Void Organism has a really interesting central idea. You’re exploring a derelict spaceship, bouncing from wall to wall to discover its secrets. Sometimes it’s brilliant, but other times it can become a frustrating experience that tests your patience more than your fingers.
The controls here are pretty simple. You can swipe to push off in any direction, the harder you swipe, the further you’ll go. When you’re near a wall you can tap the screen to grab on. Swipe again and you’ll launch off. Rinse and repeat.
But then the game starts throwing in hazards. Gravity pipes have burst, creating swirling vortices that grab you and spit you out. There are bouncy plants too, that coat the wall and mean you can’t latch on.
Things get challenging pretty quickly, and it can lead to frustrations. The first few gravity wells you come across, you’ll have no trouble with. Then there’s a double well, and it’s highly likely you’ll find yourself bouncing around it, gritting your teeth with every second you spend there.
Because of the simplicity of the controls, there are times when you’ll get stuck in annoying loops, bouncing around from wall to wall with no chance of arresting your momentum. You just have to wait until your bouncing puts you somewhere you can actually do something.
There’s an intriguing story here that’s unlocked by little conversations at the start of every level. You can replay levels as well, trying to get the best grade by completing them within a move limit and in a certain time.
Void Organism is a game of two halves. It’s full of brilliant ideas, but sometimes those ideas get ahead of it and it becomes an annoying battle of attrition. When it works it’s amazing, but you’ll have to work through a lot of frustration if you want to see everything it has to offer.