Voidwrought – Review

A Sinister Metroidvania

Voidwrought is the title that piqued my interest in Kwalee and what they publish for PC. They were known more as a publisher for mobile games. But now they’ve included some interesting titles like ROBOBEAT, as well as Spirit of the Samurai, which is coming out soon, on 12 December. Enough about what they’ve published and will publish, though. We’re here for Voidwrought. It’s developed by the folks at Powersnake, an indie studio from Sweden. And it launched on 24 October. Before I come in and tear the game apart… the gamer in me wants to thank them for how present they are within the community. You always find one or two of the developers answering questions, helping people who don’t know where to go, listening to their feedback, and dealing with bugs as they appear. I just like small teams that understand how close they can be to the community. And speaking of bugs, they put my name in the credits after I helped them fix a few of them. Behold!

What Journey Awaits You?

In Voidwrought, you play as Advent, the typical silent protagonist whose actions speak louder than words. He is born in a similar way to the little character from Hollow Knight. Unlike his counterpart, Advent doesn’t have to wander far before he finds someone to explain things to him. He is greeted by Namun, an NPC similar in appearance to the Hindu god Shiva. Once petrified, she makes him an offer he can’t refuse: find her remaining siblings in exchange for her help. But who are Namun and her siblings? Or what is our character’s purpose? We’ll find out as we explore the Gati Archipelago, where the game’s action takes place. Along our journey, we’ll meet various other characters. Some will send us on quests. Some will sell us all sorts of hideous items. And others will help us better understand our current context.

Unfortunately, I don’t feel like we learn too many details about the story and context. There are 20 stone tablets that are supposed to present past events, in addition to the stories we gather just by exploring. And the game itself is a fairly focused experience. I’ve seen people finish it in 8 hours just by following the main objectives. It took me somewhere around a day and 47 minutes to 100% it, if I go by the in-game clock. And if I go by Steam, 38 hours. If my time sounds terrifying, remember that I didn’t have the benefit of any guide. It was actually fun to cooperate with other players and the developers on Discord to figure out where to find everything that could be found.

Nor did I get attached to the characters I met. They were simply another step on the path to the final destination. Some you have to visit more often for upgrades and to unlock new regions. But that’s about it.

Also, some story elements overlap far too well with Hollow Knight. I can’t tell you more without giving you a huge spoiler. And I understand the need to use sources of inspiration. I just don’t like it when what already exists is reused.

If you’re a fan of games with more than one ending, Voidwrought will satisfy that need. It includes a normal ending and an alternative, true ending. But you’ll have to work a bit harder for the second one. Obviously, I won’t spoil the pleasure of discovering all the necessary conditions. It’s much cooler if you find out on your own, right?

I’d say the story does its job overall. It’s not the main focus when it comes to the game. Or at least it doesn’t feel like it is. But it gives you a good enough reason to progress and uncover the mysteries of this world on the brink of collapse.

Time to Butcher Some Enemies, Shall We?

You’ll begin your adventure in classic Metroidvania style: without too many abilities or weapons in your arsenal. You have your main attack, you can jump, and… that’s about it. Fortunately, you won’t have to wrestle with all the bad guys so poorly equipped. Unless you want to challenge yourself. You’ll unlock upgrades for vitality, attack, as well as abilities that allow you to access new areas. These abilities are fairly standard: dash, double jump, the ability to cling to surfaces, etc. The most innovative ability is “Slither,” which transforms you into a ball of dark matter that can squeeze through cracks.

An additional way to help you in combat is the Souls system. You can get them as quest rewards, find them in the game world, buy them, or unlock them after defeating powerful enemies. They’re pretty much the same as the charms in Hollow Knight. The difference is that you can only equip three of them simultaneously. But you can also swap them at any time you want, even if you’re not at a save point or in combat. This system offers flexibility in battle without being easy to abuse. I just like that I can choose between Souls that are better suited for confrontations and those better for exploration. It really helps when you have a platforming puzzle to solve and could use a few extra lives.

Now we’ll interrupt this broadcast for some tips for secret seekers: equip The Fetid from the Souls list when you go secret hunting. It emits a cloud of poison that hits false walls and helps you easily detect them.

I’d also like to praise the developers for how they implemented The Explorer. This Soul displays the outline of rooms you haven’t visited yet. The cool part is that you only need to equip it once. The areas will remain displayed on the map permanently even if you replace it later. I think it’s a clever implementation that doesn’t force you to use a useless Soul.

Last but not least, the sooner you buy The Assassin, the sooner you’ll have a dash that passes through enemies. The normal dash doesn’t allow this.

All that being said, I didn’t feel encouraged to use many of these Souls. I found the OP one early. I kept using it. I kicked enemy butt big time. And I swapped them out occasionally when I went secret hunting.

