The Ultravacuum is a planet-devouring black hole, into which the heroine of the game does not hesitate to dive from the first seconds of the adventure. As "Void Runner", Rei seeks to save her homeworld by activating a device capable of destroying the terrible dark star from within. This context gives us the opportunity to travel through a strange universe, made up of the remains of the various planets previously swallowed by the Ultravide. The most surprising element is certainly the ground, similar to a milky cloud in which Rei barely sinks and on which she can surf. This turquoise-colored substance also allows him to fall from very high without ever getting hurt, which is good because the level design plays a lot on verticality. Gravity changes are also on the menu, as the levels are more or less spherical. It is therefore possible to follow the curve of the ground-cloud to end up upside down in relation to the starting point, without even realizing it. This justifies the reference to Super Mario Galaxy, even if the environments rarely take the form of simple asteroids.
The sets are often split into different sections, which can sometimes be reached by sliding on rails. The fluidity of movement is a constant in the game, which also places a lot of emphasis on exploration. Walking, fast skating, jumping, double-jumping, boosting and grappling thus answer the call, while climbable dark matter is present in certain places. The power of "time-zapping" allows you to slow down the action in order to aim more easily at the points of attachment. Some levels also offer very nice gameplay variations, such as rail-generating plants or colored mushrooms whose spores allow you to open certain doors. An attack key is also available, but most creatures you encounter die in three or four hits maximum. Perfectly voluntary, this simplicity in terms of pure action is there to never break the fluidity of exploration. The challenge is therefore not to be found with the basic monsters, but rather with the gigantic bosses called Vestiges.
COLORFUL BOSSES
The game offers us to face a total of seven colossi, each of them having to be beaten three times in a row. The first is a snake, the second looks like a shark, the third can be compared to a sprawling ray, the fourth is both a giant eye and an insect, the fifth is a kind of knight and the sixth can more or less be called a dragon. As for the last, we prefer to leave you the surprise. In all cases, the principle of "combat" is identical. You must first find a point of attachment to climb on the back of the creature, then hit the nerve endings that appear one after the other on the screen, represented by sorts of luminous pins. Some are accessible by skating, others by jumping, still others by grapple or even rails, and it is advisable to use the boost as soon as possible, because you only have a few seconds to reach and hit each nerve center. This is where all the challenge of the game lies, as long as we leave the easy mode of course. This principle of exploration / combat in limited time is also used to clean certain specific areas of the environment, these actions having precisely the consequence of waking up each boss a little more.
The intentional emphasis on exploration and movement rather than actual blows suits the general atmosphere, particularly dreamlike. The biggest highlight of the game is undoubtedly its artistic direction, which mixes improbable architectures, gigantic creatures, and bright but always elegant colors. The whole is carried by a deliciously planing soundtrack, although a little too discreet, and well-written and well-dubbed VOST dialogues. Very exciting, the game is however not free from objective flaws. The camera sometimes tends to twirl a little too much, while it happens that Rei does not hang on the first try to certain rails, or that it is difficult to assess the distance at which the grapple will work (this distance seems to change depending on whether the hook point is on a boss or simply placed in the backgrounds). Fortunately, these small problems remain occasional and very rare. Finally, our biggest regret concerns the lifespan. Indeed, it only takes seven to eight hours to complete the adventure, while we would have liked to be able to stay much longer in this fantastic world.
