The Void

I picked this game up on disc not long after it came out. The description and title piquing my interest. What I found was a fascinating world, an art direction that easily moves from hauntingly beautiful to twisted horror reminiscent of Clive Barker's monstrosities. The story and dialogue are equally haunting and filled with melancholy. This world is dying and many denizens have either accepted it, or just try to maintain the status quo, prolonging the inevitable for just a bit longer. And then there is you, a small spark of potential in this bleak and dying world, To save yourself you have to bring color back to the world but this actually speeds up the destruction of the world. And so begins a game of cat and mouse and careful resource management to get enough color to escape while avoiding being taken down by the brothers. The premise alone could make for a truly fascinating game but unfortunately the gameplay lets it down. Quite a few bits of gameplay information you get throughout the game are incorrect as parts were not actually programmed in or removed but these changes weren't reflected back in to the game. In general the tutorial is sparse and you will heavily rely on trial and error. Save often and use multiple save games, you will need them. The controls are a bit clunky at times, especially the painting can be unnecessarily frustrating. Having to draw figures on the screen has never been one of the best mechanics in my opinion and the void does not improve on it. The boss fights can be very challenging at the best of times and downright impossible if you are not fully prepared for it. Though the game claims multiple endings they are all very much alike and equally disappointing. And yet, having said all that I would recommend it. The world and feel of the game is fascinating. If you have the patience for it, it is a wonderful world to explore and definitely a game that I would classify as a work of art.

The Void is a very strange game that combines difficult survival with poetic writing. It's very difficult, and it shouldn't be expected to complete the game on one's first try. This is very much an art game with some very good writing and stunning visuals. Play this game if you want a deep philosophical story that isn't about anything in particular and like games with scarce resources.

Played this a few years back. Had no idea what was going on or what I was supposed to be doing, but persevered. Eventually I sort of figured out the resource system, but by then I'd already wasted too much of the colour resource to continue. Oh well, back to the start. More than once. But I got hooked, some of the designs were beautiful, some scary as hell, others just well-rendered nudity lol. Tried to get some of my friends to play it but I don't think they got into it properly. Not for everyone, definitely not, but this is one of the most memorable games I've played. Some of the boss fights were really fun and challenging. And of course throwing paint at girls had its upside too. Enjoy!

I was tempted to give The Void 3 stars even though it's a 5 star for me personally. However, this game has some of the best nude women I have seen in a game, adult-only or not. I couldn't bring myself to give less than 4 stars to the Nameless Sister, and Ire, and Echo, and Yani, and... you get the picture. Though there is no sex, not even implied sex, the Sisters are incredibly sensual. They kept me going. And the voice acting. Damn. Marry me, Nameless Sister! If we put the sex appeal to the side though, the Brothers actually shine through even more. (This next bit could spoil a major plot point of KOTOR II. So if you haven't played The Sith Lords, be warned.) Some of them are chumps, but some are very well designed both visually and thematically. A few have incredible juxtaposition of appearance and personality. I have not felt quite so moved by a mentor figure like the Patriarch in a video game since everyone's favorite mentor in KOTOR II, and the Patriarch gets a lot less screen time and is a lot more disturbing to look at. And every serious gamer should hear and think about the main lesson from the game. You can't miss it. A disembodied college professor voice beats you over the head with it repeatedly near end game. If you are in a bottleneck in real life, this game is for you. Here is a little help from me. The game plays like a rudimentary farming simulator. You collect color, store it on the right, process it in your body, store the product on the left, then use it to plant more color and do other things. Whatever you may want to do with color--pump the Sisters full of it or beat the Brothers to death with it--the farming cycle must always be your top priority. Having enough storage, having enough color to plant, having enough color for buffs, organizing your gardens both in time and space, sustainability, pest-control... make sure you are on top of them. It gets boring after a while. Oh, and don't draw the Donor Glyph like OC. Draw it like cursive L.

+ Nice music and design. Very original. A game that I really wanted to like. - Annoying combat where the attacks often seem to miss due some bug. Attacks go straight through the enemies. Drawing the symbols can be equally frustrating. - Buggy at other times too. Sometimes I bounced to the other end of the dungeon when walking into things at certain angles. - Extremely difficult. This is a game you need to read about in advance and while going. I quit when eventually some brother attacked me and i did not, according to some walkthrough, have enough resources and symbols to defeat him. If I had done this instead of that etc etc he wouldn't have attacked me. More or less forces you to either go with a guide or frequently go back to earlier saves. Going back to earlier saves was recommended by the walkthrough. "Save before entering any new area, in case you get hit and lose resources". Not difficult as in challenging but as in tedious and unfair. Unless you grind and grind and try again and again you won't succeed. - Talking about grinding, the game builds almost entirely on grinding. Resource management. Constantly harvesting and farming color. The world is big and slow to travel. Dungeons are annoying to constantly revisit. You'll have to revisit them constantly as color is randomly generated in areas every cycle of the game. Tedious. - Lots of information is not shared in game. Colors can be used to boost various hidden stats, unknown to most who won't read about strategies online. Certain mixes and uses are more or less necessary in order to finish the game, according to what I've read. Not only is much of this very difficult to figure out by yourself, it's also micro managing intense and frustrating. Needlessly much to have to consider. It does not add much unless you are a big fan and want to try various strategies. - A turd if I ever saw one. Too bad. I really liked it the first hour or so but flaws, bugs, difficulty and anti user friendliness ruined it.