Sometimes the hardest part of writing a review comes in deciding what to write about first. That’s not the case here, though, as frankly there’s not a whole lot to write about. Void War would be impressive for a student project or a game written by a kid in his or her parents’ basement, but as something that is supposed to provide you with gaming fun and will require you to part with your friend Andy Jackson it is most, most unimpressive.

Void War is a space shooter in which you play some teenager flying through space and shooting the odd couple of ships he comes across as he searches for his girlfriend. Seriously. This complex and original storyline is conveyed through static, two-color portraits and text of a quality that would probably earn the writer a C in a high school creative writing class. The goal here is basically just to kill everyone you come across and the only one left alive will be your girlfriend.

Your ship is a little space fighter that you control with the mouse in a manner that shows that the developers spent some time playing Freelancer. You move an on-screen cursor and your ship will point its nose in that direction, while the right mouse button is used to fire your thrusters. You have some peashooter lasers that you can fire with the left mouse button and when you happen to have a few missiles on board you can fire those with the spacebar. That’s about it, ‘cause that’s all there is to do.

Each nearly identical level features you against another ship or two in a section of space occupied by floating missile power-ups, an odd asteroid or two that can be shot for bonus points, and an occasional station that’s there for its scenic value. At first you will be put off by the wonky flight system that makes control of your ship erratic, but you’ll probably very soon realize that you needn’t even bother moving. You can easily cruise through the game by sitting still and letting the other ships yo-yo back and forth past you as you shoot them into oblivion. Are we having fun yet?

Your ship has three systems that require energy, shields, thrusters, and lasers, and using these or taking hits will deplete the energy. This boils down to a delay timer on your laser since the enemies seem incapable of doing much damage to you and as mentioned above there is no compelling need to go flying around space. The net effect is that your torture is prolonged because you won’t be able to shoot rapidly enough to put your brainless enemy out of his misery.

The bottom line is that this game is amateurish and not that much fun to play. For the same price, or less if you shop around, you can go out and buy Freelancer. If this type of game interests you do yourself a favor and get Freelancer instead.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 24%.  Avoid the void.