Full Void Review

Every now and then a game will come along that I’ve somehow missed any information about, and then wind up being exactly the type of thing for me. Full Void hits the mark with this, and if you’re fond of Another World or Limbo type games, then this’ll be for you too.

Much like Playdead’s classics, we’re just thrown in with as little forwarning as possible. Our character is running away from something and trips and falls – and we’re in the game. Pressing a button sees them get up, though if we leave it too long the creature chasing us while arrive and kill us. This idea prevails throughout the 3-4 hours that Full Void lasts, though there is more to the game than simply running away.

In between the chases, we’re tasked with some well-crafted puzzles/platforming. These range from simply figuring out a route through some sewers via doors, pipes and walkways, to programming a little robotic companion to complete tasks. Mechanics are kept simple enough, but used smartly as to avoid too much repetition.

There’s very little in the way of direct explanation of what’s going on, or what we’re meant to be doing (no text boxes or tool tips here) but each scene and puzzle set up is crafted to draw our eye to things that can be interacted with, or that might hold a clue. Sometimes it pays to take a second though; Full Void isn’t shy about killing us because we skipped a step. One early example features some valves that opens doors. There’s a small view beyond one of these that shows a tank full of water. Opening it will dump the water on us, obviously, but OutOfTheBit use this as a tease for the next section of the puzzle (which I walked straight into) that is worth bearing in mind.

Checkpoints are generous – the above example placed me straight back at the door prior to opening – and it’s a good thing too, as there are plenty more examples of the game catching us off guard.

Sometimes this can feel a bit unavoidable (a chase sequence took many tries to figure out the best course of action, and we don’t see many people figuring it out first try) but other times it’s simply because there’s something to to press, and we want to see what happens.

This is made all the more tempting by some utterly fantastic art direction. Full Void mixes bright and vibrant pixel art with some lovely animation (which is where the Another World and Flashback vibes come in). It has an almost rotoscoped quality to it at times (though I don’t know if this was how this look was achieved here), with even simple animations like jumping, climbing, and crawling looking smooth as silk. Each area has been loving set up too, with a fantastic sense of depth to the back and foregrounds making the gaming almost pop off of the screen. Screenshots are good, but in motion this game looks simply lovely.

Considering Full Void‘s propensity to kill us, there’s been extra effort in this regard to the death animations. Whether we’re killed by drowning, fire, or one of the robotic aliens grabbing hold of us, these are stunningly crafted and quite affecting even without resorting to any gore or macabre visuals. They only last a matter of seconds, but are worth hunting out to see for the visual splendour alone (and the achievement, if you’re so inclined).

One slight drawback of these detailed visuals though can be occasionally obscuring part of a solution. One example was when using the programable robot; we only get a set number of moves and interactions to use, and I just couldn’t make the math work out to get them where they needed to be. After a while, I realised there was actually some foreground scenery blocking a traversable path. There were only a few of these moments, and it was not a massive hurdle but still held me up a little longer than it otherwise would have.

Movement of both our character and the robot are governed by a grid, so tapping forward will always move us by one square, even though we can’t see it when playing as the person. Occasionally this meant I’d accidently nudge too far forward and into danger, but on the whole I found this set-up to be helpful when judging distance (though the jump is a little more hampered than it feels it should be).

But again, lessons have clearly been learned from Playdead’s games, with our escape from danger often coming at just the right moment – as long as we don’t dilly dally in getting a move on. The sense of atmosphere and feel of the platforming is also up there with those classics, but here, the use of pixel art and, you know. colours made for a pleasant change.

Conclusion

Full Void is a fantastic puzzle platforming adventure, using stunning visuals and animation to suck us into the world, while also revelling in smartly designed mechanics and challenges.