GRIS made waves in 2018 for its gorgeous, painting-like visible model and story, and when it got here to PS4 a yr later, we thought it was nice. Now Nomada Studio is again with Neva, a recreation that builds upon the sturdy elements of GRIS and vastly improves the opposite areas to create a beautiful, emotional, and charming story of loss, love, and life.
Alba is a younger lady sure to a curious, spritely wolf cub named Neva following an encounter with mysterious darkish forces corrupting the land. Embarking on a journey throughout all 4 seasons, you platform your approach between cliffs, landscapes, and buildings to combat off the darkness and survive to the following season.
Neva holds nothing again within the artwork, animation, and sound division. The expertise is stuffed with wonderful makes use of of color and shadows, every scene brimming with life within the backgrounds, character actions, and even small prospers like Neva howling or Alba sitting right down to relaxation. The soundtrack and pacing are additionally completely aligned with the story being advised. They intensify the emotional story moments, notably within the second half, and reinforce the combat for survival in the course of the fight and platforming.
These extra concerned moments are surprisingly sturdy for a narrative-focused journey, and an unlimited enchancment upon GRIS. Nicely-designed, pleasing fight, puzzles, and platforming are always throwing new concepts at you as you attempt to destroy the darkish, amorphous creatures plaguing the land. The sport even has boss fights which are memorable, difficult, and visually spectacular.
There’s an entire 10-15 minute gameplay part within the Winter season of the five-or-so-hour journey with some of the spectacular and interesting platforming mechanics we have ever seen in a 2D recreation. It is transient however extremely memorable, and visually gorgeous in the way in which it presents its platforming challenges to you.
These gameplay moments and the elements the place each facet of the expertise comes collectively to work in concord aren’t fairly widespread sufficient. We want some mechanics caught round for longer, however it does hold the expertise contemporary and constantly thrilling, making Neva one other hit from the small Barcelona-based studio.
