There is something particularly unsettling about being trapped in a system that knows exactly what you are going to do next. Imagine being forced to fight your way through an endless sequence of hostile machines, only to die, wake up and discover that the nightmare is beginning all over again. Your captor is an artificial intelligence with seemingly limitless control over the environment, and its sole purpose is to keep you imprisoned. It believes escape is impossible. Fortunately, VOID/BREAKER has other ideas.
Developed by solo creator Daniel Stubbington under the Stubby Games banner, VOID/BREAKER is a fast-paced first-person action roguelite built around movement, destructive combat and an extraordinarily flexible weapon-modification system. Following the puzzle-focused experience of The Entropy Centre, Stubbington has turned his attention to something considerably more explosive. The result is a game that wants you moving constantly, thinking quickly and experimenting with increasingly ridiculous combinations of weapons and abilities. Standing still is rarely a good idea, and hesitation can be the difference between escaping an encounter and becoming another casualty in the AI’s endless experiment.
What immediately makes the experience appealing is its commitment to speed. This is not a shooter that encourages you to hide behind cover and patiently pick off enemies from a distance. Instead, it wants you to throw yourself into the action, exploit your surroundings and keep moving until the machines simply cannot keep up. There is a wonderful sense of momentum to the gameplay, and once everything begins to click, VOID/BREAKER can become an incredibly satisfying experience.
Movement That Makes You Feel Unstoppable
The movement system is arguably the game’s greatest strength. Dashing, jumping, wall-running and grappling combine to create an experience in which the environment becomes something to exploit rather than simply a collection of corridors connecting one firefight to another. You are encouraged to maintain momentum, find alternative routes through combat spaces and use your mobility to stay one step ahead of the machines. It gives every encounter a sense of urgency that more conventional shooters often struggle to achieve.
There is real pleasure in discovering how these abilities work together. A well-timed dash can carry you out of danger, while a grapple can help you reposition before an enemy has the chance to react. Wall-running and momentum-based jumps add another dimension, allowing you to approach encounters from unexpected angles rather than relying on predictable tactics. Once you become comfortable with the controls, movement starts to feel less like a collection of individual abilities and more like a natural extension of your instincts.
Importantly, the speed is not simply there to make the game look impressive. It has a genuine purpose because enemies are constantly trying to overwhelm you, and staying in one place for too long can quickly become disastrous. You need to read the battlefield, recognise incoming threats and make decisions almost instinctively. It is demanding, but that is precisely what makes surviving a particularly chaotic encounter feel so rewarding.
Guns, Blades and Beautifully Chaotic Combat
Although movement provides the foundation, combat is what gives VOID/BREAKER its personality. The game encourages players to combine ranged weapons with close-quarters attacks, creating a fighting style that rewards aggression over cautious play. You are not expected to spend every encounter firing from a safe distance. Instead, getting close to enemies and using your melee abilities is an important part of maintaining your effectiveness.
The relationship between melee attacks and ammunition is particularly clever. Landing close-range strikes can replenish ammunition and energy reserves, encouraging you to switch between weapons and blades rather than relying on a single approach. It creates a satisfying rhythm in which you might unleash a burst of gunfire, dash towards an approaching machine, strike it at close quarters, and then return to ranged combat with renewed resources. The more confidently you play, the more opportunities you find to keep the action flowing.
This approach also helps prevent combat from becoming a repetitive exercise in holding down the trigger. Different enemies and situations demand different responses, and the freedom to move between ranged and melee attacks gives encounters a welcome degree of variety. There is something wonderfully satisfying about surviving a room full of hostile machines through a combination of quick reflexes, aggressive attacks, and well-timed movement.
The difficulty can be unforgiving, particularly when you are still learning to manage all these systems simultaneously. Enemies can punish mistakes quickly, and the pace leaves relatively little room for hesitation. Players who prefer slower shooters may initially find the experience overwhelming, but those willing to persevere should discover a combat system with plenty of depth beneath its frantic exterior.
The Joy of Creating Ridiculous Weapons
The weapon modification system is another major reason to keep coming back. VOID/BREAKER gives players considerable freedom to experiment with different weapons, modifications and upgrade combinations, allowing each run to develop its own identity. Rather than simply collecting progressively stronger firearms, you are encouraged to think about how individual enhancements might work together. Finding an unexpected combination that completely changes how a weapon behaves is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the experience.
The potential for unusual synergies is particularly exciting. Different effects can be combined to create weapons that do far more than simply inflict damage, introducing additional ways to control enemies and influence encounters. An enhancement that affects one target might become considerably more effective when paired with another modification that spreads its effects or manipulates enemy positioning. Experimentation is rewarded, and discovering a combination that turns an otherwise difficult encounter into an explosive display of destruction is immensely satisfying.
This also gives the game considerable replay value. Every run presents opportunities to approach your build differently, encouraging you to experiment with equipment and discover combinations you might otherwise have overlooked. You are not simply trying to find the strongest weapon available. You are trying to find a collection of modifications that complement your preferred playstyle, whether that means concentrating on raw damage, controlling groups of enemies or creating a particularly effective combination of abilities.
