Void Stranger (2023)

Void Stranger is a Sokoban game. You push objects around on a grid to solve puzzles and progress to the next room. You keep doing this until you finish the game. And That's it.

Except it's not. If you wish to play this for yourself or are curious, I highly recommend you don't read any further. If you know System Erasure and have played ZeroRanger, you already know there's obviously a bit more to it, or rather, a whole lot more to it. From the moment you open the game to the moment of your inevitable reset, it's made very clear that there's quite alot more than meets the eye. (Un)fortunately, much to the game's strength and biggest weakness, Void Stranger can be incredibly vague about this. On your first playthrough towards "completing" the game, you'll be presented with a significant amount of stuff that will not be explained, though with enough experimenting you could potentially figure out what these things do. But without the knowledge on why these things are used like this and how they could be helpful(or not), it could severely sidetrack you. Depending on the person playing, this could be good or really bad. The game highly relies on your perseverance to keep going and is not afraid to make things convoluted. Really, I think you have to be a little crazy to tackle this game.

Void Stranger has a ton to unpack and is built upon layers and layers of secrets that will really make your brain frown. The game will do it's absolute best to tell you as little as possible beyond its numerous and incredibly vague hints and as a result, you're going to spend a good amount of time with this game not just trying to figure stuff out, but also resetting playthroughs and going through the same rooms again to experiment or try something out. However, even this can be circumvented once you really dig deep enough and figure out just how much freedom you really have with a little bit of thinking outside the box... If I had to give some advice to a new player, is that your main focus should be to complete your first playthrough without worrying about any of the game's secrets. If you're given the opportunity to eat the fruit, then take it, and I mean it. If throughout your first playthrough you haven't figured out what the murals mean, then I suggest giving priority to figuring out the very first mural you're presented with, as this will open up alot for you. Also, be prepared to solve some Picross puzzles as well. Past that, if you're willing to play this game but aren't keen on the amount of time it would take to figure things out past the first playthrough, there's some pretty good spoiler-free guides on Steam and a complete playthrough of it by "Lunar Plexus" on youtube that covers just about everything. However, whether you decide to figure it out yourself or use a guide, at the end of the day this really is just a Sokoban game. No matter what your goal is, you're going to be pushing objects around quite alot. And I mean ALOT. So, I wish you good luck, Stranger.

Anyway I've definitely said way too much and highly recommend checking this out for yourself, whether it be playing it or watching it on youtube. I really, really liked this game. This isn't even a review really, this is just me gushing about a neat little game. I lost count how many times I was left wide eyed at the story's developments, its genre shifts, the secrets I ran into, and especially the "endings". Definitely stop reading here by the way. The "Void" ending, the first ending you're likely to get, sets the tone insanely well and really solidified my motivation to keep going. The "Carcass" ending, which I found completely on accident, was honestly terrifying and gave me goosebumps. The other endings are quite good too, but these two endings in particular are my favorite.

If you like Sokoban games, I recommend giving it a try!

Listen. Don't play this. UNLESS! You feel a strong conviction. An urge to solve. BLOCK PUZZLES. The true appeal of this game isn't the block puzzles, but despite that, almost all of your time will be spent block puzzling. You've been warned!

Eventually, use the Steam forums to make progress. Unless you like ARGs.

Despite all that, I ultimately had a great time for much of my playtime. It's a unique game, which I liked.