All you wanted to do is play drums in a heavy metal band, but it turns out attending your latest audition was a mistake. It’s bad enough being turned down, but to find out you’re now trapped in some kind of nightmare created by the band, filled with its corrupted fans and other horrors – that’s just plain wrong. That’s the situation in Metavoidal, though, and playing as the unfortunate drummer, you’re going to have to rely on your drumsticks to get you through.
As you can imagine, heavy metal music features prominently in Metavoidal. So, if you’re really not keen on listening to the oppressive sound of distorted guitars and dense drum beats, you might want to sit this one out. For those who do love heavy metal, however, it’s likely to make them enjoy Metavoidal even more than they would otherwise. After all, while it’s a fun and enjoyable roguelike, mechanically it’s inferior to the likes of Hades or some other big names in the genre.
With its old-school pixelated visuals, Metavoidal plays out from a top-down perspective, with you guiding your nightmare-bound drummer through numerous dungeons. Of course, there are many enemies to beat along the way, and to progress you typically need to find records created by the band and then place them in a record player. Thankfully, this also enables you to develop your powers, with you being able to choose one of three perks upon a record being played. These include the typical benefits such as fire damage being added to your attacks, as well as some more unique effects such as enemies being covered in oil.
What makes the combat of Metavoidal stand out a little is the fact that you can customise your combo. As you play, you’ll sometimes find cases which, when opened, provide you with a new attack. Interact with a drum kit and then you switch out the various attacks in your combo for those you’ve found. You might want to replace the default kick at your end of your combo with a powerful upwards strike, for example. You might also want to change your combo to take into account a perk you’ve just found, as some of them add effects to a specific strike. Add in the ability to corrupt certain attacks to make them even more powerful, and you can have a lot of fun putting together your own combo strings.
Of course, as in all roguelikes, death is pretty much inevitable in Metavoidal, though there are difficulty options to allow you to fine-tune the experience. And as ever, there are two types of currency to collect – Guitar Picks which you can use during runs to purchase upgrades and other useful items, and Experience Tickets which can be used between runs to unlock permanent upgrades. When it comes to the latter, there’s a fairly extensive skill tree to use them on, enhancing things like the invincibility period during your handy dodge roll, being able to lodge your drumsticks in enemies after throwing them, and a whole lot more.
There’s a lot to like about Metavoidal, then, especially if you’re not averse to rocking out every now and again. Of course, it won’t be for everyone with its dark visuals and crunchy guitars, but there’s a solid game here at its core, even if it’s not quite as exciting to play as some other action-packed entries in the genre. And putting together your own drumstick-based combos certainly proves to be quite engaging. Be sure to check it out if you love all things metal.
Metavoidal is available now on PC. Check out the demo on Steam.