It’s very rare nowadays for a game to just… start when you hit the start button. No matter what genre of game, you almost always get bombarded with an unceasing wave of introductory cutscenes and long-winded tutorials. It’s not that this is a bad thing, far from it with how complicated modern games tend to be, but it makes one pine for a simpler time. Imagine my surprise when Voyage starts exactly like this. You get a control layout on the screen and get thrown right into gameplay without a word of introduction.
Voyage, by developer Ratalaika Games together with Venturous, is a narrative adventure game about two astronauts stranded on a beautiful, mysterious alien planet, and they have to find a way off of this world. And I really do mean beautiful. There are many different environment types, from lush forests to cavern systems covered in the webs of giant spiders, and a beautiful hillside with billowing clouds and an ocean in the background. All of the game’s artwork is handmade, and if nothing else, the game has absolutely nailed it in the art department. There’s just so much detail placed into these environments. Alien creatures relax in the distance. Ghosts wearing mossy cloaks march forever towards an unseen destination, the landscape is littered with ruins of an ancient civilization long gone, depicting some form of a mysterious prophecy. The soundscape fits the general theme of traveling an alien world, with lots of ambient noises, mixed in with the occasional piano or more bombastic piece after you travel to a new area and get a great view of your surroundings.
Remember when I said that the game begins with a word of introduction? You don’t get a single word after that, either. From the moment you press start until the credits roll, the game unfolds without a single word of dialogue. Our two protagonists are a female woman with a purple ponytail and an elderly man with white hair and a thick beard, and that’s all that you ever learn about them. Nothing is told about how they got on the planet, and nothing is ever told about their motivation, they don’t even get names.
As for the gameplay, imagine the in-between segments of a Naughty Dog game, exploration, marveling at the scenery, mostly automated platforming, and simple puzzles, all the stuff you do when you’re not shooting people, but you never get to any form of combat in Voyage. There are alien creatures, but they’ll never attack you, they’re all either helpful or simply ignore you.
The game only has four actions, each mapped to one of the face buttons, Interact, Stay/Call, Swap Character, and Look; and even with just four actions, you barely ever use half of them. Look only exists as a glorified hint button, press it and a marker will appear over interactive objects, which is very helpful as it’s easy for switches to blend into the scenery. Swapping characters is basically only for personal preference, both protagonists have an identical set of abilities and there’s no advantage to using one over the other. The stay command is even more useless. There are never any puzzles that require our protagonists to separate, and many scenarios that require them to stay together, so why they even bothered to program it in is very confusing.
I played on the base PS4, though I somehow doubt that playing on a higher-end machine is necessary, this game can probably run on a potato. The game ran very well outside of very occasional framerate hiccups that you’ll likely not even notice. I also detected no major bugs or glitches, though I doubt this is the type of game to have many issues with those. The game is playable in co-op, but I played in single-player exclusively and had no issues with the partner AI. I think this game might be better as a single-player experience anyway given the focus on the artistry and the simplicity of the mechanics means that there’s not much for your AI companion to screw up.
I was definitely caught off guard when it came to the game’s length. Not that I really knew what to expect, but I didn’t expect to beat the game within one play session, seeing the ending and scoring the platinum trophy within the span of just over two hours. Almost all of the game’s trophies are directly tied to progression through the campaign, and the sole trophy that isn’t is so easy to get that you’ll likely grab it by accident. I’m not the sort of person to boil down a game’s worth to an exact amount of playtime, but if you do care about getting a lot of bang for your buck, know that this game’s $15 price tag might be a bit of a stretch. Maybe wait for a sale.
Voyage is a strange and beautiful game. There’s a ton of quality put into the art, the team at Venturous clearly invested a ton of effort into crafting this beautiful world, and I’m sure telling a narrative without a single word of spoken dialogue was very difficult, but I also wish they expended more effort into crafting a more compelling play experience as well. The actual game elements of this game are underbaked in comparison to the art. If there were emphasis placed on crafting more interesting puzzles or more interactive elements, then I think this would be a much better game. As is, the game is a great artistic experience, but it’s not a particularly great game.
Voyage launches August 12 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 (reviewed), Microsoft Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch, priced at $14.99 / €14.99; available now on Steam and Itch.io.
For more information, visit: https://www.ratalaikagames.com/games.php?id=voyage
For more information, visit: https://www.ratalaikagames.com/games.php?id=voyage
Related: Reviews by Devon Williams
"Videogames have been a massive part of my life since I was three. With a bottomless appreciation for games both modern and retro, I'm always happy to experience something new and wacky. I hope to become a writer someday, to craft wonderful worlds like the ones in my favorite videogames."
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