Voidwood is a new 4-player co-op game from Santa Barbara Games where your voice can save you, or it can be your demise. During the day, you and your team scavenge for resources and craft items to help you while you’re hunted at night. The goal is for one or all of your team to escape before you are hunted down by various enemies.
My favorite feature in Voidwood is the voice chat mechanic. While collecting resources during the day, you can speak freely with your team. You will encounter some smaller enemies, but they aren’t as difficult to deal with as the major boss later in the play session. Your voice can attract enemies, but they also aren’t as hard to hide from and escape.
The demo we played during PAX was shortened to let more people experience the game. The day/night cycle is normally longer, and players can make the choice to either extract or continue into the night and deeper into the forest for better rewards. When you move into the night, you have to decide how and when you want to communicate. The louder you speak, the more enemies you attract. My first instinct was to yell in most cases, and I continued to get hunted down by the boss.
If you run into enemies at night, you can fight off or escape most of them with no issue. If you get caught by the larger enemies, your survival will depend on how you prepared during the day. Did you create enough healing items? Did you create items that will allow you to escape an enemy’s grasp? You can complete tasks faster if you separate from your team, but now you have to talk louder, and it will take longer to get help when you encounter sticky situations.
I had a lot of fun playing Voidwood. This is an experience best played with friends, but you can play solo. The team is aiming for a 2027 Steam release, so make sure you head over and wishlist.