Post Void

Post Void is a trippy, surreal, fast-paced FPS with pixelated graphics, consisting of 11 very short levels - so a successful run would take up to 10 mins. The levels are randomly generated but some instances of the levels seem near identical. In the early levels, it's usually sequences of corridors with slight deviations where you tap strafe to sidestep into it. Occasionally there are rooms, but even then, you usually just run forward.

Your health depletes over time which forces you to keep moving and look for kills which replenish your health. Being shot drains this further though, and touching enemies or getting hit slows you down. If you get shot by 2 enemies at once, you are in serious trouble which can occur early due to the randomised elements, but happens a lot in later levels where it throws more enemies at you. It's a roguelike, so death forces you to restart the ENTIRE game. You can skip enemies if you just keep speeding forward. However there is always a point where you need those kills to top up the health/time, and just missing the shot is the difference between continuing and losing all your progress.

You can slide which makes you move faster and allows you to dodge some bullets. You can jump which is rarely used in early levels, but later levels see you jumping up and falling down elevation. The early level designs work because of the predictability and clarity, but later when it throws loads of enemies at you, there's more explosions, enemies are warping your vision, then you have to jump and make sharper turns; it becomes difficult to see the way forward. When you only have a small amount of time to make progress, this is a complete killer. It's also hard to get used to new enemies since if you die, it's back to level 1.

Enemies that warp the colours when hit, or white-wash the screen seem unfair when you don't get much visibility on these enemies. They are small, can jump out of crevices, or the change in elevation means your line of sight is obscured anyway. In these levels, there's some doors that you have to shoot to open but some can be there just to misdirect you. Again, the doors will block your line of sight, and opening a door to find a few enemies at point-blank range is also unfair.

Despite the brevity of the levels, I struggled to get past the first level for a long time. My shortest runs are when I moved into the first room, touched an enemy, got shot by 2, couldn't really move - and died. The longest runs are when the enemies appear in the corridors so you don't need to move your aim. Sometimes if there are enemies behind each other, you can get an easy double kill. Enemy placement can be predictable so sometimes I could turn a corner and shoot for quick kills.

At the end of the level, you choose a power-up from a random selection of 3. There's a few different weapons like knife, shotgun, Uzi, then perks like extra health, reload speed, clip size and more.

It may use the same gameplay element of pointing and clicking, but I'm not fully convinced being good at FPS games will mean you are good at this. There's no hiding behind cover, picking up powerups in the levels, switching weapons, throwing grenades. It's just pure run-and-gun. I watched some speed-runs and they tend not to move their mouse - just strafe, and often relied on the knife. I saw some comments say that the game is based on skill and not luck; you just need the Uzi, rebounding bullets, and a few health upgrades. In other words, it's down to luck because you might not be offered these and in the order you want.

The dumbest thing is that the game is tied to the framerate. Although it is capped at 60fps, so should provide a steady difficulty; the game is far easier when it is running slow, so you can cheat by capping it lower with the NVIDIA Control panel. 35fps gave a decent pace and better visibility to the action on-screen.

The music soon gets tiresome since you just listen to the same track over and over.

The fast-paced nature and psychedelic visuals could draw some comparisons to Hotline Miami but it's a different genre. The concept of the game is good, but it seems unfair and you can get screwed over by a random element like an unclear turn, or ganged up on by multiple enemies with no warning. The game seems to have its fans but it's not for everyone.

death grips.

Post Void is a surreal trip of a game. It presents these very surreal pixel art, acid trip visuals, and everything looks like a psychedelic representation of something (even you health is presented as white liquid inside a skull jar that you carry in the left hand).

Its a FPS with roguelite elements. The 11 levels are procedural generated, but each keeps a couple of rules, like the enemies that can spawn. You get to pick a powerup after each beaten level, out of a small pool of available ones.

This game is weak as a roguelite, because of the small powerup pool, which doesnt really add up to create a big diversity of builds. Thats not the focus of the game at all.

What the game is great at is presenting adrenaline fueled gameplay. You get a very short time to beat each level, as you health will always be depleting with each second. You can get a bit more time with each enemy you kill, and as such the game presents this really enjoyable balance between making you play carefully to not get hit by enemies (which can be around every corner), and rushing forward because of the lack of time. You are encourage to go for headshots because its a one hit kill for all enemies, and the small clips of each weapons also reenforce this.

The soundtrack is great, it features this really upbeat and intense electronic beats and noise guitars, that just propel to go as fast as you can. I think there is only one track, but given how short and one note the game, its more than enough.

A sucessful run can make you beat it in 10 minutes, but due to its challenging nature the time to beat it really varies from person to person. Its a lot of fun and offers a very unique atmosphere. Definitly a good recommendation for people who enjoy weird games.