I have recently gotten back into the creature-collector genre and it has been interesting to see how different studios have expanded on it. However, one element that many of them have in common is how you have the monsters you capture fight on your behalf. By splicing third-person shooting with traditional creature-collector DNA, Voidling Bound is trying to be a new breed, and while the experiment was a success, I fear it does not have what it takes to become the dominant gene.
Developed and published by Hatchery Games, Voidling Bound is a sci-fi, creature-collector, third-person shooter where you collect alien creatures called Voidlings and then use them to fight back against a destructive force called The Lesion. Upon discovering and unleashing this corruption upon the universe, humanity was on the back foot until they discovered that Voidlings had a natural resistance to The Lesion. Now, you and your crew are out on a mission to stop The Lesion by finding and evolving these Voidlings, hence Voidling Bound.
It’s a fun and unique setup, which does a solid job of explaining the circumstances you find yourself in, with undercurrents of mystery involving a shadowing organisation called GenLife whose fingerprints are all over this. Your mission takes you to several different planets, with 26 story and side missions making up the main game, with a challenging endless mode to undertake once the story is finished.
Unfortunately, I was never pulled in by the game’s narrative or notes of intrigue, as it very much takes a backseat compared to the gameplay, and Voidling Bound’s story ends rather flatly, with no real sense of progress or revelation offered. Any worldbuilding is done through the conversations you have with your crew and the logs of each mission, but with no real beats to hit or twists to reveal, what starts as an interesting premise very quickly feels like set dressing.
Voidling Bound’s gameplay is where it shines, with its two halves, creature-collector and 3rd person shooter, neatly intertwined yet separate, creating a cohesive, self-perpetuating loop. You are a Wrangler, and while you are on board your spaceship, you can spend time evolving your Voidlings using elemental-based Mutagens, improving their skills with Research Points, having them work out in the gym to increase their level, and having pairs of Voidlings breed to pass their positive traits onto their offspring. It sounds like a lot, but it is introduced as you progress, with a new element explained to you by the responding crew member every few missions you complete.
Each breed of Voidling has an evolution tree, with several two-choice splits resulting in 16 different fully evolved versions of the base type. The original choice determines which elemental type they will become, ranging from Organic, Pyro, Cryo, Cyber, and Plasma, with your three subsequent choices selecting their moveset. It’s a smart system, and while the mysteries of genetic manipulation are quickly laid bare, it was always fun to go down a new evolution path. With each step, your Voidling’s appearance changes, morphing and growing, until it is completely unrecognisable from how it started. But where this system really kicks into high gear is when they introduce Splicing.
Splicing lets you completely design a Voidling, from its eyes, body shape, and colour to its elemental type and moves, across all Voidling types. This opens up all manner of possibilities, from making your Voidling look the way you wanted to, to giving them a mutation type and move set unavailable to them before. The one limitation is that a Spliced Voidling cannot breed, which seems like a fair exchange for playing God.
Once you’ve selected which of your Voidlings and which mission to undertake, making note of what objectives there are and what enemies you’ll be facing, your character sits in a special chair to have their consciousness transported, or “bound”, to the Voidling. That’s right, the game’s name has a double meaning! From here, you are in control of your chosen Voidling, as the shutters open and you drop down to the planet’s surface.
Voidling Bound has several mission types, including capture the point, a wave-based arena mode, and survival, where you need to fend off enemies until a timer runs out. My favourite was the larger linear missions, where you focused on clearing away the bubbling masses of the Lesion, offering lots of opportunities to explore, with hidden Mutagens and Voidling Eggs to find. There is a great variety of enemy types, with several factions to contend with, from sentient Lesion creatures to corrupted robots and ancient technology, all with their own behaviours.
Here is where you put your Voidlings to the test, using the moveset you’ve given them to control and dominate the battlefield, whether you are firing projectiles from a distance or getting up close with hard-hitting melee attacks. Across all the game’s missions, I used several different Voidlings, taking advantage of their different elemental types to trump my foes, or their traversal mechanics to find hard-to-reach secrets in certain levels. Each mission is capped off by a big boss fight, which often descends into chaos if you don’t stay on top of the mobs they summon, followed by returning to your spaceship with your spoils.
