Dark Void (PS3 – PC, 360) in 250 words.

Sometimes you need to reset the bar. As an informed gamer I find more and more that my definition of what constitutes average is slowly creeping upwards. Then Capcom’s Dark Void was thrust into my lap, and I found my equilibrium.

Conceptually Dark Void looked like a solid game. It threw me into a dramatic story, set in a beautiful world with interesting opponents. Add to this cover based combat with the ability to take flight at any time, courtesy of a jetpack, and developer Airtight Games should have been on to a winner. But these elements all combined to make and experience that define the term pedestrian.

See it looks fun, but the soul is missing.

Strangely nothing in the execution of Dark Void is wrong. There are no technical problems, mechanically or graphically, but it contains none of the magic that I seem to have begun taking for granted in my games.

I look to games with similar third person combat, such as Gears of War, and feel none of the spark that made them special. Like a gifted young musician copying their idol, the performance of Dark Void is solid in its execution, but lacks any of the soul that makes the original feel special.

Dark Void looked so promising in previews, but all the final product did for me was establish that good games really do possess a spark that raise them above the masses; a spark that no amount of technical talent or focus testing can substitute for.

Read more about Dark Void here.