'The Void' is an amazing experience. It is not quite a great game though. 'The Void' is more like 50% art and 50% game. It is a slightly mind bending examination of what it might be like to be dead and in the afterlife (or is it in a failing brain?). It is also a frustrating, and somewhat repetitive FPS puzzle game with some horror elements.

Graphics are functional, except where they are spectacular! What I mean by this is that the game uses light and surreal scenes to achieve amazing things, but the basic modelling of characters, environments, and monsters is merely average. What I can say is that you will see things in this game I think you won't see anywhere else. But to make it 'simple', the average of the graphics is top notch.

Gameplay is slow-paced - almost dreamlike, which is appropriate to the atmosphere - yet often a bit repetitive.

In the most basic sense it is an FPS puzzle/horror game that is vaguely like the 'Penumbra' series in feel. Very vaguely.

Special feature of note: The gestures system of control and interaction (i.e. you draw a symbol on the screen via the mouse to activate powers and most object) which I haven't seen since 'Black and White'.

I also must mention this game is unforgiving of errors (almost roguelike in its savageness, albeit at the more forgiving end of that spectrum, and not otherwise like a roguelike in any other way), and you should save often. It is absolutely possible to get yourself into an unwinnable scenario if you don't pay attention.

Sound is generally adequate, but the music gets some note for being atmospheric and melancholy.

*sigh* This is truly a tough one to play, review, and rate. I cannot think of anything really like it. Take a dash of 'Silent Hill', mix with 'Penumbra', throw in the gestures system from 'Black and White', toss in a dash of roguelike lethality, and shake madly... Then throw the resulting mess away because you still can't catch the essence of this game. But if you like 'Penumbra', 'Silent Hill' or mystery and beauty you should probably get this because it is one of the few games I have played that truly can be classified as art, and further as an experience.

I wish I could give it five stars, but as it is so weird (which is also its greatest strength!), slow, and tough, I can only give it four (actually I can't it any because for some reason I cannot actually rate this game here in Gamersgate!).

Warning 1: The copy protection system on this game is savage (Starforce in one of its worst ever incarnations!)! It will shut you down if you change very much on your computer without 'deactivating' the game first, including if you just plug in new USB devices. Gamersgate are cool, and will get you access again if you do lose it, but unless you want to muck about sending e-mails and waiting awhile to resume playing, be aware of this pitfall!

Warning 2: This is an adult kind of game, conceptually, and in some other aspects - there is a little female nudity in this game, which may be a negative if it offends (or you are underage), and also may be a plus if you like that sort of thing. This nudity is on the art side of things though - it isn't porn.

Pros:

Wonderful imagery

Imaginative!

Artistic!

Original!

Gestures

Cons:

Clunky controls

Slow pace

Tough as nails

Melancholy

Repetitive

I admit, I was very sceptical of artistic and adventure games, I tried many but none were to my liking and I dropped them on the day or the next one, unsatisfied and sometimes irritated.

Usually I just stay with strategy and RPG games. But I am still an artist at heart (writer, poet) and the "setting" of The Void seemed very interesting.

So I bought it...and I am glad I did, it's one of the best games I've ever played in my life and I played thousands.

bitobah's review before mine already explained the gameplay very well, so I won't say it again but for me the greatest thing in this game that kept me going was the story and the setting.

Everything feels like a dream (or a nightmare at times), so unreal but yet deeply convincing, deep and realistic, with none of the boredom of other artistic games as you race for survival. The story is intriguing (and a bit insane) but very well done and creates a tangible feeling of the world around you.

Congrats for the developers, this an awesome game.

The Void is a tour de force in the arts. I should say that it is, by far, an acquired taste but for what it represents, it is one of the best games of its ilk. The game is beautiful, creative and interactive, it has you draw glyphs that execute your special abilities. You must use these cautiously though, because this, at heart, is also a survival horror game and there will be many times when you'll be near death for lengthy periods of time. If you're looking for something different, a game about art, deep both in terms of mechanics and its message, The Void is for you.

I should preface this review by saying that The Void, like many other artistic adventure/survival/story games - such as The Path and Ice-Pick Lodge's first game Pathologic (also available from Gamersgate)- are certainly not for everyone. Some people will not "get" the game, or will become frustrated and not give The Void the chance it deserves. That is too bad, because The Void is a unique experience in PC gaming and storytelling, one that is packaged with an excellent and challenging survival "horror" game.

First off, everything about The Void is weird. The visuals are strange (and remind me of a very old game called The Tone Rebellion, but that is incidental), the voice-overs are melodramatic (in a good way), and the plot is cryptic. All of this is intentional. As a brief aside, I would like to say that one of the criticisms leveled at Ice-Pick Lodge's first game, Pathologic, was that it had poor translation and some iffy voice-acting. None of this seems to have carried over to The Void. I liked the Voice acting and, although the plot is very very bizarre, none of this seems to be from poor Russian to English copy.

It is very hard to characterize how The Void is played. It is an adventure game, but there is no inventory and no overt "puzzles" to figure out (i.e. you never use a rope on a hook and then toss it on a beam to lift an object from water). There are no real commands - other than the drawing of glyphs.

The Void is also a strategy game, but the only "resource" available is color/lympha - which exists in many different shades (green, gold, azure, violet, gold, silver, crimson, and orange). Each of these colors signifies a certain "idea" or state of being - but I won't go into that to avoid spoilers. Color acts as the way you interact with the world, as a resource to "feed" other entities, as your "hit points" or life bar, as your food, and as your statistics (by putting different color into your hearts you get different benefits - i.e. green in your hearts reduces the amount of damage you take).

The Void is a survival game as well (it is several genres rolled into one). To keep your character alive, you have to constantly have some color held in his hearts (you can more hearts and each heart allows you to draw certain glyphs that act like "spells" to effect the world). Managing color/lympha is your top priority. You can "farm" it from gardens (which you have to protect from marauders), you can mine it from certain areas in the Void, you can find it randomly from small creatures or "plants." Like an addict, you will constantly be going from place to place in an attempt to get your next "fix" to keep yourself alive or to fulfill some goal requiring a certain amount of a certain shade (and maybe the drug addict analogy is part of what the game means - you can decide as you play). So like an RTS you will be attempting to exploit resources that dwindle in supply over a large map of "pro