It has become a goal for Madmind Studio to start branching out into the game types that many gamers know of and creating them in ways that haven’t been utilized before. They even put together a small side team called Madmind Studio: After Hours to make smaller titles that are purely made for entertainment in a new way. The first title of theirs to fit this description is Void Slayer and truly is the most simplistic arena shooter I have played before. But simplicity can sometimes be exactly what is needed.

Gameplay

Once you load up the game, you can either start-up, check the leaderboard, mess with the settings, or quit. That’s it. This game doesn’t have any sort of progression system or adventure, so there will be no saving or loading necessary. Each time you start the game up, it is considered a fresh run and the only data that is saved is the records for your best run ever which is also posted up on the global leaderboard.

Playing the game is also straightforward. You have your left mouse button attack which is a beam that requires energy that depletes when used and recharges when not being used, your right mouse button attack which is a melee-type swipe attack, double-jump with the space bar, a single dash with the shift key, and your typical a,w,s,d movement keys. There really isn’t anything to get used to when it comes to the controls because it is what the average game uses.

Your goal is to survive as long as possible. Obelisk towers will rise up periodically and start spawning enemies. If you take out the crystal at the top of the tower, it will be destroyed and stop spawning enemies. These towers will continue to spawn and become more rapid as the match goes on, but there is a limit to how many can be in the arena at one time. That isn’t a difficulty reason - it is because the arena quickly becomes filled with all sorts of enemies!

There are only so many enemy types, but they will crowd the area quickly if you don’t manage them properly. It starts with small orbs that are easy to kill, then little dragons that create fire orbs come out, bull-looking ground smashers, shield-shaped defenders, spinning laser orbs, and an evolved version of the orbs that move faster and dash. Your melee attack is stronger than your beam, so when you get near a crowd of enemies or just close to tougher ones, try to have a charged melee attack ready to take them out quickly.

One thing that will save you is managing and understanding the dash system. While you do just get a single dash that quickly recharges, you can also take advantage of dash points. Obelisk towers and the lanterns above the arena both will show a purple flame under them. When you can see that flame, you can dash up to that point. This is a way to move around the arena without touching the ground, quickly dash up to the tower and melee attack the crystal, or even use it to pull yourself out of certain doom before you fall into the void.

The main thing that makes this game different from other arena shooters is the health system. Instead of a standard HUD, the arena itself acts as your health bar. When you take damage, panels from the arena fall away. It does seem to be randomized as to which panels fall first, but it seems the game is designed to leave an outer ring for the player until the last chunk of health is taken. Health can be recharged if you manage to refill your fountain, but that does take some skill so good luck reaching a health refill point!

Audio and Visual

Just as the gameplay, this is all very straightforward. There is some basic music that isn’t distracting and is more of an action ambiance while the enemies sound effects are subtle enough that when there is a huge crowd of enemies, it doesn’t sound like a cluster.

Graphically speaking, the game uses the dynamic colors of brightness over darkness. The arena and surrounding area are all super dark, to the point that it can be hard to see which panels have fallen away and which are still there, but all focal points in the game have a bright color to show them off. Getting used to the visuals of this game will be just as hard as climbing to the top 10 of the leaderboard during the first week (we all know that people will be mastering this game sooner rather than later).

Replayability

This game only offers players to go run after run, where they can get a little bit better every turn as they learn how to better deal with enemies and manage their footing in the arena - yeah, I would say this game has plenty of replayability.

What Could Be Better

While I get why the game is kept so dark, I wish they did a slightly better job indicating what panels have fallen away. They do a faint fire around the panel edge when it has fallen away so you can see where there is no panel next to a panel, but when you are in the air and the intensity of the action is high, it can easily be confusing which side of the flame has the panel. This has honestly caused a few deaths already for me.

Verdict

Void Slayer is as entertaining as it is simplistic! This game really shows that you don’t have to put a ton of nonsense together and make the gameplay diluted with so much detail in order for it to be a good game that is worth playing. Putting it up for only $4.99 USD on Steam and offering such a straightforward experience that is fun and replayable, they really are offering all players could need to get a neat challenge that only takes a few minutes each time they play.