I adore it when a recreation comes out of nowhere and surprises me. Earlier this month, that’s precisely what occurred after I noticed the trailer for VoidBreaker during Gamescom Opening Night Live. I downloaded the fast-paced sci-fi roguelike FPS shortly after seeing it, and never solely is it good, but it surely could be probably the greatest shooters I’ve performed all yr. And it was made nearly fully by one man, Daniel Stubbington.
VoidBreaker is an extremely quick and glossy first-person shooter accessible now in early entry on Steam and Sport Move PC. The sport is ready inside a big, extremely superior AI program that’s utilizing human take a look at topics to collect information on fight and warfare. This includes you endlessly combating and dying again and again by means of “runs” of this system’s randomly generated gauntlets stuffed with numerous robotic enemies and different odd cyber-opponents. Fortunately, very early on, a earlier human who was making an attempt to flee this system contacts you to assist take the AI down and get out alive. Sadly, your ally is simply the digital stays of a really useless one who has a skeleton hiding in your cyberjail’s basement. However whereas he’s useless, his thoughts continues to be in this system and helps you hack the system, slowly unlocking everlasting bonuses and new weapons that can assist you get additional throughout every action-filled run.
If a few of that sounds foolish, it’s! And that’s the purpose. VoidBreaker leans into the absurd and unusual state of affairs you end up in, with plentiful jokes delivered by a dry robotic announcer throughout runs. Messages embrace this system explaining how dwelling perpetually in ache is healthier than dying, and the way you aren’t alone as a result of the AI is at all times watching you. It strikes that good steadiness between foolish and darkish that Portal nailed so a few years in the past.
One other run, one other run, one other run….
The gameplay loop of VoidBreaker will really feel fairly acquainted in the event you’ve performed any roguelike game in the previous couple of years. Every run feels totally different, as enemy encounters and different sections of the digital gauntlets are randomly generated. As you progress by means of these runs, you discover mods of varied rarity ranges that offer you new skills, make you stronger or quicker, and even change how your gun works. And naturally, as in most roguelikes, there’s a foreign money you earn that may solely be used at outlets that randomly seem in your path throughout that run. There’s additionally a foreign money that permits you to unlock everlasting upgrades within the aforementioned secret useless man basement.
So yeah, nothing groundbreaking in Voidbreaker. As a substitute, the rationale to play this new FPS is for the gameplay and fight. Motion in VoidBreaker is extremely clean, snappy, and satisfying. That is the sort of recreation the place it’s simply enjoyable to run round and leap, even outdoors of a battle. And gunplay is equally unbelievable, with the assault rifle you unlock pretty early into the sport being a loud and hectic dying machine that sprays enemies with bullets in a means that at all times makes me glad. Buildings and different buildings you notice within the ranges can be destroyed à la Battlefield and crumble upon enemies, gorgeous and even killing them. Oh, and you’ll decide up most gadgets utilizing a Half-Life-like Gravity Gun mechanic and fling them again at baddies, too.
As you improve your character throughout runs, including ice bullets, enhancing your Gravity-Gun-thingy, unlocking fireplace assaults, and accumulating super-powerful grenade mods, the motion in VoidBreaker can turn into extraordinarily chaotic. At occasions, it grew to become almost an excessive amount of for my eyes to maintain monitor of as my rifle spat out electrically charged bullets coated in vitality fields, buildings collapsed round me, and enemies crammed the world with numerous crimson projectiles that may do numerous harm in the event you aren’t cautious. It may be lots, and I feel for some it could be an excessive amount of. However I loved each second of it, even when there have been undoubtedly occasions after I was simply spamming my skills and grenades towards a large cloud of destruction and dying and hoping for the very best.
However the chaos is a part of the enjoyable, and dying isn’t that massive of a deal in VoidBreaker. In any case, it simply gave me one other excuse to load again up in my bizarre, sparse cyber house/jail and shortly say hello to the skeleton within the basement earlier than hopping again out for yet one more run. I’m excited to see how the sport expands in early entry. Now, I have to go and play extra VoidBreaker. Only one extra run. I’ll go to mattress ultimately. It’s solely 2 a.m….
