Neva review: beauty within simplicity
PLATFORM: PS5
HOURS PLAYED: 6
Not every game needs to strive to break ground on something new. Deeply memorable and beautiful experiences can be crafted through a tight focus of ideas an effective execution, and Neva, developed by Team Nomada and published by Devolver Digital, proves that. Neva is a game focused on presentation -- presentation of impactful themes, presentation of impactful art direction, and presentation of simple but effective gameplay. Though at times it falters due to a lack of story direction, I felt that it's commitment and focus to it's ideas resulted in a strong and memorable experience.
Words Need Not Apply
Neva's story features Alba, a sword weilding heroine and her supernatural canine companion Neva, as they work together to reclaim nature from an unknown entity that seeks to cover it in blight. The story is presented through actions, rather than words. Well, that's not entirely true. While there is no verbal discourse or dialogue, Alba will use her voice for one thing and one thing only: to call out to Neva. Calling out to Neva is tied to a controller input, which enforces it's importance as an actual gameplay feature, as using this command has important uses.
Throughout the story, I used the callout feature to guide Neva through platforming sections, to get her attention when she get's distracted, or to find her if she's run off screen. However, by listening to the tone of Alba's voice when commanding her to call out for Neva, I was able to understand the depth of her emotions. If Neva is lost, or has become separated from Alba, you'll be able to hear the anxiety in her voice. When soothing Neva, you can hear the calmness and reassurance.
Further diving into this mechanic is Alba’s ability to soothe Neva. Alba and Neva are united in their disdain for the blight consuming the world, and at times, Neva will lash out at defeated enemies by feverishly gnawing at their left behind bodies. The only way to get Neva to calm down so that you can progress the game is by soothing her, which like the callout feature, has it's own dedicated command. This approach to portraying the depth of Alba and Neva's relationship through actions rather than words is deeply effective, and by making it such a central component of the story, made me feel more connected to what both characters were going through. However, where the focus on Alba and Neva's relationship is abundantly clear, the direction of their overarching goal, at times, can be less clear.
The story clearly and effectively portrays a beautiful world that is rapidly dying along with Alba and Neva's goal to save it. Together, our heroes travel through the dying world fighting monsters who spawn in different form factors all deriving from the blight. Through the first few chapters of the game, it's clear that we are fighting against the blight, but it isn't clear for much of the game whether or not we are working towards fighting the source of the blight, or if we have another goal entirely.
Much of the story focuses on the relationship between our two main heroes, and the lack of story direction regarding who or what the main antagonist is makes me wonder if there was perhaps too much focus on that relationship. I would have liked to have seen more of a balance making it clear who or what we were actually going after, which I feel would have resulted in a stronger story. However, Neva's effective method of story telling, messaging about nature preservation, and heart wrenching portrayal of Neva and Alba's loving relationship more than makes up for this pitfall -- resulting in an overall story experience that I won't soon forget, and neither will you!
Neva's Gameplay: Lean Design, But A Forest Full Of Fun!
Neva features straightforward and smooth gameplay mechanics which are iterated upon as you make your way through the games handful of chapters. Combat is fluid, and comprises of only a few moves such as a ground slash, an air slash, and a downward thrust that can be performed in the air. Alba's traversal move set is just as fluid, as she can perform double jumps, along with air dashes and somersaults -- useful for dodging enemies and navigating the game's myriad platforming challenges.
As you progress through the story, these mechanics are iterated upon in simple but thoughtful ways, keeping the action platforming gameplay fresh, without feeling like it's overbearing as the game goes on. My only complaint with the traversal mechanics is that Alba moves a bit too slow for what the game feels like its asking for with its moment to moment pacing. Many of the spaces you move between are quite large in scale, and Alba's speed, or lack thereof, can stifle the speed and fluidity of the game.
As you make your way through each season, and as the gameplay mechanics iterate, the level designs evolve as well. Each increasingly abstract environment requires you to make creative use of these evolving moves, but it never felt like there was an unfair spike in difficulty with this approach. Team Nomada took great care to create a comfortably paced evolution of mechanics, changing in parallel with it's evolving level design to create a balance that feels seamless and fluid. I went through the entire game without ever feeling like I had hit a wall with a new mechanic, but at the same time, I could feel the subtle impact it was having on the experience as I made my way through it. The quality in which team Nomada have stricken this balance is masterful, and is rarely done as well in other games.
As far as difficulty goes, I wouldn't consider Neva to be a terribly difficult game. It certainly has challenging moments, as a number of the late game bosses can surely be a handful, but overall it was only a moderate challenge for me. This isn't a complaint by the way, as this game clearly prioritizes it's focus on gameplay AND story, I don't expect it to be as difficult as a Souls game. But, what if you were so engrossed in Neva's story, that you didn't want to be held back by challenging combat encounters? Well, Team Nomada has you covered, as you can choose between normal difficulty and story mode -- the main difference being that in story mode, you can't die.
I played through about half of the game in story mode just to see what impact it would have on my experience. At first, I was concerned that switching to this mode would feel like a cop out, however, this was far from the case. Rather than making the game less difficult, story mode retains the difficulty of normal mode while removing the ability to die. Don't be fooled though, because if you aren't vigilant with your combat approach, enemies can still hold you back considerably from progressing the game. So sure, you aren't dying, but you're certainly being still being challenged, and that's what kept story mode from feeling like a cop out. Also, and most importantly, I felt that story mode helped me enjoy the pacing of the story more. Unencumbered by the threat of death, I was able to pour more of my attention into moving fluidly through the campaign events, making for what I felt was a more enjoyable experience overall. Your experience may vary depending on if you prefer story, combat, or both.
Visuals - Full of Vibrant Vistas
Neva's hand-painted-esque art style is as charming as it is mesmerizing. Dense forests filled with myriad plant life, wild animals scurrying around our main characters and more, look like they've been pulled straight out of a fairy tale story book. Large vistas with open fields and mountains in the background are breathtaking to look at and move through. Neva's art-style that demands that you stop and smell the flowers -- literally, as it portrays nature in a way that forces the player to evaluate their own relationship with it.
Neva's use of its stylized art style in darker spaces overcome with blight are just as effective as its bright, luscious counterparts. When you encounter a space devoid of natures beauty, you can really feel it. Groggy mists covering dilapidated natural structures, underground spaces that border on the supernatural portraying what this games version of hell looks like, and everything in between, paint a deeply effective picture of the duality of good and bad.
Verdict
Neva's strength lies in its tight focus with executing its ideas. Its simple approach to gameplay with consistent and balanced iteration as the game goes on makes for an experience that remains fresh throughout. The stylized art style gives Neva a heartwarming personality that really compliments its themes. The story, while feeling somewhat directionless for longer than I would have hoped, is dynamic, heart wrenching, and absolutely beautiful. Neva didn't blow me away, and while one could argue that its simple approach may have come at the cost of a more dense experience, I don't feel Neva was trying to strive for anything more than beauty within simplicity. With this in mind, I would categorize my experience with Neva very strong, and would recommend it to anyone looking for a visually and thematically beautiful indie game.
M.O.B.G. SCORE
7/10 = STRONG