Void Sols review

pcgamer.com:

What is it? A minimalist soulslike starring a triangle.
Release date November 12, 2024
Expect to pay $20/£17
Developer Finite Reflection Studios
Publisher Modern Wolf
Reviewed on Gigabyte G5 (Nvidia RTX 4060, Intel Core i5 12500H, 16GB DDR4-3200)
Steam Deck TBA
Link Official site

Oh God dammit. I was so looking forward to opening this review with ‘Void Sols? More like Avoid Sols!’ and then going down in history as the funniest game critic who ever lived. But then the selfish developers of this smart little soulslike had to spoil it all by making yet another great game in everyone’s favourite/most inescapable genre. Boo!

You play a little white triangle, which I like to imagine is the ship from Asteroids after a very unfortunate crash landing. Because a sinister collection of bitter shapes occupy this land, seemingly having deserted the Geometry Wars to spend around a dozen hours trying to slay you instead. Thanks to this game, I now know what a hexagon hating me looks like. So that’s fun.

Geometric animosity aside, the first thing that truly wowed me was the game’s phenomenal lighting. Void Sols is a dark game that may plunge you into inescapable depression on an OLED monitor. It’s up to you to brighten things up—well, a little—by lighting torches you find as you cautiously move through its mazes. The ancient soulslike trick of hiding enemies around corners gets a much needed refresh here, as it's now paths of light that are your true foe. Sometimes your stupid triangular body is blocking the light, hiding an enemy right in front of you. Move too quickly around a pillar and you may discover that the darkness on its other side was concealing several angry dagger-wielding squares. Eep.

You enter each new area completely on the back foot with no map or hint of what’s coming. Progress is made inch by inch as you light up torches, which also give you a teeny-tiny amount of text telling you where you are (e.g. Prison Cell, Torture Chamber, Somewhere Else Horrible, etc)