Void and Meddler

A gender ambiguous person next to dialogue reading 'Maybe ey's transgender, I dunno'. Group of people gathered in an oddly lit space.
Playing this game was like watching an ‘artsy’ film that you know you’re supposed to appreciate, but can’t quite figure out why. Void and Meddler is a point-and-click adventure that is clearly going for an edgy cyberpunk vibe and is, I’m pretty sure, trying to make a comment on… something.

Maybe even a few things. Certainly gender, probably society, and most likely humanity? Who can say? Not me, but I think when they conceived this idea, the creators really understood what they were going for, and it just didn’t translate in the final product. From what I could gather, this game included a lot of trans NPCs and quite a few people who were gender nonconforming, but it was a little unclear. Whenever Fyn looks at someone she says “maybe they’re transgender, it doesn’t matter”, which, while true, is kind of a strange thing to think every single time you look at somebody. Sure, it’s a valid point, but a little variety in her statements would have made the point more effectively. Whatever it was the writers were going for, I just felt like it didn’t quite hit home. But maybe that was just me.

You should play this if…

You are really very keen trying to extract meaning from a game like this, otherwise I really can’t recommend it. Void and Meddler really has nothing going for it in the way of accessibility. The cursor is hard to see, half the time options don’t highlight to show which one you’re choosing, the movement is slow and it isn’t always easy to see which objects in a scene can be clicked on. The puzzles often don’t make sense and it isn’t easy to see how you’re supposed to progress the story, and when you do the payoff is mostly just confusing. Plus there’s some offensive and outdated language in it, so… Sorry to anyone that’s a fan, but the cons far outweighed any pros here.