Void Slayer is a single-player arena-shooter that has all the looks of a Technical Demo, but with the settings turned all the way up to EPIC. Remember those Tech Demos that showed off the amazing graphics and what your GPU can do, only to be blown away by a highly detailed animated world that looks great, but you never get to play around in it?

Void Slayer’s fast-paced gameplay and simple premise was published by Madmind Studio and developed by Madmind Studio: After hours. Publishers Madmind Studio is well known for the Succubus, Agony and Tormentor, but the studio is made up of many veteran game developers who have worked on numerous Triple-A games, such as The Division, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2, and Witcher 3.

First off, Void Slayer looks amazing, but just looking good is not all that this game offers. Players who seek a challenge definitely have a place here, but a part of that challenge is not knowing what is going on. The game lacks a tutorial and only drops subtle hints, but its simple premise of surviving as long as you can is the best way to describe your goal, and Void Slayer brings an interesting way of doing so.

While battling your enemies may seem simple at the start, with the player just running and gunning with attacks from both hands, each hit taken diminishes your fighting space and jumping and dashing to avoid enemies won’t be the only way to survive. Acquiring gems can upgrade attacks, but they can also restore spaces that may have been lost previously by filling the fountain in the middle.

As far as the game’s story goes, some nameless strips you of your mortality and cast your soul into the void, but by sheer will, you battle a variety of monsters to prevent yourself from falling into the void. As such, the story may not be as compelling, but the game’s challenging difficulty more than makes up for the lack of story, and the keyboard and mouse controls will come naturally for most FPS gamers.

Overall, Void Slayer is a fun game for gamers that strive for a challenge. The game’s unique gameplay is a change for many arena shooters and the amazing graphics make Void Slayer stand out visually. The lack of a tutorial throws players in the deep end, and with only one arena to battle on, replayability comes down to how determined you are to beat your old score, otherwise, it’s a great title to quickly jump in and pass some time.

Written by: Simon Hayward