Void Sails Preview

When it comes to travelling among the stars or clouds in fiction, many have turned to the tried and true vehicle: the airship. These colossal vessels come in many shapes and designs, but I myself have always been partial to the sea ship variant ever since I was introduced to the concept by Disney’s Treasure Planet back in 2002. There’s just something both charming and delightfully ridiculous about travelling the skies with a giant barge in no way meant to leave the seas! As such, I like to keep an eye out for games that let me scratch this specific itch. Enter Ticking Clock Games’ Void Sails.

As is tradition whenever Steam Next Fest rolls around, a few of our content creators got together to try out some demos from the latest crop to see what the future of our favourite hobby may look like. As you may imagine, as soon as I spotted this particular demo, I was already digging out my tricorn hat and preparing to set sail.

In the demo, we get to see the opening moments, where we are given command of our very own ship and tasked with finding our father. As we start our journey, we are given a few options to define our past and the gear we start with. I decided to be an alchemist's apprentice and packed my trusty magnifying glasses for the journey! As our maiden voyage begins, we are given free rein to go where we please… within the city limits. First things first, we need to gain a License to leave our home and travel the winds.

Controlling the titular Void Ship felt comfortably weighty: a vessel can’t turn on a dime, after all, not even in the air. You are given three thruster options to switch between: reverse, no thrust, and forward, respectively. You can turn at any time, though it is slow, so you need to be able to anticipate any turns or twists lest you scratch the keel. Luckily, the area you find yourself in is very spacious, so you won’t be bumping into too many rocks.

In the demo, your trusty ship is restricted to only moving horizontally. I’m unsure if this will be the standard for the game in the future or if interstellar travel will be more three-dimensional, but I was a bit sad to not be able to fail at barrel rolls… then again, this does make sure you can easily find and arrive at the points of interest, so it’s a mixed bag.

As you explore, you may spot areas with a purple highlight; when approached, you can dock there, which is usually followed by a choose-your-own-adventure-style event. After the stage is set, you are given options on how you’d like to proceed, typically ranging from gathering more information to acting upon one decision or another. The eagle-eyed reader may notice that Void Sails markets itself as an action-adventure RPG, and this is where the latter genre comes to the fore: some, or all, options you are presented with are associated with a certain stat which determines how likely you are to succeed. Once an option is chosen, you spin a wheel with values ranging from one to 99, aiming to get a value below your stat score. If you succeed, you are often rewarded with information, items, or other goodies, though failing isn’t always a bad thing.

Visually, the game is very pleasant, with a vast ocean of clouds interspersed with rocky outcroppings and little villages. The ship itself is perfect, and I will hear no word against it, combining the seafaring aesthetic with a solarpunk flair. I also liked the small touches added, like your engines smoking for a bit if overused. The events themselves look fine, showing related images to the subject matter, however, the sparse amount of events makes it hard to tell overall.

After having our fill of exploration, we head to the castle to get the aforementioned License... things go awry, however, as another ship attacks without anyone to defend the land! Being the stalwart sort that we are, we rush to intercept, taking us into the action portion of this action-adventure RPG. These battles are fought in real-time, with you having three sets of weapons: two broadsides of cannons, as one would expect, and an honest-to-goodness solar laser! You can aim your shots by holding the right mouse button and the weapon in use is determined by looking in said direction.

The combat quickly boils down to both participants angling for the optimal facing, firing weapons and avoiding damage. As the vehicles are on the slow side, the battles have a fun, strategic edge to them. You need to think a few moments ahead at least, if you want to avoid multiple holes on the stern. I found the combat a bit unforgiving, as I seemed to be getting beat fairly easily… until I found out there is a button to activate your shields… whoops.

Speaking of strategy, your enemy is more than a floating brick of wood: the enemy has weak points you can aim for to both slow them down and disable their weapons. Hitting these points is a bit of a hassle with the cannons, as you can’t aim each cannon separately, but thankfully: the laser mounted to your bow is perfect for precise destruction. Regretfully, the demo ends quickly after the battle.

I was not sure what I was hoping for from Void Sails, but I can say that I’m positively surprised by the general look and feel. Piloting the floating barge is fun (if a bit slow) and the idea behind the different events seemed exciting. I do wish we had seen a bit more of the game, especially the space travel is something I’d love to see, but I think it’s a good problem to have. I’ll be keeping an eye on this spacefaring title and hope they can stay true to the impressive concept!