The short demo for Voivod: The Nuclear Warrior showed us nuclear wastelands, strange machines, mutants, science fiction, and Michel “Away” Langevin’s bizarre artwork. These things have been part of the band’s identity for decades, and kudos to the devs who decided to turn all that into a 2D action game.
Developed by Chaosmonger Studio with the band’s involvement, The Nuclear Warrior combines run-and-gun combat with Metroidvania exploration. Playing as the Voivod, we wander through a ruined world and search for pieces of his lost mind. If you try the demo, you’ll discover two different ways to experience the game. We feel both are useful because they concentrate on different parts of the formula.
Guns, Swords, and Lots of Things Trying to Kill Us
The combat is built around shooting, melee attacks, and using a collection of weapons and abilities. It’s perfectly okay to keep our distance and shoot or get closer and start swinging. No one will stop you if you switch weapons when a particular enemy or situation calls for something heavier. The Story Mode introduces these tools gradually, while the Combat Trial gives you much more of the arsenal straight away, putting you through enemy encounters before sending you into a boss fight.
While destroying everything that dares move, it’s important to move as well. You jump, dodge attacks, and work your way around hazards. Eventually, we gain abilities that open up more of the world. Exploration lets you discover hidden paths, breakable walls, inaccessible areas, and secrets. Like in any similar game from the genre, you find an ability, notice somewhere you couldn’t reach before, and then, sooner or later, end up going back to see what was hiding there.
The full game will have a substantial upgrade system, with nearly 20 upgrades ranging from straightforward improvements such as faster movement, higher jumps, and increased damage to much stranger abilities, including draining life from enemies and getting help from an Angel Rat. The pixel art is gorgeous and heavily inspired by Away’s artwork. It makes the game look strange but appropriate. The mutants, machinery, ruined landscapes, and grotesque creatures don’t look like generic retro science fiction.
The demo can’t tell us everything about a game that is still being finished, but it managed to give us a pretty clear idea. As we’re big fans of shooting, melee combat, platforming, exploration, upgrades, secrets, backtracking, and boss fights, we can’t wait to check this bad boy out when it comes out, all wrapped around one of the strangest visual identities a videogame could possibly have. The full game has a release planned for Q1 2027.
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