Post Void is an absurdly frenetic and brutal roguelike boomer shooter.
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- Title: Post Void
- Release Date: March 16, 2023
- Price: $5.99
- Suggested Audience Age: Rated M for Mature by the ESRB
- Availability: Switch (reviewed), PlayStation, Steam, Xbox
- Recommended for fans of: Doomlikes, Roguelikes, and pain
Geek to Geek Media was provided with a review copy of this title.
I am terrible at Post Void.
In general, I don't brag about being good at video games. Sure, I like a challenge, but generally, I go to games to find fresh experiences. Sometimes that can just be a challenge through and through, but more often it's an interesting art style or cool gameplay mechanics, or interactive storytelling.
If a game has an easy mode, I'll usually choose it.
But Post Void doesn't have an easy mode. It's a brutally hard game that assaults you through gameplay and aesthetics and does not care in the slightest how much it hurts you.
Post Void is a game for masochists.
Roguelike Doomlike
Post Void is if you reduce it down to barebones, a roguelike boomer shooter. It's a game where you try to battle your way through 11 procedurally generated levels of increasing complexity and difficulty. You start each run with a simple gun that you use to shoot grotesque enemies, and at the end of each level, you get to choose a new weapon or perk to help you going forward.
There's not much story to speak of, and absolutely no meta-progression. When you die you lose whatever perks you've picked up and start right back at the start of level one.
Also, it is a psychedelic nightmare.
A Bad Trip
I obviously buried the lede a bit by not talking about the visuals even though I posted a video above. This game looks absolutely wild, and in motion, it is even more intense. The levels you traverse are absurdly overly saturated corridors that twist around on themselves, and the floor is constantly rolling like a storming ocean. Every shot of your gun causes a bright muzzle flash, and enemies explode into massive bursts of sprite-based gore. Add on the fact that your character sprints through the environments like Sonic the Hedgehog with a bottle rocket enema and this is not a game for anyone prone to motion sickness.
I've actually had to be pretty careful with which pictures I put in here because some of the enemies are so grotesque, sexualized, and violent that I'm pretty sure my editor wouldn't let me host them on our server.
This game looks absolutely amazing and horrifying and I love it and it makes my eyes hurt.
Difficulty Spikes
Unfortunately, this is where we get to the “I am terrible at Post Void” part of this review. There are 11 stages to fight your way through, and I've never made it past level six. I'm at the point where I can clear the first three pretty reliably. Each run is randomly generated, but I feel like I've got a good grasp on the early-game enemies, so I can make it through okay. It helps when I get perks that line up, like switching to a machine gun and using bullets that bounce off walls, but even with just the pistol, I've got a good handle on the early game.
Unfortunately, further levels introduce new enemy types and also complications in making it through the levels. You see, part of the reason you've got to move at an intense pace through Post Void is that your character's left-hand holds an idol that is constantly draining energy. When it's empty, you die, and the only way to fill it up is by shooting enemies. My problem is that I tend to get hung up on levels that introduce elevation changes, asking you to jump up or drop down to new rooms. It's not that I get beat by the enemies, but that I lose track of where I'm at and end up in a space with none to defeat.
Final Thoughts
I don't know if I like Post Void as a product, but I love playing it. It's fast and frenetic and super easy to pick up and play since runs are often less than five minutes long. However, it's also a game I can't play for too long without starting to feel like its coked-up design is starting to carve away at my soul (and my retinas).
It feels bad to play Post Void, but maybe sometimes it feels good to feel bad.