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- Voidigo is an extremely fluid shoot-em-up with vibrant colors and a bouncy soundtrack.
- The unique weapon choices are unlike any other recent Roguelite.
- Simple mechanics such as the ability to jump and run make the game experience extremely fun.
Voidigo is a top-down shoot-em-up roguelite much like Enter The Gungeon or Soul Knight. I couldn’t play the game in its early access, but I got my hands on it a bit hesitantly in the Steam sale following its release. Even before I did my first run, the visuals captivated me, and simple things like the ability to run got me hooked. The more I played and experienced the different weapons and enemies, the higher my praise became. Maybe I’m biased cause I’ve been playing the game every day, but I don’t see any other Roguelite coming anytime soon that can rival Voidigo.
The Visuals
The first thing you’ll notice about the game is its visuals. The sprite work is quite simple on its own, which makes it easier to animate them fluidly without much work. Everything from the character you control to the UI itself follows the rules of exaggeration in stretching and contorting sprites to give them more life. This, coupled with the bright colors and the gorgeously designed characters, makes the game pure eye candy. The game’s IGN has no rating yet, but the Steam reviews are overwhelmingly positive.
Each Gun Is Unique
A big problem I have with roguelites is the lack of guns. A lot of them consist mainly of simple, real-world guns and other stereotypical magic staves. Even the more “unique” guns are reskins of the same lasers, freeze guns, flamethrowers, and poisons. A recent game I was looking extremely forward to, AK-Xolotl, made me very hesitant to try out new Roguelites due to this.
Voidigo did more than just redeem the genre, though. The game, which RockPaperShotgun calls the best Roguelite shooter since Nuclear Throne, goes far and beyond just putting personality in weapons. Buried Treasure goes on to say “This should have been a Devolver game,” and claims that the game is a GOTY contender, which is an extremely big compliment, especially for an indie game.
Each weapon has an idle animation that’s oozing with creativity. The weapons all look different and also function differently. The weapons aren’t just “this gun shoots 2 more bullets” or “this gun freezes an enemy.” They’re more like “This gun that looks oddly similar to a snake shoots out eggs and plants them inside enemies, who then explode from the inside and spawn baby snakes that chase nearby enemies.”
Why Dash When You Can Jump?
The dash or dodge-roll is a defining mechanic of roguelites. On a screen full of bullets, having the ability to reposition yourself quickly elevates the gaming experience. Dashes work fine, but can often create weird hitboxes where the end of the dash isn’t clear from the animation. Furthermore, having the ability to reposition whenever you want takes away from the need to use melee weapons, because you can just dash away.
Voidigo solves this by replacing the dash mechanic with a jump that ends in a stomp. The stomp not only staggers and damages enemies, but it’s an integral part of your kit. What this means is that you can upgrade your jump with all the spicy Roguelite buffs you apply to other parts of your kit. Furthermore, certain enemies and mechanics require you to practice your jumps, so you can’t just say “The mechanic’s too hard for me to learn so I’ll just stay away and use guns.”
You can also chain these stomps if there are multiple enemies nearby. With a power-up that triggers when you jump, you can wreak havoc by creating a hellscape of fire that envelops the screen and all enemies inside it.
The Sound Design
I’m not much into acoustics, so I can’t give a professional take on the sound. However, what I can say is that it feels and sounds incredibly, incredibly good. I’m not just talking about the music (which is super fun and honestly makes every encounter more enjoyable) but also the sounds the weapons and enemies make. One problem that can occur with bullet hells is that the sounds can overlap each other and hinder your ability to listen for attacks. Somehow, never once did I experience this with Voidigo. If I could describe the game’s sound design in a single word, it’d likely be bouncy, which is a fitting description for the game in general.
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News Reporter
Abdullah is an avid gamer who primarily plays single-player titles. If you can’t find him anywhere, he’ll probably be at his desk playing The Witcher 3 for the millionth time. When he isn’t playing games, he’s either reading or writing about them.
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