Voidwrought Review
Summary: Voidwrought is a simple but fun Metroidvania with rich and amazing lore. Even though the game lacks a certain thread of story to follow and becomes unbalanced halfway through the game, its magical soundtracks and strangely beautiful art style are effective enough to give it a try.
3.9
Strangely Beautiful
Metroidvania is the genre to go for a lot of indie developers. Thanks to its rich history and the freedom it gives the developers to create an immersive world and apply their ideas with ease. Voidwrougt is yet another Metroidvania indie title that manages to separate itself from other games of this genre by adding a few unique touches, yet it doesn’t become a fully unique experience.
In Voidwrought we are in control of a shapeshifting character that has to take down a series of false gods. This cosmic horror game does a great job of intertwining its rich lore with environmental design. However, it is so difficult to follow the thread of the story because it’s basically non-existent. As much as Voidwrought did a wonderful job of depicting the lore from various sources, it fails to provide the players with a sense of why they are actually doing this.
The gameplay of Voidwrought works as a double-edged sword because of its unbalanced design. The best part about it is truly the movement and parkour of the game especially, when you progress further and unlock more abilities that will help you navigate through the simple but effective map design of the game.
I would have really loved to see some parkour challenges in the game as well. While movement and navigating are the strongest perks of Voidwrought’s gameplay, the fact that there isn’t much challenge to overcome by learning and becoming better at parkour was a bit disappointing.
The main issue is set in the combat system of the game. I found the lack of different weapons in the game a bit dull. By adding just another weapon, the gameplay’s freshness could have lasted much longer, even until the end. While there are these items called Relic that give different boosts or allow players to use magic, they aren’t that revolutionary in the gameplay to save it from its current state.
Not to mention that the game becomes ungodly unbalanced halfway through the game. With the amount of health and upgrades, you get by reaching half of the game, you become an immortal god. Someone who can slay anything and anyone without the fear of being killed.
That is also true for most of the boss fights later in the game. As much as I admired and loved the challenges of facing bosses in the first few hours of the game, the later boss fights didn’t give that sense of accomplishment. Not that there is a flaw in boss fight design, but that you are so powerful that even the strongest of them can be dealt with easily.
The two strongest points of Voidwrought are music and art style. I would like to describe the art style of the game as strange rather than unique. You can find pieces of design that you have already seen in other Metroidvania games. However, the combination of that design with environment and character movement made it such a strange piece of art, which I haven’t seen.
Now, since there isn’t much of a story to follow in Voidwrought, the music is much more present. Not only more, but it overwhelms the entire game in such an artistic way. It’s not subtle, but it isn’t forced feed to the game as well. It matches perfectly with the area you are in. Voidwrought definitely has one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard this entire year.
About the Author
S. Masoud Kazemi An admirer of art that doesn't stop talking about films and games.
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