Voidfall

In Voidfall, each player will lead one of 14 unique houses to cosmic domination. In addition to competing with other players, we will also face a battle with a mysterious star plague called Voidborn. Their main task will be to block our actions and tempt us with corruption. The gameplay in Voidfall is a kind of euro points game that has elements of 4X. Because we will face economic development, expansion into new territories and fighting with other players.

Why it’s worth jumping into the void:

The beginning of the story

Voidfall greets us with a 7-page story introduction. It describes the fate of the galaxy and where the big bad orange Voidborn came from. It’s seemingly such a small thing, but immediately after reading the whole story my involvement in the game doubled.

Fallen Houses

Each of us will lead one of 14 asymmetrical houses. In addition to their interesting names, they differ in their skills, technologies and development paths. At the beginning of the game, each of us will choose one of the two specializations of our house. It will determine our initial resources, positioning on the map and available technology. There are 14 houses and thanks to the fact that each of them has 2 development paths, the replayability of this game has increased at least 28 times. Some factions are focused on peaceful development, others choose the military way, and still others like to collect Voidborn corruption. However, nothing prevents us from choosing our own path. Some of the houses have their own special focus cards, making things even more diverse. It’s that variety of choice that’s phenomenal about this game.

Powerful Technologies

We can acquire 5 new technologies during the game. It doesn’t seem like much, but believe me, each of them is so powerful that it can change the rules of the game. Because with them we will be able to build new types of ships, remove corruption in several ways, develop our empire economically, and create numerous synergies between focus cards and our abilities. We can also upgrade each technology to increase its power. I’m very happy that these aren’t just some flimsy bonuses like +1 to something. It’s just awesome.

Very well written instructions with over a hundred intuitive icons

At first, Voidfall scared me a bit. Because I was given 3 hefty books with rules, a description of how to set up the game, and an explanation of all the concepts. The icing on the cake was another 4-page booklet with various symbols. Fortunately, the Voidfall tutorial is so well written that it guided me through every aspect of the game without any stress. It also included numerous graphical examples that made the process of taming this space leviathan much easier for me.

Cosmic entry level

In my opinion, the difficulty of Voidfall comes from the hundreds of possibilities the title offers us. Each of us gets 9 focus cards, and on them there are 3 different actions to perform. Of course, most of them are some variations, but there are also special house cards. On top of that, we have to pay attention to the tracks on our board, agenda cards, round objectives, Voidborn and other players. My first two games were spent learning the symbols and when to play which card. I’d like to say that I’m now freely navigating the cosmos of these possibilities. However, I still go back to the manual, at least for a while, just to make sure I read what a new Event card does. This game has a lot to offer, and it can be overwhelming at first.

The multitude of scenarios

I really like the fact that Voidfall offers us different scenarios to play. They provide us with different map layouts and levels of aggression. It all depends on the number of players and the game mode we choose. Because of this division, the game scales very well. The scenarios are also very thematic, as they include a short story introduction, and the map layout fits well with the situation we find ourselves in.

Solo and coop variants

Both the solo and co-op modes are more or less the same. We will compete with Voidborn for points and try to survive the various crises he will throw at us. Each mode also comes with special focus cards that we can use. In both solo and co-op we have 3 difficulty levels to choose from. I started my adventure on easy. When I jumped to a higher level, I could feel the change. Because the crisis cards hurt more and I had to focus more on scoring points and taking them away from Voidborn.The solo variant is really very good, but because of the long setup I don’t want to play it.

The cooperative variant is also good. Because I played with my wife, we could share resources and support each other. The special focus cards offered actions for all players and ones where we had to choose which one to do. It was still a competition for points, but to win, each of us had to have more than Voidborn. We only played one game in this mode so far, but it was awesome.

Now I’ll move on to something I’m not so keen on in Voidfall. This is not a negative thing, but rather my preference:

Predictable space battles

Combat in Voidfall is deterministic. There are no dice rolls, no playing tactical cards, or pulling an ace out of your sleeve. When we attack someone, we know exactly what the outcome of that event will be. On the one hand, this is good because we can prepare for it and there is no situation where we curse the god of randomness. On the other hand, it takes the excitement out of combat. Together with the rival, we nod our heads and move on to someone else’s next turn. The whole situation is saved by the new technologies and the ships I can build with them. It still doesn’t change the battles, but once I’ve developed something powerful, I can use it against my opponents. There is no mercy.

No Voidborn Threat

Voidborn is, sadly, in most cases just such a cone. Someone put them there, and if we want, we can remove them with the snap of a finger. They only have a basic level of ships, and once we develop our military technology, we can easily wipe them off the board. At the end of every turn, they try to attack us, and it’s just ridiculous. The Voidborn’s power is so low that there is virtually no way we can lose this. That’s why I don’t think they’re a threat to me in competitive play.

Voidfall Nightmare

Preparing for this game is horrible. I have to take almost everything out of the box, arrange the map according to the scenario, put the numerous tokens on it, choose the technology we will play with, and that’s not all. Once I have the plastic ships, I have to assemble the base and place them on it, and sometimes this is not an easy task. During the first preparation for the game, I thought I was going to cry. I sat there for an hour trying to figure out where to put everything. Now it takes me 30 minutes. But it’s still a lot, because I have to remember that someone has to put it all back in the box.

Summary

Voidfall is great. It’s so big that it hardly fits on my table. However, my space addiction has been fully satisfied. Every game was amazing, and the 14 houses and technologies I’ve been able to acquire leave me craving for more. If I had to pick one game to keep in my collection, it would be Voidfall.

Final Verdict: A phenomenally huge game that filled the cosmic void in my heart.

Pros:
Compelling story
14 asymmetrical houses
Powerful game-changing technologies
Variety of scenarios
Multiple gameplay modes
Huge replayability

Cons:
Macabre with setup
Lack of threat from Voidborn

[Współpraca reklamowa z Mindclash Games]