Review: Full Void

Price: Physical £17.99 Standard/£24.99 Limited Edition Evercade 

(Digital: £11.99 PS4/PS5 on PSN or £13.99 on Switch eShop)

Developer: OutofTheBit

Publisher: Evercade

Players: 1

Also: If you like the sound of Full Void, please check out my interview with the OutoftheBit team!

Alongside the drawn-out terror of the early days of COVID, the lockdowns (or however your government approached the pandemic) did a lot of strange/terrible things to people, young and old. 

Full Void is an adventure/puzzler nodding in solidarity with those who made it through those volatile and uncertain times, scared, scarred or both. Full Void reflects a real-time nightmare as, for the first time in generations, we collectively faced a dark, menacing, series of unknowns.

The younger cohorts had their lives put on pause, education twisted and social growth stunted. And they came out into this weird heavily automated/remote/AI-charged future that is painting a long series of bleak visions for their future.

This story is for them, and players looking for a reverent bow to the confident strides and story telling of 16-bit adventure/puzzle games past. 

Stepping into the Void

Full Void, (I paid for the gorgeous Evercade limited edition) arrives as our world is trying to heal. Yet one where polarising politicians are weaponising our children through hate and polemic. In the game box is a little prologue comic, echoing those sentiments, until the AIs take charge and steal all the children. 

Into the game, and from out of the woods falls a nameless hero/heroine, charged with sorting this mess out. Clad in ripped jeans and a hoodie, a laptop tucked away in their back pack is their only weapon. 

Across a bleak city they take their early steps, ones where cowering in terror is a perfectly acceptable survival strategy. Hiding and ducking will help avoid the robot child-snatchers on the prowl across the roofs and buildings. 

At this point a hushed moment of awe for the Robyn Powell Amiga MOD soundtrack, perfectly setting the pace and tone of this dark and precarious journey. One littered with flashbacks to happier times as the game phases in and out of the past to remind us of what was. 

The Age of the Train?

Full Void is broken down into 48 short chapters, offering two-to-three hours of playtime across a rapidly changing landscape from the old town, through the sewers, across modern transport and to the robotic labs for the big climax. 

Once we get up to speed with the puzzle mechanics and the regular need to leg it from the latest threat, Full Void offers a death-laden challenge. Fortunately, in most cases, our stoic teen pops back up at the start of the screen or puzzle to try it out again. 

With plenty of clever shading, use of pixel light and smaller animations lurking in the background, each screen is a petite vision on the Evercade's display (with an optional CRT filter to add some scanline love). The characters are smartly animated with that slight teen gangling lope in full effect. Among all that, some clues hide in plain sight, while others you might need to squint for (or plug into a HDTV for a clearer view).

Further into the game, we take control of cranes and other accessories to get around or solve puzzles. And in the second half, a useful gadget in the form of a shiny AI bot is rescued, it can follow simple sets of commands (move, trigger, climb) and has some surprising reactions to the landscape and robotic buddies. 

The Puzzle of the Teenage Adventurer

Most of the puzzles are switch-based or require timing to beat the typical obstacles, steam, flames, rusty old platforms and perilous leaps, often in combination with being pursued by feral hounds, robots or just that nagging feeling of dread. 

The final steps, revealing the AI's big plan and the various parts of that system which help bring it down are neatly woven to provide some satisfaction, solace and hope for the future. For anyone who needs a metaphor for the post-COVID (or getting-along-with-COVID-and-not-dying-yet!) world, Full Void does a very good job of  expressing those sentiments and is very well worth a play among all the big-name games out at this time of year. 

If there are any issues, the odd puzzle or run-away is over-extended, there could be a few more interactive goodies (that act as trophies in the Evercade version), and a "view interactive areas" button would be helpful if you can't see what to do. Otherwise, we have a brilliant, soul-tugging adventure to enjoy that looks brilliant in the bright cyan cartridge plugged into any Evercade system. 

Score 5/5