It has been a long time since I have played a game that was so conceptually and artistically beautiful, but was horribly bogged down with terrible decisions for difficulty. Which is what makes The Void a major disappointment. There it was with a perfect idea and theme, but it was destined to be a protagonist to a tragedy in gaming.

Concept-
The Void's main game-play arc is that your health, ability to interact, and fight is totally centered on the acquisition of Color. The world of The Void is a bleak, black and white colored world in which the only traces of Color liter the landscape. By collecting Color and filtering it through your body, you create a usable form of Color for combat and interaction. Color still in filtration is your health. This creates an interesting "actions have consequences" theme when all you do may have you walking a narrow path between life and death. Your character has the ability to filter Color through the various Hearts he collects. Each Heart filters a specific Color. Each Color has a specific purpose. Gold allows for a decrease in Color required when giving gifts. Blue allows for faster movement. Combat, along with spells and such, are done by drawing over enemies or drawing symbols. An example for a symbol is a circle of green Color creates a shield. If you have played the game Arx Fatalis...you get the idea. In order to acquire addition Color, the character needs to sacrifice Color in order to grow a tree that will, in turn, grant him color every cycle. The more you give the tree, the more it gives back to you.

Characters that you interact with are the Sisters and the Brothers. Sisters are the caretakers of The Void, but are dying off due to the lack of Color remaining in the void. Brothers are the Voids guardians who each have a assigned Sister to watch over. While the Sisters look beautiful, the Brothers are morbid creatures. For example, the Brother Whaler is a massive human like form with his head sown onto his back. The two groups make up the two factions in the game you can join. Either do the Brothers bidding as their apprentice, or take the fight to the Brothers by joining the Sisters who have come to hate their morbid kin. To improve the condition of the Sisters, the main character has to gift them the correct Color in order for them to grow in power. The stronger they become, the better the gift they give you, and their environment seems to change from dark gray...to a shinier gray...I was disappointed by that...

the Good-

My God is this game beautiful. There is a bizarre sense of fascination that comes with turning a gray world into several shades of blues, greens, and reds when you interact with the environment. Also, the introduction of Colors creates a nice contrast that really makes the game feel different whenever you enter a garden you created. Think Sin City and how to contrasted colors...just this one focuses on beauty more than Sin City...

The game mechanic is very nice. Considering I have to very mindful of my actions, the tension builds when you notice that the color from your body is running out and your character is dying. Emphasis on the importance of sacrifice is what carries the games theme very well and makes the game play a treasure.

The voice acting is okay, but the script is where the dialogue excels. A nice choice of words allow for the mythology behind the game to be brought into a better light.

The plot seems very good...the problems pretty much drove to uninstall the game...but from what I could gather, its good! You are a soul trapped in the purgatory state of the Void and must collect Color in order to reincarnate. Sisters and Brothers will either help you or hinder you. However, due to the sacrificial theme...I expect some sort of plot twist that will make the who reincarnate goal change. Just a guess so do not take my word for it.

the Bad...

I really did not want to get to this part, but I must. As for small annoyances, the graphics act wonky at times and the hair of one of the Sisters kept changing from having sides to not having sides. The game also does not really inform me on what I can do at times. On my first and second attempt to get a good start to the game, I never knew that I could visit the other Sisters until an internet Walk through told me that I could. This frustrated me because the first Sister implied that I could not leave the area! Yet, the walk-through is giving me contradictory info to the game, and the walk-through was right...

Perhaps the greatest flaw is the time limit the game has. The game is littered with linear events that occur during certain cycles. Let me explain cycles since I did not do that earlier. A cycle is the time that goes by when you are in the outer level of the Void. The outer level of the Void is how you navigate to the different worlds inhabited by the Sisters. The time only ticks down when you are in the outer void world. If you are constantly moving without entering a world, the cycle will end it a short 99 seconds! When you character moves from world to world, it takes close to 3 to 5 seconds. The time limit frustrates me for the following reasons.

1. It forces the game into a frantic mode of tension that prevents me from enjoying the world of the game. The world of The Void is truly alien, and I would like to enjoy it without being really paranoid about my choices. Since it costs Color to move from world to world, the time limit and color cost makes the trips very frustrating for someone like me...I play games to rid myself of stress, not be more stressed by balancing out the very energies that keep my character alive WHILE trying to not run into an event in which a Brother will smash me! Worse, that possible event in the future might lead you fighting something when you have hardly any color...enjoy reloading a save way back in the past.

2. The event triggers will be totally alien to you until they happen. While I was waiting for Color to grow and for Color to filter through my body (which only happens in the outer Void!!). The Brothers made their first appearance when I was still a very scrawny weakling. It takes about 8 minutes for them to show up (if you do not move and let the clock run down). Also, since all the events are unpredictable during the first play-though...save a lot!!!

3. Linearity...the game has a very nice world that one would love to go about freely, but are anchored down by an arbitrary time limit. Imagine if Fallout 3 had a Behemoth randomly show up every 10 minutes that ordered you to drop what you are doing in order to accomplish the main quest...and since Fallout 3 and The Void share a non-continuation of the game when the plot is over....the game would fall apart. This is the case with The Void along with other games like Dead Rising and Zelda: Majora's Mask.

Another major flaw is the game demanding that you draw the symbols in a perfect fashion. When growing a garden during my first playthrough attempt, I failed to grow 5 out of the 8 beginning trees due to the game considering a part of my symbol was a tad bit smaller than the other. Second attempt through, I got all the trees perfect, but ran out of color far to often and had to constantly go back to the garden and waste time. On my third playthough, i decided to mix giving a acceptable amount of Color, while drawing really fast (longer it takes you to draw the more color is spent). Well, evidently the game was viciously unforgiving when the symbol resembling a simple fish (you know...the loopy looking fish kids draw when lazy) had a tail portion that was just to small...worse is when it was acceptable length, but at a tilt and the game punished me for it...I understand if I need to balance speed and expenditure, but cut me some slack since I am not in the mood to go to major leaps to make sure the symbol is perfectly level!

I have already tried to get past the first portions 3 times without major flaws. First time failed because I starved to death due to the lack of Color. Second ended when the Brothers showed up and I was not prepared, or finished, with the beginning objectives.Third ended with me getting so fed up with the demands for perfect drawings that I uninstalled the game.

Final Thoughts: Why did this game have to be so picky!?!?!

Score: 6/10