Voivod: The Nuclear Warrior First Impressions – From Animated Album Cover to Rocket Shoes

Knowing about Voivod: The Nuclear Warrior is like asking your partner how their day was when you know full well there’s going to be no intermission. Or your childhood friend who’s got the courage to finally speak with their parents only for you to interrupt them mid-sentence: “They’re gay!” Sometimes, you just have to keep your mouth shut, or wait until an embargo passes.

Sometimes a game can win you over with the genre, the studio/publisher, a misleading screenshot with tits in it, or metal. Yes, there’s metal involved in Chaosmonger Studio’s game (Encodya!), and thinking this could be another title to add to the minuscule pile of decent metal-fused games (Brütal Legend, Valfaris… err… Guitar Hero?!), I signed up.

Voivod: The Nuclear Warrior takes its name from an influential metal band from Canada named Voivod. This is the first I’ve heard of them, but interestingly, they’ve inspired some of my favourite bands and artists – Mike Patton, Soundgarden, Pantera… they even had Jason Newsted play bass for them. You don’t care about my tastes? Fine. Look ’em up!

The world in which you occupy is a post-apocalyptic one where you play an amnesiac(?) soldier being guided by your consciousness named Nothingface, coincidentally, an album by the band. In often cryptic statements, Nothingface talks you through the tools of the trade and attempts to explain things as clearly as a Buddhist monk. Be quiet, but be loud. Search within yourself by looking outwards…

Heavy Metal Come To Life

In this early Voivod: The Nuclear Warrior build I had access to, which I’d been dying to share, but couldn’t until the demo was released into the wild, you explore what is essentially an animated album cover straight out of Heavy Metal magazine. It has a very cool 16-bit vibe and, in my opinion, is rough around the edges, but I love it for that.

There are two main modes: the story and a combat mode. Naturally, I went for the story mode, though this finishes just as it gets even more exciting. Surprisingly, the combat mode has more to offer, such as power-ups, enemy types and, well, more!

Movement is initially quite bland until you unlock Voivod: The Nuclear Warrior own double jump – some rocket shoes that propel you into the air. Which is nice. I can only guess, but I imagine this will be like the recent Well Dweller experience: start slow and then unlock some environmental hacks.

The combat is a different kettle of fish and easily the best part. You can run and gun quite effectively, and with a toggle of a shoulder button, stand still and aim, which is pretty darn accurate. On top of that, there are charged attacks (limited, of course), bigger guns and ammo types – which are predominantly found in the combat area.

Running, Gunning, and Swinging Until Your Arm Falls Off

That’s all fine, but the big win for me was the sword. Unlimited until you get tennis elbow, you can swing as much as you like and decimate enemies close up or while steaming through. The best bit, which I didn’t expect, was the ability to deflect hits, which doesn’t require cat-like instincts or 60 hours’ worth of Sekiro practice. It’s so metal.

And speaking of metal, this was the surprise. While I loved the art style – surprisingly so- the great defensive timing and power of the sword, the power-ups and the tightly tuned level design, ironically, the music in Voivod: The Nuclear Warrior didn’t stand out. It was very good, but making an assumption before listening to the band, I’d expected to be playing this super loud.

Instead, I was quite content with a comfortable volume. I mean, the music is very atmospheric and works really well, though I think the likes of Valfaris spoiled that for me as I was expecting some heavy rawk. Still, early days, and I can always swot up on Vovoid’s back catalogue in the meantime.

I played this entirely on my Retroid Nova, and it couldn’t have been a better choice for this cool, retro Metroidvania. It’s annoying, as the Steam page says Q1 2027, so I’ll have to periodically check when I can post this. When you read this sentence, hop on over to the store page and download it. I think it’s great.