Dark Void Preview

Will was finding it hard to say goodbye

For this stage Will's job was to help fix up the ship while simultaneously defending it from attack. Initially this task required him to power up several generators using the Hypercoil, a sort of hand-held Tesla coil that fires arcs of electricity. Gray had to locate each node, switch his 'pack into hover mode and then douse the machinery with electricity; after this he'd switch back into full-on flight mode and head to the next point, weaving about and gunning down UFOs as he went. Will's 'pack is armed with dual machine guns and with homing missiles, so these fights play out like an arcade flight sim; given that Airtight Games was formed out of the core team that worked on Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, this shouldn't come as too big a surprise.

After powering up the engines, Will's next task was to take on several small groups of ground fighters who had invaded the human base. There were a number of approaches that he could be taken here. Gray elected to land and to fight the slender robots up close, but he could have also hovered over them and rained down death from above, or perhaps flown to an overlook point and sniped. If he was feeling really flashy, he could have hijacked one of the flying saucers and then strafed the troops below. As Wez described in his last preview, this involves getting close to the UFO and then hitting a button to make Will grab on to the craft. At this point a sort of cat and mouse style game kicks off: The alien pilot tries to blast you with a slow-moving turret, so you have to lure his aim to one side of the saucer while you crawl around and open the cockpit by following on-screen prompts. Yes, it's essentially a QTE sequence, but it's more interactive and enjoyable than a lot of the ones we've had thrown at us.

Gray's demo ended with a fight against an Archon - a large bot that somewhat resembled a metallic lizard. The first one of these you'll fight will be a boss of sorts, but in typical Capcom fashion you'll eventually have lots of them thrown at you, to the extent that they become a regular threat. The Archon has quite decent anti-air capabilities, so to take him down you'll need to get up close and attack his joints. There's a QTE execution method that can be used to dispatch him but, like the UFO hijacking, it'll largely be optional. It's certainly possible to take an Archon with your standard weapons, particularly if you've been upgrading your kit. Floating orbs act as currency for these tool-ups, allowing you to power up your arsenal and jetpack via a simple menu system.

Dark Void is somewhat sitting in the shadow of Capcom's other big future releases, but from what I've seen of the game thus far it certainly looks like it'll have plenty of good stuff to offer. The flight mechanics have undergone several careful revisions, and it shows: it's a lot of fun to loop about the sky with bullets spewing from your front and flames blasting out your rear. Yes, there have been concessions in the name of accessibility, but at the same time this clearly remains a Capcom game, with a detailed approach to action that should appeal to hardcore gamers. As Tom has mentioned before, it remains to be seen how the mix of flight and on-foot combat will stretch out over the course of a full campaign, but it won't be long until we get to find out. If Dark Void can continue its upward momentum, it should offer a tight little serving of arcade shooting to help kick off the New Year.

Dark Void will be released on January 15 for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.