
As the technology of videogame graphics has grown and evolved over the decades, developers have been able to imbue their characters with more and more life and humanity. Subtle animations and mo-capped facial expressions give heroes and villains a believable inner life that enables more emotionally resonant stories to be told. But that's all a bit of a waste of time, as it turns out, because Void Sols took about 15 seconds to get me feeling empathy for a triangle.
In this soulslike's abstract world, people and creatures are just shapes. At best, larger beings may combine two or three shapes together. The environments are a little more textured, but still simple and boxy with stripped-back details—a flaming torch is just a glowing circle, while a treasure on the ground is a bundle of triangles.