Void Slayer Review

Void Slayer is quite a simplistic title. An arena-based shooter with the aim of surviving as long as possible in order to reach the tippy top of the leaderboards… with a twist. The game holds an interesting mechanic during play which impacts the constraints of the arena.

As I fired up the game, I quickly noticed that this is very light on options, especially in the graphics department. There’s no advanced settings, no changing textures, shadows, details, etc. that we’re used to in other titles. Four options (low, medium, high, and epic) are all we have to choose from, with no real indication of what the actual differences are. The same goes for the controls of the game in terms of being thin on the ground, as there are only movement keys, jump, dash, and the two attacks to remember.

There is a little snippet of lore for the game, giving a small insight as to what this game is about. “Nameless Gods stripped you of your mortality. Your unyielding soul was cast into the void, and only thanks to your immense will, you suspended yourself above it. But the fight has only begun. Hordes of misshapen creatures will try to knock you down into the mindless abyss. How long will you survive?” Outside of this snippet, expect absolutely nothing else.

Jumping into the action, nothing was really explained to me apart from displaying one of several hints the game has when I spawned into the arena. One told me to destroy crystals, while another told me that I could double jump. This slow drip feed of information helps you build up your knowledge of what you need to do in the game. There is a central fountain that builds up as you play; shooting the orb at the top will help fill this quicker until an icon appears within the fluid. Meleeing this icon is the only counter to the unique twist this game has.

Obelisks adorned with crystals appear around the arena, these need destroying as they are one of the sources for enemy spawns in the arena. The destruction of the crystal — or crystals, as some have more than one at the top — removes the obelisk, and also collects the crystal(s) which will then improve your weapons upon collecting a certain amount. There doesn’t seem to be a logical progression to how many need to be collected before obtaining an upgrade. The first upgrade for me appeared after destroying 12 crystals, with the second coming at around the 27 mark, though if there is anything after this I couldn’t tell you, as I kept dying. The game visibly displays when additional power has been granted, as the beam attack changes colour, with the first change going from yellow to blue, then blue to purple for my second upgrade.

The UI is very simplistic with weapon meters being at the top left and top right of the screen, with your score constantly counting up while you try to survive the arena. Left-click is your beam weapon that will deplete the longer you hold down the button, and upon letting go this will recharge over time. Right-click is your blast attack, a melee swipe capable of clearing multiple enemies in one go, however, you only have three charges before having to hold off for these to recharge. There’s some form of bar at the top centre, though what this bar was for isn’t something I was able to figure out while I was playing, nor did I seem to see a hint for this on each run.

There’s no health bar for this game as this is where the twist comes into play. The arena you play in acts as your health, as there are a set number of hexagonal tiles on the floor that will disappear should you take damage. The central fountain I mentioned earlier is the only way to rebuild the arena as, once the icon within the fluid is broken, the fountain then starts to emanate some aura and fire off projectiles to replace the missing tiles. As such, while I’m jumping and dashing around the arena, I’m constantly altering any strategies or routes that I may be running in my quest to survive for as long as possible. Though I will admit, one of my best attempts was literally the one where I simply ran around the edge of the arena for as long as possible without really killing anything off. It was good enough for 20th place on the leaderboard, with my best attempt reaching 15th at the time of writing this review.

There’s a fair few enemies trying to impede your progress to the top. Ranging from little square flying bastards akin to a swarm of angry wasps, to floating bulls heads, to spiders shooting goop; the action can become quite heated and hectic when you have an arena full of threats. Trust me, when the screen fills up, things get incredibly chaotic.

After an hour or so, it seems I’ve seen everything the game has to offer. There’s no additional modes to play in or any kind of modifiers. This is a simple one level blast to achieve the high score with all the fat trimmed off, which is the game’s greatest selling point and biggest downfall. This is reasonably enjoyable to dip into, have a short jaunt, then jump into something else. Yet its simplistic gameplay loop does not have any real longevity or gimmick to keep players engaged for longer than a handful of minutes. I understand that we’re in the void, but I wouldn’t mind some variation in visuals surrounding the arena — or some variations in the arena layout itself — to break up the monotony of fighting in constant darkness.