Thursday, February 3, 2011

The Void Review

Gamerman back for a brand new GamerMan review on...

The Void

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I'm sorry if you guys are getting tired of all the Steam games I am reviewing but that's partly because I bought a LOT of them during the winter sale so stay with me. 

 The Void is a very complex game that I found very difficult to review. The difficulty? The freedom it provides. You can do absolutely ANYTHING you want. You are a soul who is in a place between absolute darkness and life called The Void. The Void lives off of color, it gives life to the Sisters who reside over the Void, to the trees, and more importantly to the Brothers who watch over the void.


Story
The story is simple and confusing. You are a soul who's been saved by a Sister, a watcher of The Void. Each of these sisters rule a realm of The Void with a Brother watching over them except for one Sister. The brothers have all left because of the lack of Color in the Void. You, as a soul, attract the attention of these Brothers after you bring the return of Color to the world and the beasts that come with it. Being blind, the Brothers don't know you are not like one of them but they have their doubts so they test you. You can choose to follow their orders or not. The game is yours to play. You must choose whether to help the Sisters or become a Brother.



Gameplay
The gameplay is about the whole game. You must collect Color. You must grow Color and you must consume Color. In order to survive in the void, you have to inject color into your body or else The Void will destroy you. The gimmick is that the Color you consume is gone forever so instead of just taking color you must harvest Color in trees as a source of income. Every now and then a cycle turns and that's when the color you invest in trees grows to give you some Color income. Cycles also mean color is created in other areas and more importantly, cycles are usually the deadline for the brother's tasks. You must choose what to do and how to do it. 

In addition to collecting color, you must also collect hearts. Hearts contain glyphs, things you can draw you give you special attributes or power. The Donor glyph allows you to give color to anything, the Web glyph can stick on to enemies and explode to anything that touches the enemy. Attacks and attributes are gained and must be used wisely in The Void. 

To unlock new areas in The Void, Sisters must be given color so they can allow you to pass on to another sister. That always means giving two specific colors to them so they can grow stronger and.. well you know the rest. 

If you fail to complete your task however, you must face a Brother. These battles differ depending on what Brother you have angered and they are all extremely difficult if you are not well prepared. Some are impossible without the help of certain glyphs and only serve to beat you down for not completing the task in time.

It's incredibly hard to master but incredibly satisfying to understand. As frustrating as it might be, it's extremely rewarding.

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A bit more scarier than the big bad wolf.

Graphics
In this section I am not going to be talking about texture quality or any sort of that thing because the game instead focuses on the atmosphere. The game takes place in a dark space where it seems like all hope is lost. The Sisters all have their own appearance and presentations that make them unique and likable in their own different ways. The Brothers are all creepy and crazy in their own ways but you can't help like some over the others. The way they use their graphical capabilities is not graphically impressive, it's artistically impressive. 

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So um.. who's next?

The game makes you feel like you are in that world, that you belong there. You are the soul.

Overall
But to be honest.. This game is far from perfect. The ideas are sometimes poorly executed, there are various bugs and glitches that have forced me to start over.  The biggest downfall is the ending; It is severely lacking. If they had just fixed some of their smaller issues, it would have been one of my favorite games because I am forced to consider these aspects into the final score.

I still enjoyed myself thoroughly though and my experience was great until the end so for that I will rate this game a...

7/10

If you'd like to buy this game, it is 10$ on Steam. Though it has it's problems, it is well worth the price.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/37000/?snr=1_4_4__13

Try it.     
   
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39 comments:

  1. i'll have to give it a go seems very different to a lot of other games.

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  2. damn the game looks real good, i think ima just give it a try

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  3. Looks like a really interesting game =]

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  4. I think it looks pretty good for a Steam game, The Void might be worth the time to check it out!!(:

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  5. That lady has some crazy armpit hair.

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  6. woww, i really like this, i know what to try now, thank you!

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  7. this game looks like it could turn out to be pretty intense i might try it out great review tho following bro

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  8. Never heard of it, looks interesting. I might grab it after I finish all the games I bought during the sale.

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  9. This sounds like all kinds of amazing. Once I fix my computer, I'll definitely give it a shot.

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  10. Verry interesting game and review. I demande moar

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  11. I don't mind crappy endings. I'll check it out.

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  12. sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet lookin game!!

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  13. You need to blog more about this stuff dude! 20/10

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  14. seems new and fresh, i might check it out

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  15. Never heard of this game but now going to have to check it out sometime soon, keep the reviews coming when you cna.

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  16. This game reminds me of older episodes of The Cosby Show.

    World of Warcraft Cheats @
    http://www.blizzardhacks.com

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  17. I really like how you set up all of this, it gives a great view of the game :D

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  18. Amazing review, makes me want to buy it, do more.

    Supporting.

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  19. I'm quite interested in the chick even more than the game. Great review though.

    Supporting you bro.

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  20. Looks pretty interesting, i might try it out. Following you! http://mmomoose.blogspot.com/

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  21. Very interesting review sir. Might consider buying.

    Supporting you bro.

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  22. wow I've never heard of this game but your review makes me want to check it out lol.

    Ten bucks ain't so bad.. think I just might.

    Nice review man.

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  23. You've got some interesting games here that I've never played like Killing Floor, that I want to play, and some games that I haven't even heard of like The Void, definitely wanna try that out. Keep up the nice reviews, very interesting

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  24. These images are fantastic...the game sounds like a bit of a headache, but I may check it out for the visuals alone.

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  25. Hopefully this will be more entertaining then Amnesia. Yea the game was wicked scary and the story was good, but it got boring way to fast.

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  26. wow I havn't head of this and it looks good.
    Thanks for the good review, I will keep this in mind next time I make a impulse purchase on steam.
    Another game people should check out:
    VVVVVV
    2d side scrolling puzzler. It's short and sweet.

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  27. great post, i didn't know Steam had such quality games like this. The Void looks pretty nice.

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  28. I agree the chick is hot. There should be more nudity in games IMO! Nice post btw! following!

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  29. Sounds like a cool concept, but if it's bug ridden, I think I'll be passing. Good review.

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  30. Very very cool. Nice review. However I feel it necessary to say that one of your photos was removed due to violation of t.o.s.

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  31. A very visually driven game, I really like the cover art. Thanks for the heads up, might have to check this out!

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  32. the graphics are pretty damn cool in this one.

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  33. gonna have to go check this flick out.

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  34. Gonna have to check out this game, it looks kinda crazy.

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  35. That actually looks pretty interesting, I'll have to give that one another look

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