Review by Jon Donnis
From Ratalaika Games and Venturous comes a new side scrolling adventure game in Voyage.
You play as two survivors on an unknown planet, with beautiful hand drawn graphics, you must keep moving forward and try to overcome whatever obstacles stand in your way so you can find your way home as well as understand about the world you are on.
Played best as a co-op game, this can also be played solo, whereby you can switch between characters where needed. A bit like "Another Sight" but your characters tend to stay much closer together.
Main gameplay involves pushing and pulling things, using each character to help the other reach places, activating "Statue Scenes" and so on. Communication is basic between the two characters, and you can switch between characters at will. If playing solo, the character you are not controlling will generally just follow you, so you may need to tell them to stay put, or to follow. You can even hug each other which is nice.
The game plays in one long continuous adventure, chapters/levels are mainly separated by the aesthetics of the scenes you are in, for example, sunlit ruins, windy grasslands, sandstorm filled desserts, swamps, misty forests, mossy forests, caves, underwater, a spaceship etc.
The game itself is more about the narrative than solving puzzles, so it is more of an experience, than something you need to think too hard about. So pretty much anyone can play this. As mentioned, the communication between the characters is basic, and in general there are no voices, no text dialog, just soothing music to listen to as you play.
The Good
A very relaxing experience, and although you will finish the game pretty quickly (a few hours), you will want to play it again just so you can pay closer attention to certain details.
The Bad
If you want more of a puzzle platform type game, then you will be disappointed.
Overall
Voyage is a pretty cool little game, a fun experience, excellent soundtrack that does pull you in, and quite an emotional experience as a whole, which is quite the feat considering the lack of dialog. A wonderful story told in a beautiful way.
I score Voyage a strong 8/10
Out now on Nintendo Switch
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