Void Destroyer 2
- February 6, 2020
- Iteration 11
- 30h median play time
"Void Destroyer 2 is a open-world space sandbox game set in a desolate asteroid field, where you must survive by engaging in combat, managing tactics, and making strategic decisions. Start from humble beginnings and rise to power as a mercenary, pirate, bounty hunter, or entrepreneur, building your own trading or mining business. The game offers a wide range of freedom for players to choose their own path to domination, including the option to fight hard or negotiate your way to the top." NO INFORMATION AVailable about release date or developer/publisher.
Reviews
- Engaging gameplay that combines space combat with RTS elements, allowing players to pilot ships and command fleets.
- A dedicated developer who is responsive to community feedback and regularly updates the game.
- Variety of ships and factions, providing players with multiple playstyles, including piracy, trading, and bounty hunting.
- Frequent crashes and performance issues, especially during large battles, which can disrupt gameplay.
- The user interface can be clunky and unintuitive, making it difficult for new players to navigate and manage fleets.
- Some missions are poorly balanced, leading to frustrating experiences where players feel overwhelmed by enemy forces.
- story346 mentions
- 14 % positive mentions
- 81 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The game's story is often described as lacking depth and coherence, with many players finding the scripted missions poorly balanced and frustratingly obscure in their objectives. While some appreciate the engaging elements of faction missions and the potential for character development, others criticize the repetitive nature of the missions and the overwhelming difficulty spikes that detract from the overall experience. Overall, the narrative is seen as a secondary aspect to the gameplay, which offers a variety of missions and sandbox elements but struggles to maintain player interest through its story progression.
“The campaign is excellent and compelling, the factions have good backstory, the ship designs are unique and interesting, and the mechanics are sound.”
“The story is actually interesting, which is a nice surprise for a sandbox indie game.”
“The game has a good, engaging story, good pacing, and the freedom to do whatever you want, overall a great game and highly recommended.”
“The main campaign is boring and confusing; it could have been done better, maybe with more storytelling and fewer classic missions.”
“The story missions are highly restrictive and designed to be difficult, which I did not enjoy.”
“All missions are designed to throw enemies at you—small, lots of smalls, or just loads of big ships; there is no dialog, no reason, beyond payment, to be there or care.”
- graphics126 mentions
- 27 % positive mentions
- 65 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The game's graphics feature a unique, cell-shaded art style that some players find charming and reminiscent of titles like Borderlands, while others criticize them as simplistic and underwhelming. Performance issues, particularly during large battles, detract from the experience, with reports of crashes and poor texture quality. Overall, while the visuals may not meet the standards of AAA titles, they offer a distinct aesthetic that some players appreciate, especially when they become accustomed to the style.
“The art style is unique and quite appealing, reminiscent of Borderlands, which adds a distinct charm to the game.”
“I actually like the graphics a lot; they are simple but effective with a unique style that you don't see often.”
“The graphics are relatively simple, but colorful and stylish, making for an engaging visual experience.”
“The textures are extremely poor quality (as well as the graphics) and it's hard to tell what you're shooting at.”
“Poor graphics and bad performance when there are multiple ships on screen.”
“Unfortunately, the graphical style - while unique - makes the game incredibly difficult to play.”
- gameplay111 mentions
- 29 % positive mentions
- 68 % neutral mentions
- 3 % negative mentions
The gameplay of the game is a blend of space simulation, RTS, and 4X elements, offering a mix of engaging dogfighting, fleet management, and economic mechanics. While the learning curve can be steep and some mechanics may feel unintuitive or underexplained, players generally find the core gameplay loop satisfying and addictive, especially as they progress and unlock new ships and abilities. However, issues like crashes and a lack of polish in certain areas have been noted, which can detract from the overall experience.
“Vd2 combines many different mechanics while not being overly complex, resulting in something easy to pick up (relative to other 4x games) and hard to put down.”
“The gameplay is both kinda daunting at the beginning yet when you start to learn it becomes extremely addicting.”
“The game offers some very interesting RTS mechanics.”
“What a nightmare... the most convoluted, contorted, grotesque control and gameplay I've seen in any game.”
“The gameplay is way too boring; missions are boring as hell and the ship purchase options are small. Everything in this game is really unpolished; I don't recommend buying this game at this time.”
“I'm sure for more serious gamers this game plays just fine, but for someone who only has the occasional spare time to play, the controls and gameplay are just so awkward and unintuitive.”
- optimization25 mentions
- 20 % positive mentions
- 56 % neutral mentions
- 24 % negative mentions
Overall, the optimization of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players experiencing significant performance issues, especially during large battles or with multiple ships on screen. While some users have noted improvements after following optimization guides or updates from the developers, others have reported persistent problems that led to refunds. The game's graphics have also been criticized as subpar, contributing to the overall dissatisfaction with its performance.
“Performance is great until you throw 200+ ships on the field, but that's pretty easy to avoid as you can instead field fewer ships and just upgrade them and still be effective.”
“The performance is very good, the tactical view and time dilation are great to get a bearing and plan tactics for engagements.”
“Void Destroyer 2 is excellent, well optimized, runs smooth, and most importantly is a ton of fun.”
“I have an RTX 4090 and performance was awful.”
“The performance compared to the graphics was poor.”
“I was about to request a refund because I was getting really bad performance and I have a graphics card above what is recommended.”
