The Void

Ah, The Void. This is a game that eludes descriptions and genres, yet states its presence loudly and clearly. It's an experience that grabbed me, asked me questions, and then left me to ponder them. You play as a nameless soul, trapped in the titular Void, which is sort of like purgatory; a "desert" (as it's described in the game). Color, that used to flow in abundance here, has gone - being replaced by endless hunger and an inevitable demise looming in the distance. You might make it out, if you can cultivate enough Color to ascend yourself (or another inhabitant) through the upper limit, but it's not going to be easy. You may very well find yourself dying as the last drop leaves your body. Gameplay-wise, The Void is a tough-as-nails survival game. While the beautiful yet bleak scenery tells stories about how this world functions, you have to think carefully about how you spend what little color you have. It's what you use to heal, to attack, to talk and to interact. There are more properties to it that I'm not going to reveal here - this is a game that thrives on discovery and exploration. Speaking of which, it should be noted that the Void can be a bit difficult to get into at first, as the introductory sequences feature little to no explanation as to how the Void works. Added to that is the oftentimes cryptic dialogue, which might initially come off as slightly pretentious. It's when you actually start listening to what is being said though, that the stars align and the story and world suddenly start making sense. You also begin to realize that the Void is a rather complicated ecosystem that has to be understood to be survived. The developers of this game, Ice-Pick Lodge, are known for making art house/avant-garde-esque video games, so don't expect to be "thrilled" or "entertained" in the traditional sense of the world. Instead, enjoy the truly unique setting, the haunting soundtrack and fascinating characters - you won't find anything else like it.

This is a game that could (and probably does) have theses written about it. Buy it if you want to experience a phenomenal atmospheric setting with frightening, beautiful, erotic artwork (bearing in mind that the game is several years old, now, and was never meant to be photorealistic), stunning voice-acting, and a deep theme that encompasses the meaning of art, the soul, religious fundamentalism, patriarchy, and other highly philosophical topics. Don't buy this game if your preferred form of gaming entertainment is shooting things, collecting loot, and levelling up.

If you know what this game is (read below) and still think you'd be interested, there is literally nothing I'd recommend more than this. The Void is pretty much unique. The visuals are striking, though the screenshots don't really do them justice. The story, once you actually know what it is, is highly ambitious and philosophical in a way very few games attempt, though I'd hesitate to recommend this purely based on that, or as a story game, because you're not really going to find a conventional narrative here -- instead it is a minimalist allegory told through hints and implications. The gameplay (often brutally and unfairly difficult) is an intriguing and original spin on resource management that, in typical Ice Pick Lodge fashion, is somewhat hampered by buggy or unfinished implementation that nonetheless manages to achieve a degree of gameplay-story integration that surpasses most games out there. It's rough around the edges, it doesn't hold your hand in anything -- gameplay or story -- and it's definitely the kind of slowburner game that you won't get into without a bit of patience, but if you don't mind that and are down to experiment with something very different, you're in for something special. It's cliche to call a game 'atmospheric', 'beautiful' or 'heartbreaking' these days, but, if you're the kind of person who wouldn't immediately hate this game to begin with, chances are you'll see how those apply to The Void more than most games they get attached to.

While the game as a stand-alone is not a 5-star game, the fact that no one else has made a game (that I know of) similar is what makes it great. It is essentially a complex resource-management game and 1st person "shooter" where you fight by drawing color on an enemy or drawing multiple different types of glyphs. Everything you do in the game to mining, growing color in trees, giving the Sisters color, effects the game world. The character's are all voice-acted and the story is extremely bleak, but very compelling. One word of note, this game is extremely difficult and some of the complexities of the resource system are hard to understand. I restarted the game 3 times because of wasting all my color due to not understanding the mechanics correctly. Also, I downloaded an Easy version (just changes some XML settings) since the game gives no option for difficulty. I highly recommend reading this guide: https://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/970707-the-void/faqs/62846, which also has the link to download the Easy/Medium versions in the Introduction. I wouldn't say follow the guide step-by-step, because that takes a lot of the fun out of it. You want something insanely unique, give this gem a try - has had me up in the wee hours of the night for a week now.

I'm sorry, but I simply don't have the patience for this game -- like people have said before, it's a beautiful game and an excellent idea. However, the actual gameplay is very tedious, namely due to: - extremely slow movement speeds (the speed glyph doesn't help that much), - lots of revisiting locations you've already been to (with not many rewards), and - the same level concepts over and over again - basically just endless grind. Which might be fun for you, if you like that kind of thing. The graphics are amazing for the time it was released, but each "level" or area, while painstakingly designed, is the same thing as the last one, just in different packaging. It's definitely a grinder, so if you're someone who doesn't mind spending the time grinding, it might be for you. It's very atmospheric, and the voices that come in every so often (randomly, or when you harvest Color) make it worth putting some time in, but the balance between how much time you put in and how much story you're rewarded with is very skewed. If I had known that this was a grinding-type game, I would not have purchased it. I hope that if you decide to buy it, you have a lot of time on your hands to spend to fully enjoy it, because I could not.