There is a lovely sense of discovery here, particularly when an experimental build unexpectedly becomes your most effective weapon. Not every combination will be successful, of course, and part of the enjoyment comes from learning which modifications work well together. It gives progression a sense of personality that is often missing from shooters where upgrades simply mean bigger numbers.
Destruction Is Part of the Battlefield
One of the more interesting aspects of VOID/BREAKER is its approach to environmental destruction. In many shooters, destructible scenery is little more than a visual novelty, something that looks impressive when a grenade explodes but has little meaningful impact on gameplay. Here, destruction is presented as an important part of surviving encounters.
Walls and structures can be blasted apart, reshaping the battlefield and creating opportunities that might not have existed moments earlier. Rather than treating the environment as an immovable collection of obstacles, the game encourages you to think about how it can be used to your advantage. Destroying part of a structure can open new lines of attack, while collapsing sections of the surroundings can disrupt enemies and give you a precious opportunity to regain control of an encounter.
This adds another layer to combat, as you are not simply reacting to the enemies in front of you. You are also considering the space in which the battle is taking place. When combined with the movement system, this creates encounters that feel more dynamic than simply entering a room and eliminating everything inside. The destruction mechanics are not just there to provide impressive explosions. They help make the environment feel like an active part of the fight.
Every Run Is Another Chance to Escape
The roguelite structure provides the framework for bringing all these systems together. Each attempt takes you through a sequence of encounters and decisions, with different routes offering varying levels of risk and reward. You might choose a safer path to preserve your health, or take on a more dangerous challenge if the potential rewards could make the rest of the run considerably easier. These decisions help prevent progression from feeling entirely predictable.
There is something appealing about having to weigh up your options when you know that a particularly difficult encounter could undo much of your progress. Taking the easy route is tempting, especially when your current build is not particularly impressive, but sometimes the possibility of finding a powerful modification makes the risk worthwhile. These small decisions give each run a sense of personality, even when the overall objective remains the same.
The repeating structure also fits the game’s narrative premise rather nicely. You are trapped in a system designed to keep you fighting, dying and starting again, so the roguelite format feels like a natural extension of the story rather than an arbitrary gameplay decision. Each attempt becomes another opportunity to learn, improve and find a way to overcome the machinery controlling your existence.
Of course, repetition is an unavoidable part of the genre, and not every run will feel equally exciting. There will be occasions when an unfortunate combination of upgrades or particularly difficult encounters makes progress frustrating. However, the flexibility of the combat and weapon systems provides a strong incentive to keep experimenting, and the possibility of discovering a better build makes starting again considerably easier to accept.
A Neon Nightmare
Visually, VOID/BREAKER embraces a striking science-fiction aesthetic, combining dark metallic environments with vivid neon lighting and dynamic combat effects. The contrast gives the world a distinctive identity, while the weapons, enemies and explosions create a suitably chaotic atmosphere. There is a strong sense that you are fighting your way through a hostile digital environment controlled by something that has little interest in your survival.
The visual effects are particularly effective in combat, with weapon discharges, destructive impacts and energy attacks giving every encounter plenty of impact. However, the intensity can occasionally become a little overwhelming. When several enemies attack simultaneously and the screen is filled with overlapping effects, identifying incoming threats can be more difficult than it should be. It is not a problem that necessarily ruins the experience, but a little more visual clarity during the busiest encounters would have been welcome.
The soundtrack complements the action beautifully, providing an energetic electronic atmosphere that suits the game’s futuristic setting. Weapon sounds, movement effects and the various impacts of combat help give the action a satisfying physical quality. Together, the presentation and audio create an experience that feels fast, aggressive and deliberately intense.
Verdict
VOID/BREAKER is an excellent example of what can happen when a developer takes a clear creative vision and builds an entire game around it. Its movement system is wonderfully fluid, the combination of melee and ranged combat encourages an aggressive approach, and the weapon-modification mechanics offer plenty of opportunities for experimentation. Add environmental destruction and a roguelite structure that constantly challenges you to make decisions, and you have a shooter with tremendous personality.
It is not necessarily an experience for everyone. The demanding combat can take some getting used to, and the visual intensity of particularly busy encounters occasionally makes it difficult to keep track of everything happening around you. The repeating structure will also be familiar to anyone who has spent time with the roguelite genre. Nevertheless, these are relatively minor complaints when set against the sheer enjoyment of its core mechanics.
What makes VOID/BREAKER particularly impressive is the ambition behind it. Daniel Stubbington has moved from the thoughtful puzzle design of The Entropy Centre into a very different kind of experience, demonstrating a clear passion for fast, expressive first-person combat. There is a real sense of enthusiasm in the way its systems interact, and the freedom to experiment with movement, weapons and destruction gives the game an identity of its own.
The AI might believe you are destined to remain its prisoner forever, but it has seriously underestimated just how destructive one determined Breaker can be. VOID/BREAKER is fast, frantic, occasionally punishing and thoroughly entertaining. Most importantly, it makes you want to jump straight back into another run, which is perhaps the greatest compliment you can give a game built around the idea of never giving up.
