Voidborn Review Summary

Impressive visuals and art style blend genres well, but limited variety, heavy Ultrakill influence, and bugs hold it back.

Stunning visual aesthetics: The visuals are a standout feature, described as gorgeous, beautiful, and distinct, with particular praise for environments and art style.

Appealing art style: The game's art style is consistently praised as cool, unique, and stylish, with retro graphics adding to its aesthetic appeal.

Successful genre blend: Players consistently praise the game as a successful blend of Ultrakill, Hades, and Dark Souls elements, creating a cool and unique experience.

Overall fun experience: Overall, the game is described as fun and good, with players enjoying their experience thoroughly.

Enjoyable weapon variety: Weapons are fun to use, with good variety and impactful feel, contributing to the gameplay satisfaction.

Limited weapons and enemy variety: The game lacks variety in weapons, upgrades, enemies, and builds. With only a few guns and similar enemies, runs feel samey and limit strategic options.

Heavily derivative of Ultrakill: Many players feel the game copies Ultrakill's mechanics, weapons, and enemies without adding unique charm or identity, making it feel like a bootleg or asset flip.

Roguelite mechanics feel shallow: The roguelite elements are criticized as weak and tacked on, leading to repetitive gameplay and insufficient content variety to justify the format.

Persistent bugs hinder gameplay: Various bugs persist, including a known unfixed gun jam issue, enemies spawning in walls, and other glitches that hinder gameplay enjoyment.

Final boss difficulty spike: The final boss is heavily unbalanced, with a high difficulty spike and punishing combos that feel designed for a different movement system, contrasting with earlier easy bosses.

Mix of Ultrakill, Hades, Dark Souls: Players consistently describe the game as a fusion of Ultrakill's fast combat, Hades' roguelite progression, and Dark Souls' dark fantasy atmosphere, calling it a roguelite Ultrakill clone with a Dark Souls-like setting.

First-person roguelite shooter: The game is widely recognized as a first-person roguelite shooter with permadeath, run-based progression, and loss of progress upon death, fitting into the roguelite genre.

Mixed enemy variety and AI issues: Some praise enemy variety, but others note limited scope, poor readability in later phases, repetitive enemy types across runs, and AI pathfinding issues that need tuning.

Challenging and diverse bosses: Boss fights are a highlight, described as fast, diverse, visually appealing, and challenging, but the last boss has a high difficulty spike, and there are few boss encounters overall, favoring DPS output.

Combat reminiscent of Ultrakill: The combat and movement are directly compared to Ultrakill, featuring similar dash, slide, and parry mechanics, though some note the movement feels slightly easier and more forgiving than the inspiration.

Performance is smooth and great: Feedback confirms smooth and great performance on various computers, reinforcing overall optimization.

Runs well on low-end: Multiple players mention the game runs smoothly even on low-end hardware, indicating good optimization.

Low poly visuals praised: The Unreal Engine 4 low poly visual style is noted as a positive aspect, likely contributing to performance.

Good value and recommended: Many reviews consider the game a worthwhile purchase, with some calling it a must-play or giving a 10/10 rating. They highlight good value and general satisfaction.

Strong Ultrakill comparison: The game is frequently compared to Ultrakill. Reviews suggest it appeals strongly to Ultrakill fans or those who enjoy movement-based shooters, and it is especially recommended for that audience.

Avoid in current state: Some reviewers advise against buying the game in its current state, citing needed improvements or lack of recommendation. A few explicitly say do not bother or that they refunded.

Critical mouse bug reported: Several reviews mention a game-breaking bug, specifically a mouse issue, that makes the game unplayable or not worth buying even at a discount until fixed.

Wait for future updates: Several reviewers recommend waiting: either for the game to leave early access, for a future update, or to check back in a few months to two years. They suggest it has potential but is not ready yet.

Story completion: 5.0h.

Session length: 1.0h.

The game begins slowly, especially before upgrades, but becomes more engaging as players reach new areas and unlock weapon/amulet upgrades. Some players find it fun immediately or never enjoyable, creating a divided experience.

Friction: slow start; repetitive gameplay; forced platforming section; limited enemy variety; lack of meaningful meta progression.

Unlock drivers: reaching new areas; upgrading weapons; upgrading amulets.

Action FPS Enthusiast: Aggressive, movement-focused, stylish kills with constant adaptation to unique enemy and item combinations. Motivation: Fast-paced, stylized combat similar to ULTRAKILL. Stance: buy.

Roguelite Purist: Strategic, values meaningful meta-progression and variety between runs, dislikes repetitive upgrades and static playstyles. Motivation: Meaningful progression and varied builds to encourage adapting playstyle over multiple runs. Stance: no buy.

Exploration Seeker: Thorough, enjoys exploring off the beaten path to find hidden rewards and appreciate world-building. Motivation: Exploration and atmosphere within shooter gameplay. Stance: buy.

Game feels unfinished: Multiple reviewers criticize the game for feeling like an early access title, citing unfinished content, frequent bugs, and lack of polish. Specific complaints include missing features, a refund due to an unfixed bug, and an overall sense that the game is not yet a full release.

Lengthy runs, moderate content: Reviews consistently note that run lengths can vary from 1 to 3 hours, with total game content estimated at 2 to 5 hours. This is seen as a mix of boon and drawback, offering substantial playtime per session but potentially limited overall content.

Deep weapon upgrade system: The game uses gems to unlock and upgrade weapons, with each weapon having two upgrades (one altering the weapon, one adding ricochet). The pistol ricochet can auto-headshot, and meta-progression includes amulets and various stat upgrades for health, damage, and speed.

Now at version 1.0: Several reviewers mention acquiring or testing the game at version 1.0 or 1.03, indicating a recent official release. This contrasts with the early access complaints, suggesting the game may have transitioned to full release but still has issues.

Developer support limited: A reviewer points out that the developer has moved on to a new game and has not provided major updates in some time. This raises concerns about ongoing support and bug fixes for current players.