GRIS made waves in 2018 for its beautiful, painting-like visible type 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 certain 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 constructions to combat off the darkness and survive to the subsequent season.
Neva holds nothing again within the artwork, animation, and sound division. The expertise is filled 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 all the way down to relaxation. The soundtrack and pacing are additionally completely aligned with the story being instructed. They intensify the emotional story moments, notably within the second half, and reinforce the combat for survival throughout the fight and platforming.
These extra concerned moments are surprisingly sturdy for a narrative-focused journey, and an unlimited enchancment upon GRIS. Properly-designed, fulfilling fight, puzzles, and platforming are continually throwing new concepts at you as you attempt to destroy the darkish, amorphous creatures plaguing the land. The sport even has boss fights which can be 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 one of the vital spectacular and interesting platforming mechanics we have ever seen in a 2D recreation. It is temporary however extremely memorable, and visually beautiful 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 frequent sufficient. We want some mechanics caught round for longer, however it does preserve the expertise contemporary and constantly thrilling, making Neva one other hit from the small Barcelona-based studio.
