Neon Void Runner

In Brief

Neon Void Runner is a infinite runner. Test your reaction times in a fast virtual reality race in a futurist synth-wave neon world.

Installation:

Neon Void Runner downloads to a 25.8 MB zip file that unzips to three files, (a setup.gcd security wrapper, the set-up file and a read me). If you have multiple hard drives you can save games on any drive you wish by replacing the C drive letter in the path with whatever drive letter you wish the game to be installed to. The newly installed game is 48.2 MB in size. The game installs to the following path by default:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Neon Void Runner

However, if you prefer a different path for installation for example I use G:\Games\ name of game instead of 'C:\Program Files (x86)\name of game'. You can edit the default path when the Setup - Neon Void Runner - Select Destination Location window appears.

Five shortcuts are installed to the desktop, four of which can be safely deleted (i.e. Falco Space - Online Game!, FalconLine Online Games Website, FalcoGo WebGL Games! and Free Games Downloads!). If you don't want to install the games shortcut to the desktop during installation, just make sure the install desktop shortcut is unchecked when the 'additional task's window appears; you will still get two of the other Falcoware shortcuts installed (i.e. FalconLine Online Games Website & FalcoGo WebGL Games shortcuts). Also, if you don't like icons installed to the quick launch task bar, make sure you also uncheck the appropriate checkbox when the 'additional task's window appears (after the Select Start Menu Folder window).

Introduction:

Neon Void Runner is a speed runner with a synth-wave techno soundtrack and neon stylized graphics. The game includes hard to very hard reaction time challenges, earn achievements and work through six devastatingly hard levels in the hope of beating them; well, maybe .......at least the earlier levels are beatable by the average player, the later ones are going to require blazing fast reaction times. :)

The Game:

Neon Void Runner is an infinite runner in which the player tests their reaction time in a fast virtual reality race that takes place in a futuristic neon lit synth-wave world. There are lot's of obstacles, various levels that open as you progress and of course dazzlingly fast speeds await you. Your reaction times are going to be sorely tested in this fast paced game; so, you may need a cup of coffee to perk yourself up before attempting to start.

The options menu has three graphic quality settings Low, Medium and High plus toggles for post processing (Instead of rendering 3D objects directly to the display, if you toggle post processing on the scene will be rendered to a buffer in the memory of the video card. Pixel shaders and optionally vertex shaders are then used to apply post-processing filters to the image buffer before displaying it to the screen.) and full screen/window toggle. I ran the game firstly with graphic options set to the lowest quality and with post processing toggled off; then I ran it again with the highest settings and post processing toggled on and could not distinguish the quality between either. I do have relatively high end graphic cards (2x Nvidia GTX 980 Ti's with a total of 12GB of g RAM. They are now a couple of generations out of date, but are still way over specification for this game. That said, if you are running this game on a system with an integrated graphics chip instead of removable graphics cards, you 'may' note a difference. If the game runs poorly on your computer, I would recommend running the game with no post-processing and low-quality settings.

When you select a new game you can choose from six different characters, distinguished by color and size. Choosing different characters doesn't affect how the game performs (as far as I can tell). There are six levels, five of which are locked when you start a new game. To unlock levels 2 to 6 you require a certain amount of points which is earned by collecting energy and/or completing the previous level. Level 2 requires 50 points to unlock, whereas level 6 you requires 1000 points. The game starts of relatively easy, with your character running forwards at an easy pace. Your stylized character will automatically run forwards when you start a game, but you control the characters ability to jump up to higher platforms or across gaps or to slide under narrow passageways or raised objects. At every checkpoint your runner increases their speed. If you see a blocking wall that you cannot jump over, use your weapon (D or Right Arrow) to shoot a ball of energy that will destroy the obstacle. Each level is randomly generated, so, if and 'WHEN' you fail to avoid an obstacle and have to restart, you'll find the level is completely different. This gives the game plenty replayability, at least in short sessions. I do like these runner games, but only as stocking fillers in between more in depth games. They are ideal to play in short stints. Six levels may seem pretty stingy, but with the number of level combinations you get because of the randomly generated level design, you'll find this game has a lot more to offer than what you see in the level map.

Key Bindings:

Neon Void Runner caters for both left and right handed players, with two control options:

Left Hander:

⦁ Space = Jump
⦁ W = Jump
⦁ S = On Ground: Slide
⦁ S - In Air: Speed up Falling
⦁ D = Fire weapon

Right Hander:

⦁ Arrow Up = Jump
⦁ Arrow Right = Fire
⦁ Arrow down = On Ground: Slide
⦁ Arrow Down = In Air: Speed up Falling

Whiterabbit-uk 12th December 2018

Conclusion:

I enjoyed playing this game in short bursts. It's the sort of game I can jump into for a few moments while taking a break from bigger and more intensive/interesting games. There's little to learn, the key bindings although un-bindable are intuitive enough to be acceptable, basically you only need to concentrate on two keys most of the time with an occasional third key when a barrier presents itself. I bet the first time you come to one of those you'll fail :) It's definitely a keeper for me despite having loads of runner games already.

