Vertigo Void Review

There is a big division in the making of videogames that was only recently bridged. When game critics type fancy terms like ‘ludonarrative dissonance’, they refer to the two main levels through which games can evoke a desired emotion: mechanics and narrative. Vertigo Void seems to fall into the category of those mechanics-focused indie games, like Super Meat Boy or Fez. These puzzle-based experiences are usually pretty silly in terms of story, but bring novel and engaging mechanics that the player can spend hours and hours sunk into. It's a shame that wider discussion on game sites is limited to story-based titles. Similarly, Vertigo Void offers some mind-racking puzzles and, like other mechanics-based games, it neglects depth of writing for complexity of gameplay.

Derived out of the initial idea of manipulating a 3D environment, in Vertigo Void the player has the ability to play with gravity. The player is perched on the outside hull of a hovering space station, where, as an astronaut, they must activate all buttons scattered throughout the outside of the station, and make their way into the hatch once it’s open. The rub is that it is possible to virtually walk along any surface, no matter which direction it’s facing; if the station were a cube – and it might as well be seen as it’s literally made out of ‘minecraftian’ cubes –, one could step over all sides without fear of falling off. However, in order to ‘change’ the direction of the gravity pull, the player needs to look out for a cube with no adjacent cubes at either side. But this idea, as complex as it may seem, is pretty easy to grasp once you dive in. The game ultimately becomes an exercise of path-finding to get to the next button or platform, and here’s where the meat of the game really lies. Once you spin the platform around a few times, it becomes increasingly demanding to orientate yourself.

The problem with Vertigo Void is that it’s only a meager expansion of the mechanics that we’ve seen in 1998’s Kula World. This game, released for Playstation, had the same premise, but the beach ball protagonist was much more charismatic. Not only was Kula World more appealing and new-fangled at the time, but it resonated with the technological leap that the new console generation had brought a few years earlier. It wasn’t the accessibility to this technology, but rather the reach that the PS1 had in the market that incentivised experimenting in 3D digital environments. Games like these were now widespread and accessible to everybody, and there wasn’t the need to have a high-end PC to play them. With this mentality, Kula World was conceived as a way to explore 3D environments in a way that wouldn’t be possible in real life. At that point, names like Escher or Piranesi were clear inspirations, and Kula World turned these ideas into a light-hearted playground.

Vertigo Void begs the question of what has been improved upon. A quick look at the mechanics shows that, although it has much more variety than its pioneer, it sometimes feels out of place. The player has the chance to experiment with more devices that challenge them in unique ways, like inverting gravity or teleporting the astronaut. The latter in particular can often become an annoyance, as you will be very disorientated after appearing in a different part of the level, not knowing which direction you’re facing. Bonus pick-ups let you boost your score, or speed up or slow down the timer. Even the score system, which gives you a false sense of skill, doesn’t contribute to how the game plays out in comparison to Kula World. Vertigo Void is, for all intents and purposes, Kula Word with more levels, little improvement in gameplay, and different art style.

Undoubtedly, the most noticeable change is in the visuals. Note that I’m using the word change and not improvement. Vertigo Void uses a pixel art style that contrasts a dark blue station with a bright yellow and orange sun in the background. I presume this is meant to outline the station’s edges and lets the player find their way more easily; but the sun is too bright, and the black and blue space in the background matches the station’s colours, which can make them blend with one another. The pixelated models reinforce the idea of cubes, although at times it may result a bit jarring, since pixelated styles often denote 2D games. However, since it is a ‘simulated’ pixel art for the astronaut and station’s models, it holds up just enough to not confuse the player and wear them out. The astronaut’s not nearly as fun to control as the bouncy beach ball, and Kula World, with its occasional trippy levels and tour around the world, had in general much more personality than Vertigo Void, and only rarely had any camera or visual incompetence.

Vertigo Void is admittedly more challenging and its levels are more tortuous than Kula World’s, but it is still a rehashed Kula World nonetheless. I can’t shake the feeling that the original game was cleaner and more capable of conveying the level’s structure. Vertigo Void, mainly due to the visual design, feels much more cluttered, confusing and unwelcoming. It may seem that I’m classifying Vertigo Void as downright terrible, but the truth is that it’s a game that can offer a good few hours of fun. As I’ve reiterated in this review, the game pales in comparison with Kula World, a game that I happened to love when I was younger. If you dare to dive into Vertigo Void, do it with the thought in the back of your mind that out there, there is a game with lower res and much more to offer. And no, it’s not just nostalgia. Here's our old friend the Kula ball