- music24 mentions
- 17 % positive mentions
- 58 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with some players finding it atmospheric and well-composed, while others criticize it for being repetitive and lacking variety, with only about fifty minutes of content. Many users noted that the music can become annoying over extended play sessions, leading some to turn it off entirely in favor of their own playlists. Overall, while there are moments of strong musical achievement, the soundtrack's limited scope and repetitiveness detract from the overall experience.
“The music that is present is amazing; it is atmospheric and very well conducted.”
“It's an incredible achievement for such a small studio consisting of approximately one guy, plus a musician and maybe a modder.”
“The music is excellent.”
“Gaudy graphics, horrible ships, limited customization, terrible sound effects and music.”
“Then you'll be greeted by annoyingly loud music and scramble to figure out why the sound sliders are not doing anything.”
“Music is basically non-existent; I didn't really notice it playing at all. I don't remember what it sounds like. After a few hours, I did something I almost never do in games and turned the game music off and loaded up a media player in the background.”
- grinding19 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be a mixed experience; while the early to mid-game is enjoyable and progress is generally faster than in previous titles, the endgame becomes tedious with complex fleet management and repetitive tasks. Many recommend focusing on trading early to avoid excessive grinding through missions, but some still find the grind rewarding as it leads to significant advancements in fleet and empire building. Overall, the game offers a fun experience, albeit with some frustrating grind-heavy elements, especially in later stages.
“The game is fun but it is grindy.”
“End game is a tedious mess.”
“You buy the ships, then you have to fly off the station and speed up time to wait for them to build, fly back on station, assign them to your fleet, meticulously upgrade them, fly back out to space, send them to the overworld map, tediously click on each one in the map and manually move them into a fleet.”
- stability13 mentions
- 15 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 85 % negative mentions
The game's stability is a mixed bag, with some players experiencing frequent crashes and bugs, particularly after extended play sessions. While many report a significant reduction in bugs compared to its predecessor, others still encounter annoying glitches and occasional freezing. Overall, the game features frequent auto-saves that mitigate the impact of these issues, but stability remains a notable concern for many users.
“Simple to get into, pretty deep when you really get into it. A good space combat/empire war game that's fairly unique, fairly bug-free, and only 1 crash in 30 hours of gameplay (auto-saves frequently).”
“Barely any stutter, and no glitches.”
“The game is not impressive; it freezes and crashes after about 2-3 hours of play.”
“The biggest issue I have with the game is that it feels incomplete and buggy.”
“Unfortunately, though, the game is still very buggy and it crashes a lot; though it auto-saves very often, it's fine but very annoying.”
- humor8 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is described as a mix of hilariously bad moments and genuinely funny dialogue, with players often laughing out loud at various interactions and mission dialogues. While the game presents a daunting challenge, the cartoonish art style and distinct characters contribute to its comedic charm, making the entertaining missions and absurd NPC interactions stand out. Overall, the humor adds a lighthearted touch to the otherwise serious gameplay elements.
“Still, the plot was decent, the characters felt distinct, and there were bits I found humorous.”
“I also love the cartoonish art style and the dialogue made me laugh out loud on several occasions.”
“As far as space sims go, VD2 kinda has it all; ship capturing, auto-trading, hiring wingmen, base capturing, faction wars, capital ship combat, fighter dogfights, RTS mechanics, time dilation/compression, bounty hunting, piracy, utterly hilarious mission dialog, and even insulting random NPC pilots for no reason whatsoever (my personal favorite).”
- replayability4 mentions
- 75 % positive mentions
- -25 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
"Void Destroyer 2" offers significant replayability, especially for a game developed by a single creator, thanks to its easy controls, engaging story, and various ship options. Players can enjoy large-scale battles and customize their experience, although some reviews suggest that replayability could be further enhanced. Overall, the game provides a unique experience with a fair learning curve and the potential for endless gameplay.
“For a game made by a single developer, Void Destroyer 2 has a great deal of replay value.”
“Easy controls and clear, useful UIs for every way you want to play, good story, endless replayability, plenty of ships, and a fair learning curve in the campaign. You can even remove limits for ship counts if you have a powerful computer and go all out on your enemy (the standard count is more than enough).”
“This game has amazing 4K graphics, large-scale battles, freedom, replayability, and an intelligent, helpful, patient, and focused creator who spends all day and almost all night working to bring gamers a truly unique experience.”
“The replayability is not great at the moment.”
“This game has amazing 4K graphics, large-scale battles, freedom, and an intelligent, helpful, patient, and focused creator that spends all day and almost all night working to bring gamers like you a truly unique experience.”
- atmosphere3 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is highly praised for its exceptional music and sound design, which effectively enhance the immersive experience. Players appreciate the unique art style that contributes to the overall engaging ambiance.
“The music that is present is amazing; it is atmospheric and very well conducted.”
“During my first few hours playing, I was engaged by the unique art style and atmosphere.”
“The score and sound design set a great atmosphere.”
- monetization1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The monetization strategy of the game appears to be underwhelming, with users expressing surprise at its lack of visibility and suggesting that the developer could improve advertising efforts to enhance awareness and engagement.
- emotional1 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Users express frustration with the inability to customize control settings, particularly the thrust commands, which detracts from their emotional engagement and overall enjoyment of the game.