UPDATE: After the 8/24 patch, I decided to see if anything has changed. It's actually kind of surprising that several things can get fixed while keeping some things completely broken.
See that 4.4 hours of playtime? Yeah, that's all accrued in runs trying to beat the first boss. The actual levels have been re-balanced quite well; even on normal they are challenging but do-able. But that boss. It's not only that the combat system just doesn't work against him, it's that when he gets to less than half health, the entire arena becomes obscured to the point where it's impossible to see, and the frame rate tanks again. Feel free to see the screenshot I posted of what that "looks" like. There's still a nugget of fun that could be salvaged from this, but as it stands I still can't recommend the game in its current state.
[ORIGINAL REVIEW]
I looks pretty cool, and at first I was hopeful. The tutorial introduces some neat moves, and the combat was feeling pretty decent. But it all fell apart the moment I actually started playing.
The "normal" difficulty is ludicrous. The first mission I had was to kill 30 mobs, and I tried 11 times before game over and got at most 7 in any attempt. Ok, fine. The game is hard. I'll bump it to easy and see. But first, a sidebar.
That game over part above? Void does a weird thing where it wants to feel like a roguelike with permadeath, but also sort of realizes that it's stupidly hard and badly designed, so it cuts you a little slack. You get a bar with something called "complex", but it's just a "lives" system in disguise. It does give you a choice of one of the many tiny, meaningless buffs that pass for powerups when you die or clear a level, but otherwise you're right back at whatever level killed you. Part of the fun of roguelikes is that death, while frustrating, means a clean slate for a new run. Except here, you have the same wall to throw yourself at again except maybe now you have an extra 5% stamina recovery rate.
The regular levels are pretty cool looking, with floating platforms everywhere, and a handy blink move that makes traversal pretty simple. But maybe you've already guessed the big problem - small, floating platforms spectacle fighters do not match a good match. It's so easy to go flying off the edges, which takes a huge hunk off your life bar.
There are also "towers", which are static enemies that can affect surrounding platforms. They attack you remotely with poison clouds, lightning, grasping arms, and slime bombs, all while you are trying to deal with the mobs that surround you. It would be ok if you could reach them easily, but trying to traverse the levels with all the crap going on is incredibly frustrating.
There was a boss at the end of the first series of levels. It's the hardest first boss I have ever encountered, and there is no way to grind or prepare for it (aside from dying a lot and getting those tiny upgrades). I'm not a pro gamer, but I have beaten some tough games, and Void Dementia is just beyond the pale, even on easy.
And finally, the optimization is poor. I was playing the first few levels on my mid-range laptop at max specs with no problems. But then I ran into a level with no geometry, only deformable snow, and my framerate dropped into single-digits. That first boss fight had a similar issue for some reason, despite being in a mostly empty arena. And the endurance mode plays in a completely open field, no geometry, no snow, and more than 3 mobs also tanks the framerate. That was the final straw for me.
Since this is a new release, I can only hope that there are improvements and updates in the works, as I do like a lot of what I saw. But the interesting combat and decent presentation can't hide the many flaws that are at the core of the experience.
