It's the key art to Void Gore. A crystalline spaceship flies into a Giger-esque landscape past a sinister skull demon with glowing red eyes. It's very metal.
  1. Void Gore” is a phenomenal name for a videogame. Straight up perfection.
  2. It has an incredible piece of key art, which is why I’m leading with that not a screenshot.
  3. I’ve rarely been so grateful for a fade to black in a videogame. Bloody hell.
A screenshot from void Gore. A giant yellow skeletal demon shoots bullets all over the place whilst a spaceship tries to take it down.

Void Gore is a cracking, intense, randomised high score shooter. Simple rules, shoot everything before it shoots you, use your surrounding circle to wipe stuff out for maximum effect. At one stage, the circle clears bullets, at another it clears everything within it. Get a high score.

That’s it. It’s quickfire stuff – games can be over nearly as quickly as they begin, especially whilst you’re still in the process of upgrading your spaceship. Game over comes incredibly swiftly to the point you can see why the game describes each stage as a new hell to survive.

(Spoilers: it’s because each stage is a new hell to survive)

A screenshot from Void Gore. The player is flying through some tentacles whilst things explode around them.

Survival becomes slightly (only slightly!) easier with a few ship upgrades (and the option to unlock multiple background styles is a nice one), but mainly it’s a game that needs practice, a growing familiarity with its handful of hell monsters and their behaviours. Knowing when to hold off and when to hit that kill circle button to maximum effect.

It’s great new arcade stuff but man alive, it can be exhausting playing a game that’s this full on whilst wanting to try again for a better score, often.

We live in a post Super Hexagon world where more often than not, instant restarts are just how things work. Whilst quick, Void Gore gives me a few moments as it fades to black, a chance to recompose myself, get my breath back a bit. It’s an almost-instant restart and just time enough to settle down again.

It's a screenshot from Void Gore. There are skulls being blown apart in a flood of bullets

It’s something I found myself really grateful for!

As much as I’m a fan of putting the least distance between player and videogame, I’m also a fan of being able to relax for a moment before going at something another time. Those few seconds make a tremendous difference to me in stopping the game from being frustrating as well as brutal.

It keeps a rhythm going, it adds a reset for the brain.

Sometimes, it’s the small things, perhaps not even there by deliberate design, that I appreciate the most. Or maybe I just really like breathing? I dunno, I’ll get back to you on that one.

Anyway.

I grabbed Void Gore for the PS4 but other formats exist. I’m having a ball with it. Two thumbs up from me, alright. Go gerrit.


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