Void Sols Review
Beaten On: 12.20.22
Hours Played: 1 Hours
Rating: 8/10
This is essentially a demo, or probably more accurately, a proof of concept level. An idea the developer had that they decided to put a little time into, but something they weren’t sure could succeed. Thankfully for us, and them, I think they managed to create something unique with oodles of potential.
Void Sols is a top down, minimalistic souls-like that utilizes a creative lighting system and negative space to create it’s world. Despite how little art there is, I think they’ve done a great job creating something striking and unique, but of course, with minimal art, you need good gameplay to carry things, and they’ve got that as well.
The gameplay feels overwhelmingly souls-like, which I’m really impressed with, to be honest. I didn’t expect the genre to translate so well to bring top-down, but it works pretty much seamlessly. All your staples, like Estus, dodging, parrying, and blocking are here, and they all feel surprisingly good. The combat as a whole is solid, and again, what you’d expect for a souls-like. Everything mechanically is tight and precise, the enemies are tough, and you either git gud, or at least memorize some of the level enough to make it through. All in all, I was pleasantly surprised with how Void Sols played.
The only other thing worth mentioning is the boss at the end of the level. It was a challenging, but fun and fair fight. I really liked how varied the attacks were, and the phases of the fight were distinct and different. It also serves as a great way to show off this game’s poise mechanic, which felt Sekiro in its presentation. All-in-all, I think the boss fight was one of the highest points of the level, which is impressive considering how good the game was in general.
There’s unfortunately not a ton to talk about, given that the game is so short, only containing one small level, akin to the beginning of every Souls game (though they do expect you to beat the first boss, unlike Elden Ring). Overall, I was really impressed and I hope the attention the game has gotten after it was featured by IronPineapple gives the developers a reason to make a full game.
- Zack
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