I feel Neva and I are going to get alongside fairly nicely.
To this finish, individuals who know me know what varieties of video games I like: first-person shooters, point-and-click adventures, story-driven third-person action-adventures, and puzzle-platformers – or as I prefer to name them, Limbo-likes. In case your recreation tells a poignant, emotionally compelling story with a wonderful artwork fashion, attractive music, and no dialogue in any way, then there’s a good probability that I’m going to actually like that recreation. It doesn’t all the time pan out, although; Black The Fall was a shameless and mediocre clone of Playdead’s seminal 2016 masterpiece Inside. Somerville was made by an ex-Playdead developer however couldn’t fairly attain the narrative heights of Limbo or Inside.
However Neva, the new Limbo-like from the builders of 2018’s excellent GRIS? I performed the first 45 or so minutes of it and it’s checking each good field there may be for this subgenre. Let me begin with the apparent: no, not the artwork fashion. I’ll get to that. However the canine. OK, so Neva isn’t a canine, however she’s this universe’s legendary equal of a canine companion. I need to’ve held the Y button down 5 occasions in the first 5 minutes to pet Neva, and I hope the builders at Nomada Studio embrace an unlockable achievement for doing so.
Anyway, Neva’s stunning opening sequence immediately made me care about Neva and defending her in any respect prices from the darkish forces which can be corrupting this beforehand pristine world. And pristine it’s. As I began to say earlier, the artwork fashion in Neva is as colourful as it’s distinctive. I am keen on the full use of the coloration palette that’s on show right here, from the muted greens of the darkish forest to the brilliant yellow of the open plains, Neva’s world is totally gorgeous.
Fortuitously, it exhibits the preliminary indicators of having the gameplay to again it up, too. Whereas the first three-quarters of an hour I performed solely served to slowly introduce the fight mechanics, finally intertwining them with the platforming as a way to create the puzzle-platforming these varieties of video games are identified for, that meandering path was an enticing one. I used to be riveted the total time, questioning what would possibly come subsequent. My hope is that Neva’s fight and puzzles proceed to stack and layer on prime of one another to create increasingly more intricate gameplay as the marketing campaign winds on, and the boss battle that concluded my demo was a welcome signal that this certainly is perhaps the case.
As well as, I used to be happy to come across a pair of secret objects throughout my demo, suggesting that whereas there may not essentially be sufficient meat on the bone right here for a number of repeat playthroughs, there ought to hopefully be a bit extra to search for that’s barely off the marketing campaign’s seemingly linear golden path. All informed, Neva was one of many video games I performed throughout June’s varied summer time gaming preview occasions, and it’s one of the few I’m nonetheless excited about weeks later. It appears to be like prefer it has the potential to be very, very particular.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s govt editor of previews and host of each IGN’s weekly Xbox present, Podcast Unlocked, in addition to our month-to-month(-ish) interview present, IGN Unfiltered. He is a North Jersey man, so it is “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.