REVIEW / Voidwrought (Switch)

2D action platformers, or Metroidvanias as they are more colloquially known, have been a staple in video games pretty much since the beginning days of the medium and for good reason. The more popular ones offer an experience that captivates the players imagination while placing them in a world that is challenging and fun. Voidwrought, the new game from developers Powersnake Games and publisher Kwalee, manages to keep to the tradition of the genre and presents an adventure that is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat and your quick-twitch reflexes honed to the max. Set in a dark and decrepit world, you take on the role of the Simulacrum as he descends from his cocoon to collect Ichor, the blood of the gods, from the monstrosities who hoard it. Equipped with up to 50 different Relics and Souls, from spectral weapons to passive buffs, craft your preferred load out to best over 70 different enemy types and 10 formidable bosses.

The first thing that will jump out at you when you load up this game are the stunning visuals. The hand drawn art is some of the best that I have seen this year. The labyrinthine complex is filled with dark passageways and hidden corners that make for a very foreboding atmosphere. The character designs are amazing and varied. In fact, like I mentioned above, the developers boast over 80 different types of enemies and bosses so when you traverse to a new area, you will not see the same enemies from a previous area. While the visuals are striking, they alone are not what makes this game stand out; the gameplay is another facet that works in this games favor to create a unique and fun experience.

As the Simulacrum, you must make your way through the complex collecting the ichor of the gods. In true metroidvania fashion, you will traverse long corridors, find hidden passageways behind destructible walls and secret rooms that have been hidden for millennia. Along the way you will meet vendors who will sell you items like weapons, power-ups and parts to improve your arsenal. As you kill enemies, they will release a certain amount of ichor that you can collect and use to make purchases with the vendors that you find along the way. In addition, you will find weapons that you can purchase or are awarded after defeating bosses that you can equip and use to fight enemies or the get past certain points in the complex. The cool thing is that you can collect up to 23 different weapons and have two equipped at any time depending on how you like to play and which enemies have a weakness to a particular weapon.

The music and sound effects in Voidwrough is very impressive and goes a long way to setting the tone of the entire in-game experience. There are no speaking lines at all in the game as all the dialogue is delivered via text boxes. However, the background music does an excellent job of putting you in the right mindset and makes the various environments feel alive and threatening as they are trying to kill you. The tracks that play during boss encounters is phenomenal and immediately gets you into a headspace that has you ready to open a whole six-pack of whoop-ass from the jump. I can’t praise the sound design enough as it does great job of immersing you into the whole experience from start to finish.

One thing that I found that needed to be balanced a little better, in my honest opinion, was the level difficulty when it came to fighting the bosses. From the very first boss that I encountered, the difficulty of that boss felt like it was levels above where my characters experience was at that particular moment. You are going to die, and die a lot, when you come up against some of these monstrosities. I think that that is par for the course for metroidvanias but I just wish that wasn’t the case here. It is frustrating to me to get stuck at a boss when I was previously making my way through the complex just fine up until that point. That is one of the main reasons that I bounce off of these types of games usually. However, my wanting to see what was around the next corner, literally and figuratively, is what kept me pushing forward and I’m sure it will for you as well.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time reviewing Voidwrought but there were a few areas that jumped out at me regarding things that could have been balanced a little better but weren’t a complete dealbreaker for me. I usually end up bouncing off of metroidvanias because of coming up against either a boss that is too difficult to defeat or just getting stuck somewhere and not being able to find my way forward. However, that didn’t happen here for me…yet. As I mentioned above, the boss thing I was able to get around but I did come up against getting lost and not being able to figure out how to proceed forward. The game does offer a pin system where you can place a pin in important rooms in the pause menu that you figure you will need to come back to at some point, but it doesn’t ever explain that in-game. I just happened to stumble upon it as I was investigating the many menu screens that the game features.

So far, my time in Voidwrought has been very enjoyable and I am looking forward to jumping back in and seeing what is around the next corner. There are a plethora of metroidvania games on the market to play these days and I think that this one is definitely a must play if this genre is your jam. The incredible music, the imaginative story, and the dark and brooding atmosphere makes for a very unique and inviting gaming experience. In an era where games studios are closing left and right erasing decades of game making knowledge, its nice to play a game that a relatively small studio has built that gives a gaming experience that is able to take your mind off of the happenings of the world and lets you just enjoy a game that is fun to play without all of the clutter and junk of so called triple-A games these days. Pick this one up is this sounds like a good time to you. You will not be disappointed.

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.