Voidwrought review

Voidwrought is thoroughly rooted in metroidvania tradition. Swedish developer Powersnake’s inaugural effort put players in control of a cape-clad character known as the Simulacrum. You’re tasked with gathering Ichor, the blood of the gods, from all kinds of covetous creatures. Fortunately, this currency flows freely, and can be gained by killing foes, completing side-quests, or by battering organic objects scattered across the game’s dark fantasy-themed milieus.

Staying true to genre convention, the Simulacrum starts with only the most essential of abilities, with progress unlocking additional capabilities. As such, the walk-up toward the first boss doesn’t provide the best of first impressions. Initially, Voidwrought doesn’t throw many truly difficult platforming sections at players, so your modest leap proves sufficient. But attacking with your claws feels underpowered, since there’s not much reach or power. I ended up turning on turbo-fire so I didn’t have to repeatedly press the same button to defeat basic opponents.

A Mundane Moveset  

Expectedly, you won’t always feel so weak. Soon, you’ll discover an item named the Dormant Salt Receptacle, which augments your ability to regenerate health on the spot. Later, you might find Shards that increase the size of your hit point pool and Souls that endow you with various passive perks. Relics can provide the Simulacrum with additional powers, but these are constrained by your capacity of Void Charges. If you’re familiar with metroidvanias, the gradual sense of growth will be recognizable. The only distinction is that Voidwrought gives you a bit more autonomy to build a Simulacrum that complements your play style.

You’ll eventually secure the ability to charge-attack, dash across trenches, double-jump, and wall climb, which are all lamentably conformist. As such, the bulk of Voidwrought’s 15 to 20-hour playtime can feel predictable. The game’s one distinction is a shire-building component for your home base, where you’ll use collected items and materials. It’s not all that deep, but any additional incentive is welcome in a game like this.

Purple Prose is Optional

The genre habitually makes fighting subordinates effortless and bosses excruciatingly tough. And largely, that’s also the case with Voidwrought. Sure, there’s 70+ different basic enemies who have their own attack style. But you can typically mow defeat armies of them without losing a pip from your health bar. Even if you do take an intermittent hit, an abundant number of save rooms will restore your vitality and healing charges. Sadly, balancing means the game becomes notably easier as you persevere, turning late-game bosses into pushovers. Also, when it comes to things like breakable walls that hide secrets, Voidwrought doesn’t always drop noticeable clues.

But the game’s biggest issue stems from its storytelling. Here, Powersnake employs some text-based storytelling that’s so flowery that players might not grasp what’s going on. Much of the game’s context is told through finding lore stones. Even after uncovering an abundant number of expositional fragments, I didn’t feel any additional sense of urgency for the Simulacrum.

Conclusion

Between the lack of exigency and a formulaic approach, Voidwrought is competent but rarely compelling. Sure, the game’s dark atmosphere is attractive, and the game’s delivers the fundamentals expected from an action-adventure. But I stuck with it to the end due to obligation rather than eagerness.

Voidwrought was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.