I’m a knight made from lightning and black metal. Perched on the parapet of an enormous gothic tower, I spy a dozen shambling undead within the valley under. I leap into the air above them, then plummet into the mob, exploding like a thunderclap, arcing electrical energy and shattered zombie bits in my wake. Sometimes it is cool when a videogame is only a massive dumb energy fantasy, and Voin—a first-person motion RPG simply launched into early entry—is precisely that, and seems like a strong first step on a year-long roadmap to a full launch.
As it stands in early entry, Voin is just about precisely what the launch trailer exhibits, no extra, no much less. You are a cool magic knight. There’s loads of nasty undead in a (very scenic) darkish fantasy kingdom. You exit, you kick asses, you get loot and ranges and also you do it once more throughout a number of non-linear, semi-open world maps. There’s some enjoyable aerial motion, some spectacular spells and expertise (I particularly just like the anime-as-hell ‘backwards slow-mo leap to plunging sword strike’ means), and a satisfying slow-mo dodge mechanic. It’s good, dumb enjoyable—simply do not anticipate a lot story on this preliminary early entry launch.
Weirdly, regardless of the good aesthetics (which shine by within the launch trailer), the sport seems like a low-fi, bitcrushed mess within the retailer screenshots. By default, the sport scales down its decision and closely reduces the color palette used, and whereas this look can work for some extra overtly retro stuff, I do not assume it fairly works right here—it hides loads of spectacular map design. Fortunately you may flip all of this off, and I like to recommend you achieve this, as you are lacking out on some nice vistas and detailed hyper-gothic structure. Both within the maps and in your hub fortress, the place you get to diegetically cleanse cursed objects utilizing an enormous magical bell in a lava-filled forge, and stage up by passing by a mirrored portal.
One factor I do hope for within the full model (or not less than later in early entry) is extra structured questing and objectives. Right now the sport gives some fairly environments and many enemies to hack up, however not a lot construction past kicking ass, hoarding loot and gaining energy. There’s some strong fight and spectacular environments right here, however not a lot connective tissue. Oddly, regardless of the heavy metallic visuals, the sport’s music is pretty understated too. Perhaps extra soundtrack is coming later, however I really feel this deserves a playlist of essentially the most doom-laden darkish fantasy metallic round.
While some early entry video games really feel virtually absolutely fashioned on day one, Voin feels extra like a utilitarian basis for issues to come back. An entertaining and great-looking one at that, with a 12 months of further growth already deliberate out for a late 2025 last launch, however maybe not value leaping on instantly until the black metallic album aesthetics actually converse to you. But if that is sufficient for you, Voin is out now in Steam early entry for £15.07/$17.99, with a ten% launch low cost that’ll be working till Christmas.
