First Impressions: The Voidness - LIDAR Survival Horror Game (PC)

 [Disclaimer:  I received a review key for The Voidness - LIDAR Survival Horror Game through Keymailer, a third-party website/company that connects publishers and developers with content creators.  The game was given without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be played and content be created through the playing of the game and the experience.  Unless otherwise noted, all content in the following article is from my own playthrough of this game.] 

The Voidness - LIDAR Survival Horror Game
Systems: Windows, Steam OS
Release Date: October 30, 2023
Publisher: Steelkrill Studio
Developer: Steelkrill Studio
Time Spent: 72 Minutes

Well, apologies to Steelkrill Studio for not being able to finish their game.  I tried, but I know from how I feel after only playing these 72 minutes that this is not the kind of game that I would be able to finish and say that I ultimately enjoyed.  I like the concept, but there are a couple of mechanics that hamper some of the current, as well as potential future enjoyment.  We have a playlist up on YouTube of my shortened time playing the game which we'll get into below.

The gist of the game is that you play a former astronomer who wakes up in an empty space station on a newly discovered planet and is unable to locate her fellow crew members. An anomalous space referred to as The Void on the planet is the likely culprit.  In an environment where all light ceases to exist, you set out to find any remaining crew members and contain The Void.  That on its own is a great premise that I could get behind.  But then we have to get down to the nitty gritty and ultimately why I had to pass on this game after only 72 minutes.

First off, the controls.  You're not able to invert the y-axis, and as I was playing this on my laptop, I wasn't able to make use of the Steam Deck's wonderfully robust control customization options.  I first thought that I could play through the game without inverted y-axis controls, but once I entered the Void and had to navigate by LIDAR, it became more difficult to navigate and easier to become disoriented.  Secondly, there is a whistle mechanic, which makes sense at the beginning of the game, but as you're in the Void and there are multiple times where you're prompted to be as quiet as possible, having a whistle mechanic doesn't make a lot of sense.  What's even worse is that whistling is mapped to the space bar.  Jump is also mapped to the space bar, but you can't detangle whistling and jumping, so any time you want to jump, you have to whistle first and then quickly press the spacebar again to initiate a jump.  I did try remapping the Jump to X, but pressing X still made my character whistle and then jump.

Last is the saving mechanic.  I probably should have picked up on this, as Steelkrill seems to use the same saving mechanic in another game of theirs I played, Baby Blues: Nightmare Horror Game, but you're only able to save at a save location once.  I get the desire to make saving something to cherish and feel relieved about, and it's easier to come to terms with when you're in a world of darkness lit only temporarily by your LIDAR device.  I feel it also doesn't make any sense story-wise, either.  When you find a computer terminal, you're able to save, but only once.  Maybe if I had saved back in the station and the computer either froze or fried, it would make sense that you can't use it again, but in the Void, there was no such indication that anything bad happened to this terminal, being able to save only once, especially this early in the stage after the game automatically saves, just feels like bad placement.  Having the save terminal at the end of the flooded hallway before you have to double back would make more sense.

After dying twice (yes, I know, only twice), I knew that this was going to play a bigger part in my enjoyment of the game, especially once the game introduced the hunting enemy mechanic that I actually died to my second time playing.  I liked the story, I liked the general aesthetic, and I liked the LIDAR mechanic, but the combination of the controls and the save mechanic was where I felt like I couldn't continue anymore.  I wanted to enjoy The Voidness - LIDAR Survival Horror Game, but in the end, I couldn't figure out how best to hold on to it.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
She Neither Hears Nor Sees