The one big negative I would say about this game...... There's no profile selection, so only one player can play this game. If you create a new game over a previous saved game, it wipes all that hard work away. If the developer has any intention of updating this game, please see my suggestions in order of importance (to me):

1) ... I would at the very least include a profile page, so that multiple profiles could be set up and include a high score table.

2) ... I would also have a color scheme selection tool. As it is, only the runner has the ability to have a different color and only then at the start of a new game. It would be interesting to be able to change the color of the level design as well. Bright orange, red, green or yellow would have been nice to see.

3) ... Include enemies. The weapon is little used in the game. with enemies to cope with as well, at least a toggle on/off ability, would have given this game so much more replayability.

4) ... Ability to add your own music to the game. As it is there are only three music tracks included. These are ideal for this type of game game as they do enable you to keep to a rhythm, but additional music would have been an extra bonus and stop the repetitiveness of only three tracks getting a little tedious.

5) ... Add some difficulty modes. My reaction times are pretty slow these days, age and opiate medication has slowed mine to a snails pace. It would be nice to be able to have different levels of difficulty, either via buttons or a slider; the easiest having a slower start and end speed; with (of course) the hardest difficulty having the fastest speeds. This addition would then enable all players to enjoy this game. I've not seen any runner game yet that includes a difficulty setting, so this could be a major attraction to those who until now have avoided such games due to their perceived lack of ability to cope with such games.

6) ... Finally, a level editor would have been the icing on the cake. Surely it wouldn't be that difficult to include an editor? I've seen editors in many indie games, that give the game so much more, including a community to share their level creations. You could include a separate mode for custom made levels, so that it wouldn't cause any conflicts with the main game.

I'm sure if you could incorporate all of the above, you'd have a much better and more popular game to sell.

There are no reviews on meta critic despite this game being at least a year old, and the only community review I could find on Steam, which also mentions some of the additions this game could use was a thumbs down (with 2.2hr's of game play) partly due to the game only having 6 levels. No account of the fact that each level changes whenever you replay it. It wasn't released to Steam until April 2018.

Neon Void Runner Videos:

You can see some in-game videos of game play HERE, HERE Español /Português, HERE and HERE.

Suggestions:

I've included my own suggestions for this game in the conclusion above. After you've had an opportunity to play today's giveaway please take a few moments to give some positive or negative feedback; for example, what you liked or disliked about the game, or how it could be improved. If you don't like the genre at all, please explain why and if any, what improvements would change your mind? If you don't have time to post a comment today, please do so at your convenience, thank you. If you wish to post a review or comment about the game later, you can access the comments section by going to the game giveaways home page, then scroll to the bottom of the page where it says Archives and select the date the giveaway was live (giveaway days are in bold type). This will open the appropriate page for you to post your comment or review. Alternatively, you can google the name of the game and include Gamegiveawayoftheday in the search. This should give you a list of links to whenever this game was given away.

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via Steam 24/7 HERE for £1.99/$1.99/E1.59; or, If you would like this game on your mobile phone, you can get an APK android or i OS version download for free HERE).

Problems getting the game to work:

If you're having problems installing or activating or getting Neon Void Runner to work please visit the FAQ's Thread HERE and read through the communities comments because sometimes fixes have already been posted, for example, a common issue seen since the Themida wrapper was introduced three years ago is that some community members installation of the game are blocked by their security because Themida code has been known to hide malware, (usually an error message is flagged for example 'The executable is corrupted' even though in reality it is not); so as a precaution some anti malware programs will block and even delete the suspect installation files even though the files (i.e. the setup, read me and setup.gcd files are actually totally free from malware. This issue can be solved either by rebooting your computer in safe mode with networking or a quicker method is to temporarily turn off your security software to allow the installation. You could also try whitewashing the setup.gcd file. In the almost 12 years this game giveaway site has been operating there has 'never' been a game given away that was infected with malware.

If for any reason you want to contact the giveaway team, for example, you have a game to offer the community, or are unable to download the latest game or other issues that the FAQ's thread or these comments don't cover or solve you can do so HERE

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the developer Falcoware for giving away a free standing version of Neon Void Runner and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

If Neon Void Runner doesn't interest you, but you still hanker for something new to play, you'll find details of some game deals whether they be sale items, indie bundles or games being given away for free HERE (I've not updated the thread in a while, but most of the links still take you to the latest deals).

The rest of the information that used to be posted in the game review can be found in the forums HERE. Finally, check out Delenns threads for details of other free games and offers HERE and elsewhere in the game discussion forums HERE, (usually on the first page of the game discussion forums).