Underwhelming Experience: Gris Devs’ Lackluster Sequel
The Kotaku Review: Neva
A Story of Seasons
The wolf dies in Neva, the new platform-adventure game from Nomada Studio. That’s not really a spoiler, as the game’s reveal trailer showed this very moment off, and it’s the very first thing you’ll experience when you start playing. But what you’ll be wondering for the next five hours is if the game’s titular wolf pup will suffer the same fate as their dearly departed parent.
As the second title from the developers of 2018’s Gris, a critically acclaimed puzzle-platformer about grief, Neva has a lot to live up to. Like its predecessor, Neva has gorgeous visuals and often-delicious platforming puzzles. The sophomore title falters, however, in how it executes on its often too-familiar themes. For those who have played Gris, this game’s distinctive art style and animation, resembling that of a hand-drawn film, make it abundantly clear the same team is behind it. That pedigree isn’t always a good thing, however, as the game fails to strike out on its own, instead falling back on creative choices we’ve seen before.
A Story Unfulfilled
Neva’s story about our relationship with nature and the cycle of life seems ripe with potential, but it never knows how to deliver on that promise. The focus on an NPC companion puts this game in conversation with the likes of Ico and The Last Guardian, but unlike those games, it fails to understand the importance of allowing such a companion some level of freedom that may sometimes grate against the player’s wishes but that ultimately leads to a wonderful symbiotic relationship forged through challenges.
Combat as a Crutch
In theory, the game’s combat serves a thematic purpose as well, in that it allows you to actively fight for a better world. As Alba and Neva make their journey on, they’re constantly waylaid by the once-thriving fauna of the forest, now infested with the same corruption poisoning the land itself, and by engaging you directly in that struggle, the game seems to assert itself as an environmentalist call to arms. Unfortunately, however, these themes never go more than skin-deep. Beyond destroying the threat, Alba and Neva can’t work to meaningfully bring life back into the world. Neva is the only animal you as the player directly have responsibility over and interact with, and even they become nothing more than another tool to wield in the context of combat.
A Game That Fails to Deliver
Neva prioritizes a meditation on life and loss that too often feels half-baked and pales in comparison to Gris’ execution of the same themes. Much of Neva feels propped up by its predecessor to cover its weaknesses, with familiar themes and the same platforming (flaws and all) from Gris encouraging fans of that game to not look too closely at this game’s faults. Ultimately, when Neva attempts a final narrative twist that fully leans away from the initially compelling and original themes of its story, it’s too much of a shift too late in the game, and only serves to undermine the few unique choices this experience attempts.
A Brief But Disappointing Journey
Neva is a game of potential that is never reached. It’s a short game, lasting around five hours to complete the story and discover a majority of the optional collectibles, but that brevity only serves to underscore the disappointment that follows. At least it’s short.
Platforms:
PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PC
Release Date:
October 15, 2024
Played:
Five hours to complete story and discover a majority of the optional collectibles.