The situation was similar regarding the other offensive system: Relics. If Souls offer passive bonuses, Relics offer active bonuses at the press of a button. Unfortunately, only two of them seem worth using. Firstly, I’m talking about Claws of Rahtek, which offers a damage bonus. Secondly, I’m talking about Festering Spores – this offers a similar effect to The Fetid and you can effectively double the damage you deal just by walking around with the poison clouds.

You can only equip two Relics simultaneously. And you need Void Charges to use them – initially you have two, but you can increase the number to seven. All you have to do to recover them after using them is rest at a save point, use the fast travel option, or hit enemies. Just remember that you can’t spam these abilities infinitely – they have a cooldown. And I wish we had an audio warning when they’ve recharged, not just a visual one. It’s harder to pay attention to the Relics bar in the middle of battles.

The last upgrades you can find increase the damage of your main attack. And believe me when I tell you they will make your life a lot easier. These are locked behind puzzles and you need to use an item called Ancient Cipher to access the vaults they are in. Fortunately, we’re lucky, because they’ve placed more of these items than you need in the game. I say “lucky” because it makes casual players’ lives much easier. They’ll be able to find them faster without having to search every nook and cranny.

What’s more, it’s useful that you can unlock the most powerful Souls and Relics relatively quickly. But this comes with a drawback: it trivialises the game enormously. By this, I mean that only the first two bosses gave me real problems, because I wasn’t properly equipped. For the rest, I just tanked the hits directly while quickly wiping them out of existence. The developers mentioned that they will make adjustments in this regard, but also the fact that they didn’t want to make these fights too difficult. It makes sense up to a point, because the main path you have to follow is quite flexible. And then you don’t want your players tearing their hair out because they encountered an enemy that was too strong. If I were to offer a solution, I would recommend reducing their vitality and adjusting their attack patterns and frequency. This way, players should feel like they’re facing a challenge, but also that they’re not spending more time than they should to defeat a boss.

As I mentioned, you actually have a lot of freedom in terms of which areas you can explore. The abilities you need to unlock don’t irritatingly prevent you from accessing various regions. You just need a little creativity in how you use what you already have, a little pogo on flying enemies, and you can effectively get anywhere you want. This also applies when you’re looking for secrets or want to reach hidden areas: sometimes you can use a combination of abilities you already have instead of the one that fits perfectly. But this freedom doesn’t come without consequences. You can get lost extremely easily. It happened to other players. It happened to me too. In my case, I fumbled around for about 3 hours after the first 2 hours of gameplay. It doesn’t happen too often that you don’t know where to go, but it does happen.

Did you think you’d get away without me mentioning map pins in a Metroidvania? Fat chance. Fortunately, Voidwrought has plenty. You can mark the map an unlimited number of times. You can customise them. And I like how you hear a sound effect when you switch between the different types you can use, and how there’s no sound when you’ve deleted one. It helps a lot when you have the cursor over one and you don’t know if it’s been completely deleted or just replaced.

The fact that the map has differently coloured regions is no longer a surprise these days. But I like how they’ve chosen different colours and symbols for certain key rooms. Specifically, we have:

• Violet and a star symbol for Chambers of Reflection – these are the points where you can save the game;
• Yellow and a vortex for Void Gates – these are the fast travel points;
• Blue and an eye for Vaults – these are the rooms that contain puzzles and attack upgrades;
• White and a spiral for Simulacrums – this is where you unlock new abilities.

You can also choose how strong the zoom is when you access the map. You can choose between “Near”, “Mid” and “Far”. I chose “Far” from the beginning of the game. I like to know where I am and what routes I can take.

The choice to separate save points and fast travel points seems strange to me. Especially since you can find them next to each other most of the time. It would make more sense to have a single room that has both functionalities. Admittedly, later on you’ll unlock a save point in your own base that allows you to return to the penultimate one accessed. But by then you already have access to a Void Gate that allows you to access all the others outside the base.

And speaking of game save locations, I have to mention that the game keeps your collected money and revives you at the last saved location if you get hacked. This happens no matter how many times the character kicks the bucket. Maybe for some of you that doesn’t sound good. For me, it sounds useful, because it saves time I would spend recovering my money or farming again if I lost it. I’m simply no longer interested in ways the game is artificially made to last longer.

The main currency in the game is called Ichor. You can obtain it either by executing enemies or by destroying hidden piles in secret rooms. Other types of exchange currencies are Divine Remnants, Trace Metals, and Artifact Fragments – different combinations of these allow you to buy new Souls and Relics. When you defeat a boss, you receive Progenitor Flesh, which can be used either for quests or for… a secret that the folks at Powersnake have prepared for you. Also, you can find a series of acolytes – fanatics who are part of a cult that worships the Void – who will help you excavate new areas in the base. Plus, you can find/buy Ancient Ciphers to unlock the vaults that contain damage upgrades.

