Voltage High Society Review Summary

Unique art style and immersive atmosphere reward exploration, but janky combat, camera issues, and poor performance hold it back.

Unique visual art style: The game's aesthetics are repeatedly described as attractive, captivating, stylish, crunchy, and low-poly, often evoking nostalgic PS1 or retro cyberpunk vibes. Clusters 5, 6, 7, 22, 24, 28, 45, 72, 78, 92, 98, 118, 130, 148, 167, 170, 176, 188 are cited.

Atmosphere is immersive and unique: The game's gritty, stylish, and often terrifying atmosphere is widely praised as spectacular and engaging, with a unique blend of cyberpunk, horror, and grim elements that fully immerses players. Clusters 2, 9, 10, 33, 39, 78, 82, 86, 88, 94, 128, 137, 143, 153, 160 contribute to this consensus.

Rewarding exploration and level design: Reviewers consistently highlight the rewarding exploration, complex intertwined map, vertical level design, and shortcuts that create a strong sense of discovery. Clusters 3, 13, 27, 32, 40, 42, 43, 76, 120, 189 convey this well.

Stylish and unique world design: The world is often described as having a unique, stylish, and appealing aesthetic, combining cyberpunk, retro, and low-poly elements in an engaging way. Clusters 14, 20, 48, 78, 92, 99, 118, 130, 148, 160, 170, 188 are referenced.

Fun and satisfying combat mechanics: The combat is repeatedly called fun, enjoyable, and impactful, with specific praise for punch meters, charge attacks, and tactile feedback. Clusters 1, 56, 121, 125, 138, 141, 165, 173 are highlighted.

Combat is janky and unpolished: Numerous players report that combat feels rough, sloppy, janky, and unresponsive, with issues like teleporting attacks, broken hitboxes, ineffective blocking, and a lack of variety. The combat system is seen as clunky and unenjoyable, often devolving into random mashing.

Camera and movement issues: The camera is often choppy, feeling like 40 FPS even at higher framerates, with stuttering and sensitivity disparity between axes. Movement is described as stiff, slippery, or bouncy, with poor platforming mechanics, unintended sliding, and mantling problems.

Poor performance and technical bugs: Players report low FPS even on low settings, game freezes (e.g., when shooting Mauser), stuttering, and various game-breaking bugs like softlocks, progression blocks, and progress resets. The game feels unfinished and rough around the edges.

Map is confusing and unclear: Players consistently find the map layout confusing, unplayable, and impossible to navigate, noting unclear sectors and a lack of player position indication. This makes exploration aimless and frustrating, especially for those who get lost easily.

Game is unfinished and short: Reviewers highlight that the game feels incomplete, very short (under an hour), and ends abruptly with no final boss or update for over a year. It is described as a demo, early access, or low-effort product.

Metroidvania-style exploration focused design: The game's world is built around metroidvania-style exploration with an interconnected map, high verticality, and sequence breaking. Reviewers emphasize exploration as a core pillar of the experience.

Melee-only close-quarters combat: Combat is exclusively melee and close-ranged, with players using fists and power-ups like tasers. There are no firearms or ranged weapons, and enemies can block attacks, requiring strategy.

Soulslike death and upgrade mechanics: The game incorporates soulslike elements such as dropping scrap or coins upon death, which can be retrieved. Upgrades are tied to resources like scrap, bolts, and battery energy, adding RPG depth.

First-person metroidvania with horror: The game is frequently described as a first-person metroidvania that incorporates horror elements, body horror, and cyberpunk aesthetics. This unique genre blend is a defining characteristic noted by many reviewers.

Cyberpunk and rusty retro aesthetic: The visual style is described as retro futuristic cyberpunk with a rusty, low-poly, and sometimes surreal scuffed look. This aesthetic contributes to the game's unique atmosphere.

Camera stutter or lag: Players report the camera feels choppy, around 40 fps, or stutters/lags despite high frame rates. This affects smooth gameplay and is mentioned across multiple clusters.

Performance on lower hardware: The game runs poorly on older hardware like an i5-2400 and GT 1030, as well as on Steam Deck. This indicates optimization issues for lower-end systems.

Specific area performance issues: Performance problems occur in campsite, digsite, and surrounding areas until the haunted place. These locations may have optimization problems.

Freeze when shooting Mauser: The game freezes when shooting the Mauser weapon, causing disruption during gameplay. This is a specific bug.

Performance fix enabled play: A performance fix allowed one player to play the game, suggesting that optimization patches have been effective for some users.

Not Recommended in Current State: Multiple reviewers advise against buying the game in its current early access state, suggesting waiting for a more complete version or full release.

Recommended for Fans of Weird Surreal Games: Several reviewers target fans of weird, surreal, and esoteric games similar to Golden Light, Post Void, Eraserhead, or Tetsuo the Iron Man.

Recommended to Support Developers: Multiple reviewers encourage buying the game to support the developers, citing their responsiveness, effort, and community engagement as rare and valuable.

Low Price Makes It a Safe Purchase: Several reviewers note that the game's low price makes it a worthwhile and safe purchase even in early access.

Recommended for Metroidvania and Horror Fans: Several reviewers explicitly recommend the game to fans of Metroidvania and first-person horror genres, highlighting its appeal to these specific audiences.

Game completion: 1.5h.

Story completion: 1.5h.

The game offers a fun first hour but suffers from repetitive combat and progression frustrations; it later re-engages players after several hours through deeper systems or boss encounters.

Reported time to anchor: 1h.

Friction: Repetitive and boring mob combat; Loss of actual progression on quit; Risk of losing all currency due to souls-like death mechanics; Lack of tactical depth in general combat.

Unlock drivers: Boss battle encounters that break monotony; New skills and equipment from progression; Retaining upgrades after quitting.

Surrealist Explorer: Exploring trippy levels, accepting jank for the experience, engaging with weird mechanics. Motivation: Unique surreal atmosphere and artistic vision. Stance: buy.

Patient Backer: Cautious trial, waiting for bug fixes and improvements, monitoring updates. Motivation: Potential of the game and supporting indie developers. Stance: sale.

Optimization improvements desired: Players hope the developers will continue to optimize and refine the game to improve performance and smoothness.