Nothing is more powerful, Hotline Miami and its -likes teach us, than a good corner from which to lurk and swing sharp objects at conga lines of investigating idiots, each somehow convinced that although he just watched four mates get blade-battered in that exact spot by some murdercrazed invisible entity, he will personally be the one that overcomes the unassailable instant death corner with all his favourite bits intact.
Perhaps this is the Slaughter Void this lethal arcade action game speaks of, although, hang on: it’s got its own creation myth, in which a betrayed deity unleashes her anguish and makes everything at least 60% more violent and shit than it was previously. The claret-spattered cosmic psychedelia was enough to sucker me in alone, but there’s some nicely written fiction here too. It’s the kind that just pokes its horns through the walls occasionally, giving you enough of a sense of the entire beast to feel like you’re entering somewhere with history, without bogging down all that good good corner slaughter.
Where the stated Diablo influences start to creep in is through a few neat combat twists that transform Hotline Miami’s crests and lulls of situational disempowerment into a sort of weaving tactical bloodlust. You’ll still get squished instantly if you slip up, but you get temporary armour and speed boosts for kill streaks, and you can access both ranged and melee at the same time. There’s also a fat area-of-effect super for dealing with groups. Features ahoy:
Fast paced, brutal action: Combat in SLAUGHTER VOID is quick and merciless. A single hit will kill you, but the same goes for (most of) your enemies- agility and aggression are essential.
Be your own harbinger of destruction: Through a deluge of hand-crafted levels, carve your own bloody path with unique combinations of weapons and relics to achieve maximum slaughter.
Dynamic Dismemberment: Quick death is not enough. The faster you kill, the more havoc you wreak upon your foes, severing and splattering them into multiple pieces. The more you slaughter, the more you reap, harvesting valuable loot from their corpses to spend on upgrades, items, and more.
To the Victor the Spoils: Compete to be the fastest on the leaderboards as you decimate enemies from this gore-soaked void to the next.
You can find a demo on Steam here. More importantly, you can switch out your axe for a very large hammer.
