Today’s title is going to be a rather interesting one. People who are fond of Skylanders will have a fun rump with this title developed by the same folk who worked in the series. This is Voidling Bound, a game in which you are in charge of a farm of exotic monsters that will clean up the world of an alien mutagen through shooting mechanics. The game is a shooter in which you breed monsters, restore peace to various worlds, and then proceed to get better stats and mutations.
This might be a bit short compared to my other reviews because when you come down to it, whether or not you like Voidling Bound hinges on how much you like its simplistic gameplay loop. There’s really not much else that I can elaborate on since the story is nothing to write home about and the complexity is… Well, we’ll get there. So, without further ado, let’s get this started.
The Story of Voidling Bound
So, let’s get the story (what little there is of it) out of the way. In Voidling Bound you assume the role of a nameless ranger tasked with controlling these creatures called Voidlings. They are the only creatures able to kill the aliens that essentially wiped out most of humanity and have been spreading across multiple planets. Unfortunately, these creatures kind of don’t have the capability to think for themselves so they have to rely on you to guide them through the contamination and destroy the polluted areas while fighting off any and all opposition that gets in your way.
As you cleanse planets, you will go through several other worlds and meet other enemy factions that also will get in your way. But just as the enemy variety increases, so will the creatures at your disposal as well as the upgrades to your ship. It’s the bog standard RPG progression that you will find yourself coming back to frequently. Since creatures are pretty easy to level up, it’s easy to end up testing out a variety of creatures against the hostile forces.
The Bulk of Voidling Bound’s Gameplay
With the story out of the way, let’s focus on the real reason why you’d pick up Voidling Bound. That being the gameplay itself. As I’ve been pointing out, you have to use the creatures you find in the various planets to be able to stand up against the alien threat. Each of these creatures can evolve and gain different abilities, elemental attributes, and skill variations. You have to also level up these creatures, with each level providing points that can be distributed among several stats such as Vitality, Agility, and Strength.
The replayability from this game comes from discovering all the alternative forms and mutations you can create with these creatures and then sending them off to fight aliens. Some of these are more effective than others and some creatures can outright decimate hordes of aliens if given the right build. It’s pretty neat, especially when you get to near the end of the game where genetic splicing is introduced and you become able to fully customize your creatures. Suddenly, you become armed with creatures that can shoot shotgun-like pellets that do DoT damage or an AoE effect that is permanently active.
Every species also has a skill tree that needs to be invested into. All of the branches in it have several upgrades that range from your usual damage and range increase to passive buffs that improve their firing capabilities. Don’t worry if you think that this sounds labourious. The game provides with plenty of ways to get extra resources for leveling and mutating your creatures by doing the activities you usually do. You’ll find yourself exploring each of the creature upgrades out of curiosity and to further improve your best creatures rather than as a necessity.
Combat in Voidling Bound
So, now that we have prepared our creatures, we now have to see what awaits us in the perilous universe of Voidling Bound. The game plays as a third person shooter. You will encounter stages of several varieties ranging from exploration shenanigans where you’re rewarded for going off the beaten path or just go for a survival round where you fight off hordes of creatures, robots, and ancient beings. No matter the stage, every encounter will end with big boss-like enemies that need to be taken down in order to finish it.
Your creatures have access to 3 abilities and a melee attack. Each ability has a set elemental attribute which can be changed through splicing once you gain access to the feature. Every creature has a different type of “bullet.” Single-fire, shotgun-like, melee focused, homing pellets, all of the options are covered. The Primary and Secondary attack speak for themselves and can vary depending on the mutations. The Ultimate attack is available on a % Cooldown and will always be the same attribute as the primary element you chose for the creature.
While some creatures are better at exploration, others are better at handling the enemy threat quickly. This is important to note because some missions require you to speedrun through stages and some others face you off against gauntlets of enemies that will not stop until the timer reaches zero. It’s important to keep your creatures in tippy top shape and to constantly experiment with every alternative so that you can find a strategy that best suits you.
The Problems of Voidling Bound
As I mentioned before, Voidling Bound has a few problems that need to be ironed out with future updates. For one, the game doesn’t really have much going on in terms of its story if the first section wasn’t an obvious enough hint. While there is dialogue, it isn’t voiced and all of it is basically “Here’s the next thing you unlocked. Now, go play with it.” The narrative starts and stops with the premise and very little happens outside of the contents of the endgame.
I mentioned before that some of the creatures in this game are outright better than others but this point is driven home the moment you see creatures like the Glick and Nimiods which are absolutely incredible at exploration/enemy wave clearing. In fact, these were my go-to creatures that were used in abundance against bosses, especially with the Nimiod’s ability to hover, allowing it to bypass numerous threats. Maybe there’s further ways to cheese the game with the other creatures, but it’s hard to leave the comfort zone once you gain it.
This isn’t to mention how overly repetitive the game itself is. Voidling Bound has neat environments and cute creature designs. But they can only mask the overly repetitious gameplay loop for so long. Pick a mission, get new creatures, train them, repeat. It’s fun in short bursts, and very addictive at that. But when it comes to binge-playing? It can become a tad annoying. At the very least you can have some fun with the post game content but at that point, nearly every player will end up quitting and it becomes a bit of an acquired taste if you stay for it or not.
The Final Word
Overall, I liked my experience in Voidling Bound. The game can be fun and breeding/creating new creatures never lost its luster. It’s the lack of variety that ends up killing it for me and making me wish to play other games. However, I believe that if you play this game in short bursts, you’ll find yourself with a fun and addictive experience that can satiate your pallate while you are waiting for other content on your favorite games.
As I said, the creature designs are interesting, the gimmicks each creature has to offer are fun to play with, and the game is pretty fun for a simple romp. I will definitely boot this up every now and then to try out the Void Strikes mode and see how far I can get without losing my rewards. But for everyone else, if you like what you see, I’d suggest picking this game up and adding it to your collection.
