Line #19 VideoGame/DarkVoid


1	[[quoteright:233:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/darkvoid_riseup_poster1.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:233:Rise Up.]]
3
4	->"''Dark Void's only new idea was the ability to seamlessly switch at any time between old-fashioned, ploddy tortoise cover-based shooting on the ground and rocket pack whoosh crikey fun. And you know what? That could be enough.''"
5	-->--'''[[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]]'s''' [[http://zeropunctuation.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_Void review]]
6
7	''Dark Void'' is a 2010 game developed by Airtight Games and published by Creator/{{Capcom}} for Platform, Platform/Xbox360 and [[Platform/IBMPersonalComputer PC]].
8
9	The game begins in 1938, with ex-military pilot William Augustus Grey and his former lover Ava making a cargo run from America to Europe, when their plane loses power and crashes over the BermudaTriangle. They awaken in a bizarre [[AnotherDimension alternate dimension]], known as the Void. They soon meet up with the Survivors, a human resistance movement that is fighting the attacks of a strange reptilian race known as the Watchers and their robotic army.
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11	Apparently, the Watchers fashion themselves as gods, ruling over the less advanced humans after they destroyed their own home planet before primitive man eventually rose against them and banished them to the Void. Soon, Will and Ava meet up with UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla, who has also found himself trapped in the Void. He equips them with hoverpacks, and Will eventually gets a true {{jetpack}}. He takes to the skies, to stop the Watchers before they return to Earth, taking advantage of the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII coming conflict]]. There's something else going on, and Ava knows more than she's telling...
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13	The game is notable for seamlessly integrating third-person over-the-shoulder cover-based gunplay with jetpack dogfights, and has the unique feature of "vertical cover". It's also one of [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]]'s "Branston Pickles" -- flawed, but unique and entertaining despite those flaws. So try it anyway.
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15	Sometime after the game was released an AprilFoolsDay version entitled ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Void_Zero Dark Void Zero]]'' was announced as a joke, but eventually surfaced into an [[DolledUpInstallment entirely new game]].
16	----
17	!!This game contains examples of the following:
18	* ActionBomb: Red Watcher soldiers like to charge at you and explode.
19	* ActionCommands: In order to hijack an enemy [[FlyingSaucer 'hubcap']], you have to do one of these. However, you use the control stick to dodge its turret fire, your melee button to damage a panel, and the control stick to struggle with the pilot once he pops up to knock you off. This makes it a rare example of an ActionCommand that makes sense, and therefore doesn't annoy the player or break immersion. Also, you destroy [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever fifty-foot monsters]] by scrambling over them prying at weak points.
20	%%* ActionGirl: Ava.
21	* ApocalypticLog: Contains many, scattered throughout the game, often in somewhat hard-to-reach spaces. The first logs you encounter were apparently written by UsefulNotes/AmeliaEarhart. Some of the logs are very old (detailing the plight of what appear to be Irish immigrants to the Americas[[note]]i.e. the continent prior to the formation of the United States, that's how old we're talking[[/note]]), whilst others are much more recent, such as...
22	* AwesomeButImpractical: Picking the [[GatlingGood chaingun]] up from a defeated Watcher Knight will make you feel like an absolute badass and could, in theory, provide you with [[MoreDakka enough dakka]] to turn you into a OneManArmy. In practice, however, it's usually a lot more trouble than it's worth because A. you can't use the rocket pack which ''the entire gameplay revolves around'' while carrying it, meaning that, in a game where mobility is survival and progress generally requires flight you're stuck shuffling along the ground. B. because Knights are essentially minibosses and are just so dangerous, you'll normally kill them ''after'' ensuring you've gotten rid off of all the mooks which surrounded them, meaning by the time you pick up that chaingun, there's nobody left to ''fire'' it at.
23	* BaldOfAuthority: Atem. Will ribs him about the whole "humble guide" image he puts on.
24	%%* BandOfBrothers: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_19 Flight 19]], an entire flight of UsefulNotes/WW2 TBM Avenger torpedo bombers. They're mostly rookies, save for a couple of higher-ranking pilots.
25	%%* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy Édouard Daladier Was an Alien Spy. It doesn't get any more literal than this one, folks...
26	* BermudaTriangle: It's apparently a gate to an alternate dimension (the Void), but it's not the only such gate.
27	* CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys: Apparently the Watchers replaced the Prime Minister of France with one of their own, which would explain why Germany was able to conquer France so quickly.
28	* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler: The Watchers are manipulating the powers of Earth into UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Will is the SpannerInTheWorks that mucks all their plans up, though.]]
29	%%* TheChosenOne: [[spoiler: Will]]. Not that it's that big of a surprise.%%How is he an example? ''Why'' is it not a surprise?
30	* ColorCodedCharacters: The different Watcher soldiers come in different colors to distinguish their specialty and behavior.
31	* CoolAirship / CoolStarship: The Ark, and the captured Watcher transports less so.
32	* CosmicDeadline: Very much so. The first few chapters are paced normally, by Episode 2 plot elements are being thrown at you left and right, and by Episode 3 characters have knowledge of things the player doesn't know. Several things just plain aren't explained, and then it ends on a cliffhanger that seems impossible given the climax. [[spoiler: Namely, that Will was supposed to be the only one to return home, but Atem is suddenly in London. Ava had apparently already been to the Void once as well, this is barely touched on.]]
