What can a game developer sacrifice in a game in order to amplify what remains? Some choose to cast aside mechanics, either simplifying or completely doing away with them, something which gave birth to the walking simulator genre. Others tone down the visuals, using stock assets or radically stylizing/simplifying in order to lessen the burden on animations, integrations and reworks. For some it’s the narrative, perhaps done haphazardly or maybe done in an unusual way so that there’s no heavy lifting in terms of writing, dialogue or worldbuilding. Neva, the second game from Nomada studios, has chosen a handful of things to cast aside in order to achieve the same level of excellence they brought to bear with Gris all those years ago.
The world is dying. All around you the dark black corruption spreads, consuming and twisting all life it touches until it is barely recognisable. This corruption tries to take Alba’s life and she is only saved by the intervention of a wolf friend who sacrifices their life in the process. Left behind is their lone wolf cub, Neva, who is now bound to Alba. Not wanting the corruption to consume all that she holds dear Alba resolves to travel as far as possible to hunt it down and put an end to it once and for all.
Neva brings back Nomada Studio’s trademark watercolour inspired visuals although this time around they’re even more rich and intricate. Every new biome you encounter will have its own colour theme ranging from bright and dynamic pastels of the open fields to the desolate and muted grayscales of the highly corrupted areas. Lighting effects have a much bigger presence in Neva than I remember in Gris ranging from striking god rays to diffuse blooms that used lavishingly wherever possible. Once again Nomada Studio has the Berlinist doing the soundtrack and they’ve done a fantastic job with it once more with their soundtrack matching perfectly with the game. This is certainly a great evolution of Nomada studio’s craft.
Just like Gris, Neva is a pretty standard platformer at is core. Most puzzles are solved by jumping between different platforms with the challenge coming from different configurations that’ll require you to think laterally about which order of dash/jump/double jump you’ll need to do in order to make it. There is some simple combat with the main challenge coming from understanding how to dodge the various attacks that enemies will throw at you. There is some progression of power as you progress through the story, mostly coming in the form of a new ability which will then be integrated as a core puzzle mechanic going forward. There’s collectibles to be found as well, although they’re really only there for those enterprising achievement hunters out there. All in all, it feels very familiar to Gris and many other similar games in the genre.
Platforming works as expected with the tried and true combination of jumping, dashing and double jumping giving you ample tools to explore the game’s levels as you wish. The collectibles are a little less hidden this time around and usually come in the form of a puzzle configuration that you wouldn’t have encountered elsewhere. They usually require you to do something in a non-logical order which makes it both easy (as you know that you can’t just treat it like anything else) and difficult (as figuring out the exact steps isn’t obvious). I enjoyed the challenging puzzles when I found them although I will admit I got tired of trying to look for all the collectibles about half way through. Exploring long sections to find nothing, especially when there’s no benefit to be gained by doing so, certainly takes the wind out of your sails for doing it again.
Combat is at the level you’d expect from a game like this: straightforward and relatively easy once you get the hang of the basics. Some of the enemies feel a little more damage sponge-y than I’d like which feels like it slows the game down more than it needs to. Still you probably won’t be blocked for long as most of the encounters are pretty forgiving, especially when you can regain lost health by smacking things around. The additional abilities you get over the course of the game help to keep things somewhat fresh, but it’s hard to do much with a game that’s this simplistic from a combat perspective. This all being said though I think combat fits well into the overarching game, despite its simplicity.
The narrative of Neva is a little more direct than what I remember of Gris, with the former game being a little more abstract about its themes and message it was trying to convey. Neva then seeks to explore the role of being a parent in a world that’s being ravaged by unnatural forces, an allegory for the world we live in today. How these manifest for you will be different based on your own lived experiences of these things, something which I think the developers are trying to get you to reflect on more than convey a particular message to you. It didn’t hit the same emotional highs that Gris did for me but I won’t deny that the final chapter tugged on the heartstrings a bit.
Neva is an evolution of Nomada Studio’s craft, reiterating their incredible craftsmanship abilities when it comes to sight, sound and solid gameplay. It is however more of the same from them, not really seeking to push the boundaries too far of what they had previously done with Gris. I’m not disappointed with what they’ve created, far from it, but it feels too safe. Is Neva a worse game than Gris? Not in my opinion, but the score I’ll give it will be lower simply because Gris exists. What I want to see next time from Nomada Studios is less sacrifice, less things put to one side. Aim for more, and become greater.
Rating: 8.5/10
Neva is available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch right now for $29.99. Game was played on the PC with a total of 3.6 hours played and 72% of the achievements unlocked.
