voidScapes Review

VoidScapes is like one of those "extreme" remakes of classic properties Hollywood seems to be enamored with these days. These remakes take the core conceit of the original and exaggerate it to crazy proportions. Games like Pac-Man Championship Edition or even something like UNO Rush prove that games are no stranger to this concept. VoidScapes takes things a step further though by daring to be an update to a true classic: rock, paper, scissors.

Everyone knows how rock, paper scissors works. Essentially, all voidScapes has the player doing is choosing one of these options and hoping the computer chooses the option it beats. It's a kid's game based on random luck but that's kind of what the game has always been about. The computer allegedly makes strategies but multiplayer is needed and it is coming soon.

The game has three modes each with a ridiculously self-serious name. Opening Odds is classic rock, paper, scissors. It's the next two modes where voidScapes presents its insane vision of what this game can be. Clone and Conquer has the player monitoring up to five games at once, manipulating a series of wheels to send the inanimate combatants on their way. Focus and Fire has random objects coming from different angles on screen and the player's job is to launch their choice at the right time to make sure it connects.

Of all these modes, Clone and Conquer is the most frenetic but Focus and Fire requires the most actual skill. The point of each to is win enough matches to fill a bar while hoping to avoid bar-draining losses. Each mode can also be played in a turbo mode which is as crazy as it sounds.

The look is clean and minimalist and certain touches like the way choices lock into a wheel and spin around before the victor is revealed are pleasant to look it. It's not going to blow anyone away though. Neither will the music which is oddly unaffected by the iPad's volume buttons. Only the in game menu seems to turn it off. At least the player can use their own music.

VoidScapes is worth playing if only to see how one would go about updating something as ancient as rock, paper, scissors. It's held back but the inherent simplicity of the concept but it's a valiant effort all the same. Here's hoping for an update that adds that schoolyard favorite: an unbeatable nuclear bomb option.

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