It's hard to find a game that doesn't fit into any established genre. A genre label will tell you at a glance what you can do in the game. Since The Void can't be easily fit into any genre, it begs the question, what does one actually do in The Void? First, it's worth noting The Void is probably best described as an adventure game, but even that is a limiting title and not worth taking very seriously. 

The Void is a kind of afterlife, a desolate place devoid of natural life. Three kinds of people inhabit the Void: Sisters, Brothers, and Predators. Sisters are naked guardians of chambers, and you'll need to feed them Color in order to continue. Brothers are blind, hideous, and deformed people that guard the Sisters and the Color in the Void. 

Within minutes of playing, Color becomes the most important aspect of the game, because to do anything, you'll need Color. Speaking to NPCs, fighting, moving around in the map, all of it requires Color. Color is your health, mana, currency and inventory. There are six different kinds of Color, and they also represent your stats. Run out and you'll die. Color appears naturally around chambers in The Void at the beginning of each cycle (similar to an in-game day), but it is not enough to sustain you. You'll need to grow gardens, infusing trees with color, which will bloom each cycle and give you color. Color can also be mined or given to and later extracted from local fauna.

In the game, you'll visit Sisters who are hungry for Color. Feed them the Colors they want and they will reward you with Hearts, places in your body to store your Color. Each Heart also serves as a 'spell', allowing you to give Color, shield yourself, run quicker, etc. However, Color is always fading from your Hearts into your Nerva, which is color that can actively be used in the glyphs (or spells). The glyphs are drawn directly onto the screen with the mouse.

Brothers are the guardians of Sisters, twisted, blind creatures that will also punish you for wasting Color. They will assign you tasks to complete and will casually rampage your carefully grown and maintained gardens. So, you don't like Brothers all that much. Deformed and twisted creatures, Brothers provide the foil to the Sister's beauty. If you fail at a Brother's task, instead of restarting entirely, you'll get a chance to defeat him (although 'it' might be more appropriate) in battle. 

I won't lie, it took me a long time to play even a small amount of the game. While it is overall well built, it is so foreign that simply breaking into the rhythm is a feat among itself. That on top of its brutal difficulty and general indifference to the player, restarting it once or even twice is something that must be done. Many times you'll find yourself stuck in a chamber with no Color left to leave, and you'll have to go back to a previous save. It's easy to see where you can have fun in The Void, but the problem for some may be wrapping your mind around it.

Unfortunately, I found it hard to enjoy myself in the game. I did my best to try to like it, but the sheer slope of the game's mechanics and presentation made it hard to slowly ease into the game and enjoy it. The score below is hopefully a more objective assessment and less about my troubles playing it. If you're into games that you know what will happen, or just in for something quick, fun, and easy, then it's likely you won't enjoy The Void.  If you're always out for a new experience that simply can't be found anywhere else, you'll love the ultimate freedom to do as you wish, once you unlock how to. 

Likes: 

• Color is everything, changing how you view things like currency and health in game
• Beautiful and downright creepy visuals
• Amazing story line

Dislikes:

• Brutal difficulty, unless you're into that
• Easily possible to get yourself stuck requiring loading up an old save
• Nailing down glyph drawing can be tricky

 

Review Score

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The review scale at LevelFortyTwo is between 1 and 5. A score of 5 is considered an amazing game, 4 is a well-done game with only minor issues, 3 is in the middle; not great, but not bad, 2 is a very problematic game, and 1 is absolutely terrible.