GamerEscape

From where I’m sitting, there can never be enough good action games to play. In recent years especially, it’s felt as though the months were marked by a consistent stream of stylish, challenging games that rewarded mechanical skill and scratch that itch for self improvement. Volgarr the Viking II and Kill Knight were two such games I had the chance to discuss within the past few months alone, and both served as great reminders of how much fun these kinds of experiences can be.

This is the perspective with which I approached my time with VOIN’s current version. Coming to us from solo developer Nikita Sozidar and publisher tinyBuild, VOIN will be releasing into early access on PC via Steam on December 10th, 2024. After hurtling myself at the various systems and monstrous enemies of this first-person hack-and-slash, I found myself both excited at the prospect of what VOIN could eventually become and wary of the improvements that still need to be made to get there.

To paint with some admittedly broad strokes, VOIN is a first-person action RPG with infusions of roguelike and extraction game elements worked into the mix. In the large metallic boots of the titular VOIN—a powerful being harnessing the power of lightning—the title sees players delving into large zones, slaying every monster in sight for precious loot, and returning back to the hub to turn their spoils into level ups and new equipment, slowly increasing in power until properly prepared to battle the boss.

First and foremost, my interest was drawn to the core of VOIN’s combat: the movement, impact, and pacing of the fighting against the enemies roaming the landscape. I was almost immediately impressed by the responsiveness and tightness of the movement. Dodging is instantaneous and satisfying, and doing so at the proper time (when an enemy briefly flashes yellow) causes the action to slow for a window of opportunity to deal more damage. It was always a treat to pull this off well, and that goes double when you’re able to avoid multiple attacks in quick succession; the demo’s boss battle was where things really clicked, dodging attacks to the best of my ability and utilizing the the build I’d to the best of my ability.

Tragically, despite excellent controls and general gameplay feel on the player’s end, VOIN’s combat is currently held back rather considerably by overly simplistic enemies and a lack of variety with its encounters. As it stands, most enemies have a very limited arsenal of tools to hurtle the player’s way and their placement within the world feels static and repetitive. This is exacerbated by the large scale of the locations currently on offer which, while gorgeous and excellently decorated, presently feature a lot of overly similar fights. Certain enemy attack animations also feel somewhat oddly paced and rough around the edges, but this is to be expected somewhat with an early access release.

When the dust settles and you’ve come out the other side of a fight, you’ll be scanning enemy drops for new gear and closely examining the nearby environment for chests to plunder and further secrets to find. The extraction mechanic allows the player to spawn a portal at any time to return to VOIN‘s hub with your spoils, but the placement of the portal will always be some distance away from the player. I recall a specific moment where I’d cleared an encounter by the skin of my teeth with very little HP left to my name, and because health is restored via landing strikes in combat, it became a risk to focus on healing up. Instead, I opted to focus on getting to the portal at all costs to hang onto the gear I’d earned come hell or high water, and it was a fun decision making process.

I was also rather pleased with the current state of itemization in the game. There are a lot of different items to find that alter gameplay to an appreciable degree. It’s always a treat to find a new weapon and have a general increase in your overall power, certainly, but the real fun was in discovering passive effects to make your battles more interesting. I was particularly excited when I picked up an item that caused my perfect dodges to be followed up with free damage via spectral warriors fading in to attack the enemy I’d avoided. I was similarly excited when I was able to forego my broadsword for a pair of dual sickles, complete with their own attack speed and animations to get used to.

This excitement led to a similar degree of disappointment when I mistimed one dodge too many and subsequently lost all of the items I’d earned on that run. I can imagine the full loss of items on death being a sore spot for some players, but it’s a bold mechanical decision that ultimately works to VOIN’s benefit given how easy it is to grow attached to your more powerful items when you’re in the middle of a successful run. It also paves the way for continued exploration and combat to become more a risk/reward situation.

One of the most immediate things that impressed in the demo were some of the aesthetic flourishes. The game begins with a highly cinematic sequence showing the player character, a armor-clad knight, being reanimated by lightning a la Frankenstein’s monster. After gaining control over VOIN you’re able to roam around the game’s hub, comprised of massive obsidian structures in a bleak field which would be right at home on the cover of a doom metal record, before entering a level proper to begin your run.

The environments on offer so far are gorgeous, and do a great job of imparting a sense of scale and verticality to your foe-slashing. They establish a great sense of scale and an openness that helps the player to feel as though they’re guiding themselves through the world rather than letting the game world guide them, which is a balance that can be hard to reach. The maps do feel somewhat empty at this point, however, with loot chests and secrets sometimes resting a bit too far from one another.

All of VOIN’s positives intertwine to create a really solid framework for the game its striving to be, but its current stage of development feels more like that than anything else: a framework. The bones of satisfying combat flow, design, and itemization are here in spades, but the additional elements required to bring VOIN’s gameplay to their full potential—such as enemy and encounter variety and more consistent rewards for exploring—still need a bit of work.

Preview beta access provided by tinyBuild for PC. Screenshots taken by writer. Featured image courtesy of tinyBuild.