I first meet Fiona when she’s taking a melancholy tub. She’s enthusiastic about floating away to a distant island she’s seen in an advert when her doorbell rings. It’s the moment noodles I ordered (Neverway requested me to choose a meals), and once you’re ordering prompt noodles, you realize you’re down horrendous. A fast examine of her laptop tells the story: my woman has stopped coming to work, and she’s been fired. She has 5 days to choose up her issues from the workplace earlier than they’re recycled. Fiona hasn’t replied. One other electronic mail is from foxyrogue1 letting Fiona know that foxyrogue1 has her hoodie. When she doesn’t reply, foxyrogue reaches out to see if Fiona’s okay. She doesn’t reply to that one both.
However her electronic mail reveals different secrets and techniques, too. One from Insurance coverage Heaven tells me a Misplace can occur to me, and tells me not to have a look at it. Ominous. However I’ve prompt noodles to eat. Afterwards, I traipse round Fiona’s condominium, taking in how beautiful all of it’s. I’m not exaggerating after I inform you that Neverway is among the most visually putting video video games I’ve ever seen. It jogs my memory of one thing you may discover on the Recreation Boy Coloration, solely much more lovely, and the muted, gray colour palette of Fiona’s division makes it straightforward for me to determine together with her way of thinking. I stand on her balcony, flush her bathroom, activate the TV, and study that, in keeping with the Misplace Patrol Authority, that there hasn’t been a Misplace in six months. That positively sounds legit. With nothing else to do and nowhere to go, it’s time for a melancholy nap.
The next day, Fiona realizes she has to go get her issues from the workplace. Meaning going outdoors. I get her dressed, and off we go. One of many issues that basically impressed me about my time with Neverway was the way it guided me to the place I should be with out overtly saying “go right here.” I didn’t know the place Fiona’s workplace is, however I determine it out fairly rapidly due to how good Neverway is at exhibiting with out telling. Contained in the prepare station, I discover one other advert for Montgomery Island, which appears to be focused straight at Fiona’s melancholy, and a pair individuals in biohazard fits examine a cordoned-off bench, half of which is simply… lacking. That’s bizarre, nevertheless it’s not my drawback. Onto the prepare I’m going.
One other quick stroll takes me to the workplace, the place I select to have Fiona inform the reality about the place she’s been. After grabbing her issues, I purchase corn on the cob (and snag a cup of espresso for the journey mug I’ve recovered from the workplace), and discuss to a different lady who informed me that she needed to be left alone. I made a decision to provide her the corn I’d purchased, which cheered her (and in all probability Fiona) up, too. Good deed for the day achieved, I determine it’s time to go house.
Again on the prepare, issues begin getting bizarre. There’s just one different individual within the automotive, and she tells me she’s discovered heaven. All we’ve got to do is wait. Because the prepare strikes, and gentle filters via the home windows, static seems on my display, and some… factor sits subsequent to me. When the sunshine fades, it fades. The girl heads to the following automotive, and I comply with. What occurs subsequent is complicated. I decide up a pipe and bash via a barrier blocking my manner ahead, then crawl via a big tunnel. Within the ultimate automotive, a number of large, spindly legs experience up from an abyss. An unlimited eye stares at me from the blackness. Then I’m attacked by unusual, black, gelantinous… individuals? I’m not fairly positive. They cling to me, and I combat them off, my pipe crashing towards their our bodies. Photos comply with. Fiona in a forest of shattered timber, bones scattered throughout, skeletons pinned to the shattered trunks. A large machine that opens in the direction of me. She collapses. And the prepare arrives.
When she will get house, foxyrogue1 is there to return her hoodie simply earlier than telling Fiona that they don’t suppose that is working. Fiona retreats again into her condominium, and like many a depressed individual, dissociates for some time. In her lobby. In her toilet. At her mattress. Lastly, she simply decides to get away. And there once more, is the advert for Montgomery Island. Fiona decides to take an opportunity.
After serving to her transfer into her new home – and assembly the officer who controls entry to the island, who doesn’t appear to love Fiona very a lot and ominously warns her to go house instantly because it’s late – I’m taken to the second a part of Neverway’s demo. This time, I’m inside a pc simulation based mostly on Fiona’s thoughts. If the opening sequence was about temper and tone, that is very a lot about What It Feels Wish to Play The Video Recreation™. After combating off some enemies, I purchase a hookshot I can use to yank them in the direction of me or zip throughout the gaps that phase this fragmented, blue-tinged our on-line world. My objective that my companion/handler/teacher Fang tells me is to rebuild a bridge, which suggests getting my arms on some wooden, which in flip means getting my arms on an axe to cut down some digital timber. Certain, why not? In spite of everything, that is all based mostly on what’s happening in Fiona’s head.
As soon as once more, there’s nothing telling me the place to go or what to do. I’ve to determine it out for myself, and I really like that. I traverse the paths accessible to me, combat off enemies, drop from greater ledges, hookshot throughout gaps. Once I’m drained (each vitality and well being are a useful resource), I can chill out within the sizzling springs or sleep in my digital mattress. I study the place I can’t go and the place I can, following the sq. patterns between strong floor that inform me I can stroll to new areas. I assist a girl named Monica save a wilting flower by discovering the supplies to craft a watering can at a workbench, and am rewarded with a touch that strikes via enemies and leaves behind a shadow. After a improbable joke about what Fiona fears most, I face off towards a boss that exams my potential to make use of the talent I simply acquired. I’ve to make use of the sprint to get round his defend. As soon as he’s down, I lastly get my axe, and I can lastly restore the bridge.
After which issues begin getting bizarre once more. Creeping shadows infiltrate the simulation and pursue me wherever I’m going. I traverse via smaller and smaller variations of Fiona’s condominium, then throughout a black void the place scenes I don’t perceive play out earlier than me. One reveals me two youngsters with numbers for names taking part in in a laboratory speaking about turning into sturdy, and a 3rd who tells them that they don’t need weapons. One other reveals weapons being transplanted into a baby. Perhaps one of many ones I noticed earlier, solely older? I have no idea.
Ultimately, I discover a man named Lancelot sitting atop a throne. He calls me Fang, and asks me what I’m when my goal is gone, then transforms right into a monstrous, black blob with a doll’s face and snakelike hair. After a fast battle towards the shadows, Fang rushes in to save lots of me. I combat previous the storm pushing me again. I embrace Fang, and the demo ends.
I got here away from my time with Neverway shocked by its magnificence, turning over what I’d seen in my head, and questioning what would occur subsequent. I didn’t get to see a lot of its life sim components – I didn’t farm or fish throughout my demo – however I used to be compelled by its strangeness and its willingness to show me free and let me determine issues out for myself. I don’t know if I’m positive of how Neverway will look when developer Coldblood Inc. lastly places the entire sport in our arms, however I used to be so inquisitive about what I noticed throughout its demo that I’m additionally undecided I care. I need to spend extra time on this world: I need to plumb its depths, study its secrets and techniques, and unravel its puzzles. From taking part in this demo, I feel I perceive Fiona. And I need to see the place her story goes, regardless of how darkish or unusual the street she travels turns into.
Will Borger is an IGN freelancer. You could find him on Bluesky @edgarallanbro.