33	* DeathWorld: It's not a nice place, between the plants and the locals and the terrain. Never mind the fact it seems to cause technology from "outside" to degrade much, ''much'' faster than it ought to. Small, non-mechanical, and/or locally-assembled-from-scrap items seem to be okay though.
34	* DerelictGraveyard: The Void has a bunch of these. Some of them are ships in locations and positions that one really would not expect to find a ship in. The most notable derelict in the graveyards would probably be the ''U.S.S. Cyclops'', which disappeared in the BermudaTriangle some time after March 4th 1918.
35	* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: [[spoiler: The Final Boss is several dozen times the size of Will.]]
36	* DyingDeclarationOfLove: [[spoiler: Will's last words to Ava, before she dies closing the gateway between the Void and our world: "I love you!"]]
37	%%* EpisodeZeroTheBeginning
38	* EscortMission: When you first meet Atem, you have to escort him to the Resistance's camp. Unlike many escortees, he has the same regenerating health mechanics as the player.
39	* FlyingSaucer: The main vehicle of the Watchers. The Resistance guys call them "hubcaps".
40	* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: A textbook case of Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad. You're playing along, wondering if they're ever going to vary up the enemies a little -- holy crap it's [[Franchise/{{Godzilla}} King Ghidorah]]!
41	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Ava. Only one of them was ever going to end up going back home right from the beginning. And it wasn't her.]]
42	%%* HumansAreSpecial: The Adepts.
43	* HomingProjectile: Specifically drawn attention to by one of the human pilots during your first dogfight with Watcher air vehicles ("Watch out! Their missiles follow you!"). Done oddly in-game, however: your missiles will lock-onto and follow flying enemies, but only if they pass ''very'' close to them already. So while the missiles' homing quality turns near-misses into hits, it doesn't actually allow you to fire-and-forget. A large amount of aiming is always required.
44	* HumanSacrifice: One cutscene shows the tribal humans offering up a baby to the aliens for this purpose.
45	* JetPack: The game's main selling point. It is awesome. In case you ever forget that [[IWantMyJetpack You Want a Jetpack]], this game will remind you exactly WHY.
46	** It's also in ''Dark Void Zero'', and is very awesome there, too. It's got infinite usage, and a free-hover mode.
47	%%* LaResistance
48	* PoweredArmor: The enemies in the game seem like humanoid robots, but are actually robotic suits worn by the Watchers for combat, as most of them are really rat-sized slugs (although they eventually grown into the Elders, who are human-sized shapeshifters).
49	* {{Retraux}}: An 8-bit version of the main theme plays during the end credits. There's even an 8-bit game called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Void_Zero "Dark Void Zero"]] that was released for download on the Platform/DSi, treated as some old game found in the Capcom vaults. It started as a joke based off the 8-bit song, then grew into a {{Metroidvania}} game.
50	* SequelHook: [[spoiler:In the ending, Will is in London, 3 months after the final battle. Atem appears, telling him there is work to be done.]]
51	* ShoutOut: The achievement for flying between the legs of an Archon is "[[Franchise/StarWars Forgot my Towcable.]]" (Keep in mind, flying between an Archon's legs will probably also get you killed, if not by the turrets, then by running into the ground or hitting the Archon's tail.)
52	** "[[ComicBook/IronMan She handles like a dream!]]"
53	** "[[Franchise/StarWars Stay on target...]]"
54	** Let's not forget what the power output of Tesla's Hypercoil weapon is... you guessed it: [[Franchise/BackToTheFuture 1.21 Gigawatts]]
55	** The Resistance fightercraft bear a strong resemblance [[Franchise/StarWars to a certain Incom-produced snubfighter]].
56	* SuperSargassoSea: Loads of stuff that vanished in the Bermuda Triangle ended up in the Void. Grey actually salvages some radio equipment from the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cyclops_(AC-4) USS Cyclops.]]
57	%%* {{Tagline}}: Rise Up.
58	* ToastedBuns: One of the loading screen tips mentions to keep your limbs clear of the exhaust. The graphics clearly do not obey this instruction, but Will is unharmed by pack.
59	* TwoFistedTales: You play as AcePilot William Augustus Grey, TrappedInAnotherWorld enslaved by AncientAstronauts. ItsUpToYou to SaveBothWorlds. UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla is here too - ''and the first thing he gives you'' is an '''[[IWantMyJetpack awesome]]''' '''''JetPack!''''' {{Squee}}!
60	* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Will and Ava give no discernible reaction to the fact that they meet UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla himself.
61	-->'''Ava:''' Long way from Colorado Springs...
62	* {{Unwinnable}}: Thanks to some [[GameBreakingBug very serious glitches]], at least two levels in the game can be rendered {{Unwinnable}}, and due to the game's [[SaveGameLimits extremely irritating autosave/checkpoint system]], you can't load an earlier save; the only fix is to restart the entire level. Another horrible glitch makes one of the achievements for getting all the weapon upgrades unobtainable. What's worse, if this affects your profile, there is no fix whatsoever. Deleting your save, clearing your cache, recovering your profile, it all does nothing.

Context VideoGame / DarkVoid