Post Void

Genre: First-Person Shooter / Roguelike

Players: 1, Online Leaderboards

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Review:

Post Void is a retro-style First-Person Shooter with Roguelike elements released on PC in 2020 and ported to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in 2023 (and because I don’t know a better place to mention it, I’ll just say here that the Nintendo Switch version doesn’t add gyroscopic motion controls). This is a bizarre experience that defies any sort of rational world or story in favor of one that’s surreal, loud, fast, and nearly nonsensical. Players take the role of a… person?… carrying his own severed head that is constantly draining of life as you run and gun your way through enemies as you try to get to a “void”, a forested clearing with a pond that marks the end of each level.

The only way to refill your life in this game is to take out an enemy, but this relief is only temporary – you are constantly only mere seconds away from dying, with this desperation fueling a constant rush forward in search of the level’s end, or at least another enemy to take down so you can eke out a few more seconds before death takes you.

As such, this game’s pace is extremely frenzied and frenetic, giving players little opportunity to stop and take stock of things. It is also excruciatingly difficult. All but the most skilled players of First-Person Shooters will find themselves dying within a minute of starting a run, if that. As you might imagine, this is something that will greatly limit this game’s appeal, and only the most masochistic veterans of the genre will find themselves making much headway in this game.

That’s not to say that it’s not worth trying. The fast, intense old-school First-Person Shooter gameplay here is overall pretty good, and if you can manage to survive to a level’s end, you’ll find some genuinely interesting Roguelike upgrades awaiting you. However, you’ll have to get used to losing all progress and starting over from the beginning each time you die, which I must again emphasize will be often.

Another element that will be driving players forward will be the absolutely bonkers presentation here, which starts with simple 3D corridors and 2D enemies reminiscent of some of the oldest games in the genre, but then makes everything bizarre and surreal with bright, garish colors, off-putting undulating and wriggling visuals, and weird character designs. And again, the entire time you’ll be carrying your own severed head, rendered in a hand-drawn art style. And all of this is backed by intense electric guitar music that really emphasizes this game’s frenetic, fast-paced nature. I haven’t partaken in illegal recreational substances so I can’t say for sure, but I strongly suspect that this game’s presentation was designed to channel the experience of a bad acid trip.

As a result of this combination of fast-paced punishing gameplay and lurid presentation, Post Void will absolutely not be a game that most players will truly enjoy. But I must give it credit – it makes for a truly unique experience, and those players who do enjoy the bizarre concoction of elements that this game offers will surely find it to be truly fantastic and unlike anything else out there. I suppose it’s better to be an interesting mess than to be boring, and Post Void is absolutely not boring.

tl;dr – Post Void is a First-Person Shooter with Roguelike elements that takes the simple gameplay of classic retro First-Person Shooters, pushes players to blast through it at high speed with death always just seconds away, and gives it a surreal and garishly colorful presentation. The result is a game that will absolutely not appeal to everyone, but those who do enjoy it will find it unlike anything else out there.

Grade: C+

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