A Void Hope Reviews

Simplistic platformer with an enjoyable story. The main selling point is definitely the atmosphere, where the music hard carries. Worth the pickup

A narrative adventure this is not. This is a story outline with block pushing puzzles and occasional cutscenes about a couple that aren't fleshed out enough to be real characters. How do characters know where to go? Or what their objectives are? They just do. It's not well explained. Why is the main character needed or even suitable to be used to find a cure? She just is. How did the husband get infected? How does anyone get infected? Who knows. Where is this child the entire time all of this is going on? It's not like this game does environmental story telling. The setting doesn't help tell the story because beyond being dark the world continues on despite whatever mysterious illness the main couple keeps mentioning but no evidence in the world itself shows they are in a sickness ravaged environment. No one reacts or notices you running through buildings and restricted areas or buildings except when they turn into creatures that attack you. 1 of 3. Or they point and yell at you as you walk by. It's disappointing especially considering they credit a writer at the end of the game but this feels like a rough draft at best and and a pretty thin outline of a game at most. I regret pushing through in hopes of some great narrative flourish or a part of the game where the the things we were doing would hopefully be explained or click into place.

Narrative platformer Steam Deck: Playable - although the page and dev says Verified, it only worked correctly for me after changing the resolution to 720. At higher resolutions part of the dialog window would remain on the screen full time (at first I thought it might be a stamina or health meter) With this game, the creators of the Alwa games bring their platforming engine much more narrative. The result a desolate and lonely experience, which is both its greatest strength and weakness. In a story clearly inspired by the Living Dead and Body Snatchers movies, evoking a feeling of emptiness furthers the narrative. But nobody has ever complimented a platformer for its emptiness, and Elden Pixels doesn't really crack that code here. The end result is a pleasant enough game, but if you have no patience for "walking simulators" then you probably won't enjoy this game either.