Void & Meddler fills gap with Episode 2 release

Written by Jack Allin — November 5, 2016 at 13:13

From tech implants gone wrong to hypnotic suggestion to mind-altering drugs, human memory seems to be a precious commodity in many dystopian-future sci-fi tales. This is true once again in the Void & Meddler trilogy, which promises to blow your mind in more ways than one with the recent release of the second installment, Lost in a night loop.

Void & Meddler first debuted a year ago, introducing the story of a young woman named Fyn who is suffering from amnesia. Why she has no recollection of this time, we don't know, as co-developers no CVT and Black Muffin want players to feel the "frustration" of not knowing what has happened. What we do know is that, "tired of the last two years she spent wandering without a goal and without memories, among disenchanted strangers, and pitiless scavengers," Fyn decides she's had enough. In this "single night intrusion into Fyn's life and hopes," the game gives players just "a few hours to make things right, and seek strong, pure and substantial memories. In a city where genders and species melt into each other, maybe she’ll find the long lost touch of humanity missing from her life."

While promising plenty of traditional 2D point-and-click adventuring, including "old school mechanics" like inventory and multiple interaction menus, Void & Meddler also offers different ways to resolve certain puzzles, as well as variable story elements that impact how each of the six acts (across three episodes) will end. But the main focus of the game is neither story nor gameplay, but rather the atmospheric "fragments and details, rainy nights and blurry lights." Inspired by the likes of Philip. K. Dick, William Gibson, David Cronenberg, Shinya Tsukamoto and Gregg Araki, the developers have deliberately set out to create a world "full of fuzz literature, pixel music and analog dreams." Emphasized by the "sound and fury of organic bass and aggressive synthesizers," each episode is meant to be "packed with psychedelic detail that plunges the player into the deepest thoughts of this unsympathetic character."

If you're sufficiently confused and intrigued, that's precisely the point of the Void & Meddler experience. To learn more about the game (or rather, to become even more intentionally bewildered), check out its official website. Last year's first episode, Nobody likes the smell of reality, can be purchased as a standalone episode on Steam, but the second (and upcoming third) installments are only available as part of a full-season pass.