Taken at face value, Void Stranger is a ~6-hour sokoban-style puzzle game. And I'd say it's a pretty good one: the central mechanic provides a lot of flexibility in an otherwise perfection-demanding genre; new mechanics are introduced at a constant pace; most levels have optional secondary challenges so you can choose your difficulty somewhat; story cutscenes provide natural breaks between chapters and keep the pace up; and the soundtrack is every bit as good as its predecessor ZeroRanger's. On these qualities alone, I would comfortably consider it worth its asking price.
If all you're looking for is a recommendation, you've got it and you can stop reading. If you want a full review with some minor spoilers and some major snobbery on my part, read on.
ZeroRanger won my heart by being an uncompromising mechanical exploration of a theme: enlightenment. If I were to task Void Stranger with being the same thing, I'd have to call its central theme... "faith". The game is packed with secrets, and if you want to see everything it has to offer, you'll sooner or later run into mechanics that feel too punishing, puzzles that feel impossible, or goals that seem designed to waste your time. I didn't preface this with a review of the surface level alone as a cutesy way of delaying the spoiler content; I did it because I want to stress that the base game is worth playing on its own, and you venture past it at your own peril.
But here is where a little faith pays dividends. Whatever its reputation, Void Stranger's secrets are not actually all that arcane (well, the ones that matter, anyway). An open mind, an open eye, and the mere assumption that there's a lesson hiding in every bit of weirdness you see on your journey is usually all you need to progress. I won't pretend I was perfect at this, or that I didn't end up wasting tons of time because I didn't get something; but what struck me is that every time I did figure out what I'd been missing, I immediately remembered the moment that was supposed to have taught me it.
I don't want to say that anyone who dropped this has a skill issue, or that I'm cooler for my willingness to commit more of my precious life-hours to a video game than they are. I put more faith into it than they did, but that's not a good or bad thing. People put their faith into all kinds of stupid stuff. Still. I don't regret it for a moment.
Place your faith. Embrace the Void.
(and play zeroranger too dammit)
If all you're looking for is a recommendation, you've got it and you can stop reading. If you want a full review with some minor spoilers and some major snobbery on my part, read on.
ZeroRanger won my heart by being an uncompromising mechanical exploration of a theme: enlightenment. If I were to task Void Stranger with being the same thing, I'd have to call its central theme... "faith". The game is packed with secrets, and if you want to see everything it has to offer, you'll sooner or later run into mechanics that feel too punishing, puzzles that feel impossible, or goals that seem designed to waste your time. I didn't preface this with a review of the surface level alone as a cutesy way of delaying the spoiler content; I did it because I want to stress that the base game is worth playing on its own, and you venture past it at your own peril.
But here is where a little faith pays dividends. Whatever its reputation, Void Stranger's secrets are not actually all that arcane (well, the ones that matter, anyway). An open mind, an open eye, and the mere assumption that there's a lesson hiding in every bit of weirdness you see on your journey is usually all you need to progress. I won't pretend I was perfect at this, or that I didn't end up wasting tons of time because I didn't get something; but what struck me is that every time I did figure out what I'd been missing, I immediately remembered the moment that was supposed to have taught me it.
I don't want to say that anyone who dropped this has a skill issue, or that I'm cooler for my willingness to commit more of my precious life-hours to a video game than they are. I put more faith into it than they did, but that's not a good or bad thing. People put their faith into all kinds of stupid stuff. Still. I don't regret it for a moment.
Place your faith. Embrace the Void.
(and play zeroranger too dammit)