And if you also don’t consider a game finished until you’ve found everything there is to find, then the Compendium will be your best friend. Sure, it records all unlocked abilities, found story pieces, and defeated enemies. But it also contains information about how many secrets you still have to find in an area until there’s nothing left. And believe me, you’ll have a hard time finding them even without this functionality.

Fortunately, I heard they changed how The Explorer charm works since I last played. Before, it only showed the outline of unexplored rooms. Now it also provides signals when you’re close to secrets.

A few final thoughts on gameplay:

• The design and attack patterns of some enemies are similar to those in Hollow Knight. I’m talking about enemies like the Aspid Mother who gives birth to multiple offspring, or Flukemon, which splits into two when defeated. The main attack and the animation for destroying stone walls are also similar. This can be good or bad, depending on how much innovation/familiarity you want in the Metroidvania games you play.

The differentiator for these enemies is represented by the art direction and unique animations when you execute them.

• I appreciate that Ichor automatically floats towards the main character after you defeat enemies or break Ichor piles. I’m not a big fan of throwing myself into spiked areas or regretting losing some coins I fought to obtain.
• The bug I helped the developers solve concerns Camera Shake. Animations and the moment arenas close are slowed down if you have Camera Shake set to 0. This makes you waste time with animations, but also get rewards after arenas without fighting. Theoretically it has been resolved. But if you encounter the same problem, just set Camera Shake to the minimum value and it will disappear.
• The second boss I encountered simply had too much health. And after multiple failed attempts, it died after a single hit in its final phase. I noticed they adjusted the encounter since then.
• I encountered frame drops from time to time. Nothing that makes the game completely unplayable. Just know that it’s possible for it to happen.
• A nice detail is that the character leaves their suit behind when merging with different machines to operate them.
• Watch out for the purple lanterns! These will lead you to save points if you are in that region for the first time.
• You cannot obtain all achievements in a single playthrough without save-scumming. Otherwise, you will get all rewards from quests regardless of the choices made. You just won’t experience the other ending of the quest.
• Remember the vault puzzles I talked about? Well, they are repetitive. You just have to spin a series of rings until they form the same image every time. As far as I’m concerned, the game might as well exclude them entirely.
• I played through the game using a PlayStation 4 controller, and the interface was easy to navigate. I have no complaints about the menus or inventory.

The Art Direction is Decent. The Music, However, is Phenomenal 🔥

Each region has its own visual identity, and we see elements from Hinduism or Ancient Egypt merging with modern aspects such as factories or mechanical beings. There’s also enough variety in terms of enemies in each visited location. The NPCs and bosses don’t seem to belong to another film either. I can’t say I was terribly impressed, nor is there anything visually wrong. It’s simply okay.

But talk to me about the game’s music and you’ve already got my attention. The music has “weight” and depth in Voidwrought. It nestles under your skin and makes you experience the battles and the game environment as if you were there. Jouni Valjakka did an incredible job of capturing the feelings and emotions of each region and boss fight through a mix of metal, antiquity, and obscurity. Remember the fight with the second boss that gave me headaches? The soundtrack in the background made me not feel so bad when I failed. I’ll leave you the link to the game’s OST here, so you can’t say I’m talking nonsense.

Final Verdict

Voidwrought is a gloomy Metroidvania that gives you a lot of freedom in terms of exploration and how you want to advance the story. You have all the abilities you’d expect from such a game, plus a few extras. The combat style leans more towards hack’n’slash. It’s an easy game to navigate for the most part, even if you’ll get lost at least once. Backtracking is easy because you have access to an infinite number of map pins. You have many secrets to discover, and exploration seems to be the most interesting part of the game. The UI is easy to navigate. And the music is illegally good.

I wouldn’t say there are too many cons. The fast travel points and save points are separate. The story and characters aren’t memorable. And even though I like the combat style, enemies become very easy to defeat at a rapid pace.

More so, I’d say it doesn’t bring enough novelty for me, since some enemies, some attack patterns, and visual elements seem borrowed or remade.

What I said when talking about the visual direction can be true for the game as a whole. I can’t say I was terribly impressed, nor that it does anything wrong. It’s simply okay. It gets a solid 7/10 from me.

You can find it on Steam for €19.50 normally, but also for €15.60 during sales, as it was for the first two weeks after launch. I consider the latter price to be in line with what the game offers as a package and experience. So go hunt for those discounts.

We also know from the developers that they are actively working on a New Game+ mode. And they are considering adding other new content, depending on the game’s success. I have hopes for the game’s future, because I know the people behind it. But, at the same time, I need to see them deliver before I give them my vote of confidence.

Played on: PC
Release date: 24 October 2024
Developer: Power Snake
Publisher: Kwalee

Review by Constantin Dumitru