Once back on board, you can spend your resources to improve your Voidlings as well as improve certain parts of the ship, like having more Voidlings level even higher in the gym or having more Voidlings breeding to produce better Eggs. Your crewmates will also reward you with more resources for completing certain challenges tied to their respective field. By keeping on top of everything each time I returned from a mission, with anything needing my attention clearly highlighted by icons overhead, I was able to move through Voidling Bound’s slate of missions at a smooth clip, rarely requiring repeat mission playthroughs. I appreciated not having any grind to progress, having played on the normal difficulty, and those seeking more of a challenge have the option.
Finishing the story opens up Void Strikes, an endgame mission where you continue going down levels, fighting tougher enemies for the chance of better and rarer rewards, like Catalysers, which boost your Voidlings past their natural limits. I went on a couple of these Void Strikes before wrapping up my time with Voidling Bound, and doing so clarified for me something that had been tickling the back of my brain. I felt no impetus to keep going at this point; I’d finished the game’s story, and thus all that was left was to keep evolving Voidlings and going on Void Strikes. But what could help with that is the option to play with a friend. The idea of running about on the ship as Wranglers and then together as Voidlings on the planet’s surface feels like it would be perfect for Voidling Bound: I just don’t know it that’s what the future holds.
I really liked the stylised art style Hatchery Games went with for Voidling Bound. From its imaginative alien landscapes to the squat-helmeted design of the player character’s spacesuit, a great deal of time and craft has clearly gone into the game’s visuals, and it pays off throughout. Even the rest of your crew, while not the most memorable bunch, have distinct designs that match their archetypal personalities and reflect their interests.
But it is the Voidlings themselves that are the star of the show. Every species of Voidling you discover is distinct in its design, from the cute to the creepy, and they only get more bizarre as they evolve. Whether it’s clumps of ice growing from their back and forehead, their fur turning green and sprouting bushels of leaves, or their skin cracking to reveal a molten core glowing at their centre, each evolution is as wild as the last. While I enjoyed each planet’s different environments, I spent a lot of my time wandering about the spaceship, standing in the Vivarium, watching some of my Voidlings wander around and sleep.
Combat looks and feels great, with excellent visual feedback and particle effects coupled with a UI that is easy to read and doesn’t clutter the screen. It can get pretty hectic, and while it doesn’t get as mad as a bullet hell per se, enemy attacks are clearly telegraphed and easy to interrupt. While I never made much use of it myself, opting for a longer range moveset, I liked the inclusion of a finishing move you can use on flashing enemies when their health is low. I also didn’t experience any visual or technical issues while playing, with only a few long load times for certain missions.
With an orchestral soundtrack that captures the more adventurous tone of sci-fi, liberally making use of strings, horns, drums, and synths, the ambience is perfect in Vidling Bound, with your menagerie of Voidlings providing a cacophony of trills, squawks, grunts, hisses, howls, and barks. There is a light-hearted thread that runs through the game, from its visual style and animations to its music.
Final Thoughts
Voidling Bound is a fun twist on the creature-collector genre, which doesn’t lose any of that identity while incorporating its third-person gameplay. It’s fun to be in direct control over the Voidlings you capture, as opposed to just dishing out commands, and having a more involved role in their growth is equal parts empowering and exciting.
While it is let down by a narrative that fails to grip the player, and doesn’t have much to offer once finished, I do believe that this is a case where adding co-op could give this game a greater chance at survival. While it may not prove to be the next step in evolution, Voidling Bound’s strong visuals and polished gameplay make for an entertaining experience, one that is worth having in the creature-collector family tree.
Voidling Bound is out now on PC, with a console release planned for the future.
Voidling Bound was reviewed on PC with a controller.
We would like to thank Hatchery Games for providing a review key.
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