Full Void, a narrative platforming puzzle game from London indie studio OutOfTheBit Ltd, wears its love of cinematic platformer classics on its sleeve. Bringing along core gameplay ideas from early entries in the genre, it mixes in some modern influences and introduces a few new ideas of its own.
You play as a hoody-up teen on the run, lugging a backpack with a computer in it as you trek through desolate cityscapes in knee-patched jeans. You are hunted by evil robot monsters, tracking you down with their menacing stop-light eyes and scuttling about on spidery legs. As atmospheric as it is, quite why this is happening takes a while to become clear. Nonetheless, the threat of your pursuers feels real and lends significance to the companionship of a small robot helper you encounter later in the game. Flashback cutscenes suggest this robot was developed by your mother before things went bad, bringing a satisfying element of vengeance to the story.
The main gameplay influence is clearly 1991’s Another World from Delphine Software. Full Void’s very first scene is a clear and direct homage that ’90s gamers will love – a close replica of Another World’s opening moments, when Lester stumbles onto the scene and must escape a pursuing black beast. Just like that older game, Full Void’s characters move on a grid, allowing detailed, lifelike animations to play out between each step, at the expense of responsiveness of controls. This gives a sense of rhythm and structure to the gameplay that suits both the non-stop jeopardy of some segments and the logical thinking needed to navigate others. The game also borrows the trial-and-error gameplay of learning how to pass different scenes by failing at them first, then repeating until you can pull off the required manoeuvres. Thankfully, checkpoint spacing is more modern, which is one factor that keeps the playtime down to two or three hours, but makes it much more fun.
Another World’s influences continue in other ways: sections navigating tight crawl spaces, incidental cutaways to show close-up actions, and the aid of a sympathetic turncoat who can match the enemy in ways you can’t. However, it also becomes reminiscent of Inside as its story progresses into strange laboratories and brief stealth segments. Meanwhile, Full Void’s biggest distinguishing gameplay feature comes in its hacking sections. Plugging your computer into certain terminals throughout the game allows you to control elements of the environment or your robot friend. Entering a series of commands and hitting play to see things move is a lot of fun, and makes great use of the game’s inherent grid structure by overlaying a green matrix to navigate by.
With such a tight run time, Full Void’s ideas don’t have time to wear thin, but neither do they have chance to develop much depth. As a modern game, it’s far more player-friendly than Another World, its main inspiration, and looks and sounds fantastic. It also brings fresh ideas to the table, rather than simply retreading the old for the sake of nostalgia. However, it lacks a compelling narrative arc, which could have made it feel truly cinematic.
