izigame.me

With the Souls-like genre being as saturated as it is, it’s pretty hard to stand out. Plenty of them stick rigidly to the foundations set by FromSoft: dark fantasy worlds filled with nightmarish beasts, oversized and unwieldy weapons, and an often oppressive lack of handholding. Void Sols isn’t unique in the sense it contains many of these elements, but through its minimalist, dimly lit, two dimensional world, it forges a wholly original identity, one which is inviting to both Souls neophytes and FromSoft veterans, one which takes the very essence of the genre and with a heavy shove brings it right to the fore, and one which has so much flair, polish, and - surprisingly - character that I pray to any and all gods that it doesn’t get lost in the endless, rapidly shifting conveyor belt of Souls-like releases.
From the off, there’s something weird about Void Sols. That being that you’re a triangle. A literal 2D triangle: three sides, solid white outline, pitch black innards. Triangle. Stuck in a prison cell, a little scene plays out with shocking degree of humanisation for what are just shapes gliding around. A guard (also a sort of triangle) urges our neighbouring prisoner (I’ll have you guess what they look like) out of the cell, where they’re met with a much larger guard, sword in hand (side?), ready to strike them down. The panicked movements of the captive, the hulking, angular design of the executioner, and the stifling amount of darkness creates a rather vivid image. Void Sols’ minimalist approach is far from the aesthetic of a pretentious indie platformer. Its intent is clear, and as I quickly discovered, the result is marvellous. Akin to the 2012 rogue-lite Teleglitch, Void Sols plays with light in a way which both builds a fantastically moody and eerie atmosphere, and also makes for interesting encounters and traversal. Enemies can be hidden behind barrels, tables, and chairs, with the dim flickers of a wall-mounted torch providing just the few precise light beams needed to expose their location. Void Sols is filled with environments best described as harsh. Yes, that does in one sense hark back to Souls convention where the world must be in peril, destroyed, or otherwise in a pretty crappy condition, though in another sense it directly describes how Void Sols’ minimalist art direction creates rooms and terrains made up primarily of straight lines; cold walls are painted with a single brushstroke and hidden rooms are only partially revealed by thin slithers of light.
Which isn’t to say Void Sols is devoid of detail. Outside areas in particular - while still masked in darkness - have clearly identifiable landmarks, adding to the atmosphere of this half alien, half mundane world. Leaving the prison, we’re met with the blue-hued outdoors, where the floor is covered in snow while falling, wispy snowflakes drift across the screen. Campfires appear sporadically, as do huts, houses, and barns, some with half open doors, allowing the inside embers emanating from fireplaces to sputter out. Enemies are just as shapely (literally) as our triangle protagonist, but seeing them in motion gives them a fair degree of recognisable personality: trappers launch nets, skinny hounds launch themselves, frogs leap and lash their tongues etc. There’s something very human about the world of Void Sols, in spite of its geometric aesthetic and increasingly zany late game. It helps that Void Sols lets us absorb all this rich atmosphere in near silence, with music only ever playing during boss fights. The crackles of burning wood, croaking of frogs, steps in snow, and thwacks of a hammer meeting an anvil (hello Andre!) are isolated, ringing, echoing, and brought to the forefront, and completely sucked me into this world. It’s a perfect example of “less is more”, which considering the art style only further proves how intentionally well designed this all is.
To take a long step back, I suppose we should talk about what will be the meat of the pie for many: the gameplay. As per every Souls-like, it’s a bit tough, though my prior comments on its accessibility weren’t false. Hits with our primary weapon are split into normal and special attacks. We can hold a secondary weapon; something to cast fire, block blows, or shoot arrows for example. We have an artifact slot which give buffs when a specific action is made, and a relic slot which give more reliable, constant boons. Part of Void Sols’ accessibility comes from allowing complete player freedom. All four stats can be modified whenever at a rest point, and thus changing builds is as simple as swapping out our weapon and moving the stats around a bit. As a oongaboonga strength enjoyer, I naturally found a cozy marriage with the pickaxe, a weapon which rewards slow accurate strikes over the quicker slashes of the base sword. It also does hefty “stance” damage, a player-transparent bar similar to health which when depleted stuns the enemy for some time. Other weapons like the dagger or scythe have their place, though my rudimentary caveman brain is not it. More broadly speaking, the combat’s rather grand. Even in this flat world, it feels very Souls-like, in the sense every enemy, big or small, proves some sort of threat. While on paper attacking is no more than choosing a heavy or light swing, enemy variety leads to some nice diverse arenas, with plenty of foes proving to be worthy, enjoyable challenges, and as per every Souls game, some which gnaw at the very essence of my sanity.
While you could feasibly walk away from Void Sols with the opinion that its stripped back combat is merely perfunctory, where I believe it truly excels is where many of its peers flounder, and in my experience is often only truly mastered by the progenitors themselves: exploration. It’s two fold too. Once we arrive at the village, it clear it acts as a hub of sorts, where several other areas link back to, with many being accessible at one time. One area dominated by a frigid climate so vicious the wind actively damages is still able to be explored with enough skill and planning, though exploring other areas can make that task a lot easier. Weapons, talismans, and artefacts are spread across the world, not only in these distinct areas, but also in nooks and crannies, shrouded in darkness, shrivelled behind barrels, or tucked away into crevices. Mustering the courage to dive into the gloom, having the wits to smack the barrels broken, and explosives to break the rocks asunder reveals these treasures and is thoroughly rewarding. Shortcuts and save points are additionally found this way, making the game easier and less frustrating on death. It’s evidence that developers Finite Reflection Studios understands that what makes a Souls game brilliant isn’t only restricted to bonking beasts with a bat, that everything in between matters just as much.
I don’t often play games the year they come out. Financially it makes sense to prioritise stuff like food and rent and other silly stuff like that, and logically it makes sense to delve into the many hundreds of games sat unplayed in my library spanning several decades. Though when I played Void Sols’ demo on a whim during the Next Fest, I knew this was something I was willing to break all the rules for. To loop back, it’s an utter gem I’m worried will be missed by many in a genre so oversaturated it’s borderline a meme, though I hope my review does something in the way of expressing how much I think people should play this. My only regret is my inability to stamp this as my game of the year. Sorry, Finite Reflection Studios, but the draw of Balatro is inescapable.