Post Void (PC) Review

Post Void begins with a bad acid trip that tries(?) to explain what is going on - and this bad acid trip never really ends. The whole experience is actually powered by a graphic engine that looks as if Wolfenstein 3D gobbled a variety of hallucinatory pills, smoked a mixture of belladonna and chlorine, and washed it down with some diet coke. The FOV constantly wobbles as if under the influence of some pretty strong booze; the bright and flashing colours of the, otherwise mundane, corridors you'll run through will give you hemicranias; and, finally, the enemy cast is comprised of nightmarish jaws dressed for office work, armless eldritch monsters, rocket-spitting eyes, and then some.

By the way, the protagonist of this tale is holding a glass head on his left hand, from which a white liquid is slowly spilling out. Took your time with shooting down the beasties mentioned earlier? Then you are served with a flash of even more nonsensical images, which mark the moment of your death. It just so happens that the liquid is actually the hero's health, as well as a countdown towards his eventual demise, with the only thing keeping it (half)full being - what else? - killing everything that isn't you. Do it as fast as possible, then dive into the peaceful pool at the end of this hypnotic ride. Rinse, repeat.

The challenge and frenetic pace of it all is exhilarating, with each level being harder than the previous one, either by adding more types of foes to battle against, being somewhat longer, or more complex. Don't expect a labyrinthine design or anything. 'Complex' in Post Void means having something that just isn't a straight line. After all, this is about speed, not exploration. Even the rogue-like randomisation of each play-through isn't there to significantly change things, but to prevent players from memorising the game, forcing them to pay attention during every single millisecond of a run.

Is that all you do here? Run through weirdly familiar, '70s-looking rooms, blasting weird creatures from the drunk (and then some) mind of Philip K. Dick (Californium anyone?), and then compare high scores in the leaderboards? Actually... yes! The action is repetitive, and the perks that you can pick after completing a level to make your ride a little easier (like faster reloading, more liquid, and so on) just aren't enough to spice things up as much as it's needed for this to last for more than a handful of hours - and yet, this still is a very fun, and even addicting game. But... it has a major issue.

It's nice that this is challenging. The thing with challenging games, though, is that, apart from your own abilities, nothing else should get in the way. On one hand, nothing does. The controls are excellent, with the only flaw being how you can't alter them; enemy placement and AI is fair; reloading weapons is as fast as it should be in such a game, with said weapons being fairly balanced, although there's still room for improvement, something that can also be said about the perks, with 'Slow Bullets' being by far the most crucial one. As a whole, however, nothing game-breaking.

The thing that can ruin the fun here are the visuals. No, that's not a comment on the stylistic approach of the developer. This actually looks good, and, more importantly, unique. The visuals are annoying from a practical point of view. The super-low resolution works wonders for "simple" and slower games like Wolfenstein 3D, but here this can be extra tiring for your eyes. Furthermore, there are certain elements that get literally in the way, like the extra large blast from your gun, or the "3, 2, 1" countdown that blocks the centre of the screen, making it hard to see the already hard-to-see crosshair.

This is a bit too visually chaotic for its sake. This critic even had to disable the repetitive, almost obnoxious theme. Apart from letting you appreciate the sound effects more, blocking the additional interference can help in becoming much, much better at it - turning into a gun-Ninja; head-shooting monster after monster for five straight minutes... only to lose because you weren't able to see an incoming bullet or two. Maybe that wackiness was the developer's intention all along, but this keeps Post Void from being the cult classic that it feels it could be. Still a fun (and super cheap) title, but it needs work.