Voidigo, the new rogue-lite from Semiwork, is entering early access today. After spending a few hours with the early access content, I can say that this game is extremely promising
Sure there are plenty of roguelites on the market today, but Voidigo’s mechanical flow provides a fast-paced, dynamic rhythm. This is primarily due to the stomp mechanic, which allows you to jump on an enemy’s head and stun them for a brief moment. You can jump over bullets, land on an enemy, and finish them off with your weapon of choice.
The arsenal of weapons ranges from standard revolvers like the Begunner to more flashy and powerful weapons like The Invader, which shoots giant rays of green lasers that decimate foes. Each run is defined by the weapons found on the map in tandem with the powerups you accrue.
Voidigo’s cache of weapons is filled with unique and interesting guns and melee weapons, each with its own animations, bullet styles, and attack patterns. Each gun suits a different type of play, and all playstyles are viable. I found myself trying out new weapons every run and finding a use for each one, even if it didn’t fit my preferred playstyle.
Powerups can be found both in dungeons and in between levels, and they drastically change how you go about situations in the game. For instance, you might pick up a hot pepper, which attaches to your back in a similar visual indication to Risk of Rain 2. The Hot Pepper gives all of your melee attacks fire damage.
Powerups come in all shapes and sizes; maybe you don’t use melee weapons so you choose a little ghost that spooks you into shooting your weapon faster. Each powerup helps further define your build; making these choices have weight and consequence to them.
Let’s talk about what a run actually consists of, though. You’ll load into the map, equipped with a beginner weapon of your choice, and from there, you need to activate multiple beacons throughout the map. Each time you activate a beacon, you’ll unlock another chunk of the life bar on the boss. You’ll need to activate every beacon on the map to actually kill the boss, which after doing a few beacons, will spawn and begin to hunt you.
The game then becomes a balance of avoiding the boss, finding powerups and gear, and hunting down the beacons.
What’s interesting, though, is at first, you’re avoiding the boss while you’re underpowered, but then as you being to build up, you start hunting the boss. It’s a really great cat and mouse game going on in the background of everything else happening on the map.
Once you kill; the boss, you’ll move on to the next area, but not before making a quick pitstop in the anti void to rest up for a moment. Here is where you can trade powerups for extra health, trade health for extra powerups, or even swap weapons for other items. It’s another pitstop filled with choice and can really help you out if a run isn’t going your way.
The art style of Voidigo is also beautiful, especially in motion. The pixel art characters move with a fluidity that is readable with all of the on-screen action. Enemies telegraph their actions with beautiful colors and highlights, and the boss designs are grotesque but somehow still fit the nice and serene setting of each environment currently offered.
The soundtrack is also a certified bop and is another piece of the puzzle that makes this game work so well. Each track will have you nodding along as your paint pure carnage across the map, stringing together combos and gunning down anything in your path.
Voidigo launched in early access, and I’m excited to keep digging into it as the game updates. If you’re a fan of rougelites, this is one you absolutely should not miss because Voidigo does not miss either.
