Indie games have a knack for taking the very best of the gaming genre and condensing them into bite-sized adventures that feel mesmerizing from start to end. Voyage, developed by Venturous is no different. Taking just under an hour and thirty minutes to complete, Voyage presents the player with a stunningly hand-drawn world complete with a relaxing atmosphere and easy-to-learn puzzle and side-scrolling mechanics.
Gameplay & Story
Voyage is an easy game to get a handle on. Movement and gameplay mechanics are very simple and for a game that aims for a more atmospheric gameplay experience, this plays to the game’s benefit. That being said, puzzles can feel repetitive at times and if it wasn’t for the beautiful art style and music I could easily see myself having put down this game before completion. It should be noted that I played the game in one sitting in single-player as opposed to the game’s offered co-op experience. It’s fair to say that my complaints with the puzzle design might be different if experienced them with another player. While the AI companion certainly isn’t poor in its design there were a number of sections where I found myself split off from them and waiting for them to catch up to complete a simple task. However, it is worth noting as I mentioned earlier that the gameplay isn’t the main draw of Voyage. Voyage’s story is an interesting one opting to be completely wordless and certainly leaves a lot open to the player’s interpretation. Having completed the game I adored this choice upon completion as it made a lot of sense when shown the whole context of the events in question. It’s not the narrative of the year but it definitely does what it needs to.
Art Style
The art style is the main selling point of Voyage for me. Its beautiful hand-painted environments combined with its cute NPC and character designs had me in awe as I moved from each stage to the next. You can really see the care and passion that has been put into each detail of this game and it’s all the better for it. From the dark tunnels to large open green fields, every section feels unique and inspired which kept me interested all the way throughout.
Music & Sound
The music and sound design of Voyage, composed by Calum Bowen (Snipperclips, Pikuniku, Lovely Planet) was an absolute joy to experience while travelling to each location. Everything from the faintest audio queue to the musical themes is packed full of rich ambience which when combined with the wordless storytelling of Voyage help to point the player in certain narrative directions.
In Conclusion
In conclusion, Voyage offers up some of the most beautiful and relaxing side-scrolling content I’ve experienced in recent memory. Some elements of the gameplay can feel repetitive at times but it certainly isn’t egregious enough to detract from the overall fantastic experience I had with this title.
Voyage is currently available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Steam and itch.io.
Voyage (Xbox): Indie games have a knack for taking the very best of the gaming genre and condensing them into bite-sized adventures that feel mesmerizing from start to end. Voyage, developed by Venturous is no different. Taking just under an hour and thirty minutes to complete, Voyage presents the player with a stunning hand-drawn world complete with a relaxing atmosphere and easy-to-learn puzzle and side-scrolling mechanics. – odhranjohnson
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Reviewed on: Xbox
Developer: Venturous
Publisher: Ratalaika Games S.L.