watcher. The first way to take it down is by shooting its leg joints, rendering the giant enemy incapacitated. Once this is done, the player must climb onto the Archon's tail, triggering a mini-game, and fight the Watcher that's controlling it. A different way of accomplishing all this is by hijacking an enemy UFO and blasting the Archon with the ship's cannons until it explodes.

Music
The score to Dark Void was composed by Battlestar Galactica composer Bear McCreary, making his video game score debut. He recorded the score with a 63-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Eastwood Scoring Stage.

Film
According to Variety, Brad Pitt will develop a feature film based on the video game. Pitt will develop and produce the film through his production company Plan B Entertainment, and it was said that it could be a possible starring vehicle for the actor as well. No production schedule was released for the film.

Spin-off
On December 21, 2009, it was announced on the Capcom-Unity blog there would be a spin-off title for DSiWare called Dark Void Zero. The title was released on January 18, 2010. Setting it apart from the next-gen version, the game was designed as a retro title featuring 8-bit graphics and sound, with 2D gameplay in the same vein as the Metroid and Castlevania games.

To promote the game, a fictional "history" of the game was created in which it was a title Capcom was developing to be a breakthrough NES property in the late 80s, but was shelved with the coming of the SNES. This history also appears in-game during the introduction. Additionally, before starting the game, players must use the DSi microphone to blow the cartridge's "contacts", a reference to one of the most common problems with NES games.

Reception
Gamepro gave the game 3 out of 5 stars

PlayStation: The Official Magazine gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.

Official Xbox Magazine gave it a 5.0 out of 10.

French site Jeuxvideo.com gave a 11.0 out of 20.

Game Informer gave the game a 7 out of 10.

IGN gave it a 5.0 out of 10.

Game Trailers gave it a 6.8 out of 10.