This review contains spoilers
This is a recent oddity in the indie game scene, albeit very underrated, BUT the amount of content is surprisingly a lot than you'd ever believe. Made by the same dudes behind ZeroRanger, the yet spiteful Void Stranger takes you into a desperate ride inside the titular Void where you have to solve countless puzzles as you try to relive your memories... sort of.
However, whatever you do have interesting ways of pushing you back. The game has the ability to talk you back and the way it does is surprisingly done well. You don't get direct help, but through use of mechanics, trial and error is an essential way to get through the dangers of the void. In particular, let's talk, for example, the use of the Locusts... and the VOIDED mechanic that is introduced if you happen to die and lose all locusts. What does it tell to you?
Hmmm, interesting.
During my first run, being VOIDED only permits you to experience the game's main loop with unlimited retries, although you get a bad ending that loops you back to the beginning, resetting you back to uh... HP07. Yeah, don't ask me why it's HP07. Then, the Locusts... they are meant to be the "lives" counter. I won't talk quite much about it because Void Stranger is REALLY something that Toby Fox would ever do if he'd ever work on a puzzle game, but this game is done under the hands of really magnificent Finnish developers.
But as i kept playing, i noticed how much deep the puzzle exploration value goes, and apparently it's not done in a rather accessible way. Unfortunately, i had to partly spoiler the game for me because it is VERY easy to get lost and not knowing what to do with the game, due to its nature on relying the secret over the secret. The reason why i'm not giving 5 stars for it is that this game really tends to put your head into solving things even in the most meta way possible and its tendency of tricking you many times, not just sokoban styled puzzles, but also implementing different riddles and subpuzzles that go beyond the main gameplay. If you're not a hardcore fan of puzzles, i probably would say, spoiling partly would just be your last resort, because, sadly, Void Stranger is not a game for everyone.
So i'm just giving out 4 stars because, while it has an excellent soundtrack, graphics and a interesting choice of dialogues, the gameplay quite puts you a lot of trouble and frustration at times if you're not careful with what you're playing at, and myself can't really bother losing my head over puzzles on puzzles all over.
However, whatever you do have interesting ways of pushing you back. The game has the ability to talk you back and the way it does is surprisingly done well. You don't get direct help, but through use of mechanics, trial and error is an essential way to get through the dangers of the void. In particular, let's talk, for example, the use of the Locusts... and the VOIDED mechanic that is introduced if you happen to die and lose all locusts. What does it tell to you?
Hmmm, interesting.
During my first run, being VOIDED only permits you to experience the game's main loop with unlimited retries, although you get a bad ending that loops you back to the beginning, resetting you back to uh... HP07. Yeah, don't ask me why it's HP07. Then, the Locusts... they are meant to be the "lives" counter. I won't talk quite much about it because Void Stranger is REALLY something that Toby Fox would ever do if he'd ever work on a puzzle game, but this game is done under the hands of really magnificent Finnish developers.
But as i kept playing, i noticed how much deep the puzzle exploration value goes, and apparently it's not done in a rather accessible way. Unfortunately, i had to partly spoiler the game for me because it is VERY easy to get lost and not knowing what to do with the game, due to its nature on relying the secret over the secret. The reason why i'm not giving 5 stars for it is that this game really tends to put your head into solving things even in the most meta way possible and its tendency of tricking you many times, not just sokoban styled puzzles, but also implementing different riddles and subpuzzles that go beyond the main gameplay. If you're not a hardcore fan of puzzles, i probably would say, spoiling partly would just be your last resort, because, sadly, Void Stranger is not a game for everyone.
So i'm just giving out 4 stars because, while it has an excellent soundtrack, graphics and a interesting choice of dialogues, the gameplay quite puts you a lot of trouble and frustration at times if you're not careful with what you're playing at, and myself can't really bother losing my head over puzzles on puzzles all over.