Spring. There is cheerful excitement all around – streams are babbling, birds are chirping, greeting their native land. Someone has woken up, someone is just getting ready, someone has crawled out of their chrysalis and spread their wings, someone is watching this transformation with great appetite. Trees with new shoots modestly hint at the coming riot of colors. But winter sends farewell greetings. You can’t even call it snowfall. Snowflakes can be counted. One fell on a snowdrop. The other one was immediately shaken off by the wagtail. The third fell on a spruce paw. Two more fell on the nose of a huge white wolf lying under a spruce tree. They fell… and did not melt.
Not what it seems
To be honest, I greeted the first Neva trailer with some skepticism. Yes, I’m a big fan of GRIS, but the idea of doing roughly the same thing again seemed a little simple to me. Why get into the same water again, even if not in the hateful sequel format. To do something similar, but more emotionally, more beautifully, more elegantly, is a very difficult task, but if you lower the temperature a little, and against the backdrop of a wonderful debut, the new creation of Nomada Studio will immediately fade. But I was deeply mistaken – the Spanish studio simply found its genre and style and is capable of creating real miracles in it.
At first, Alba has to constantly save, console and calm Neva. This will change
To begin with: Neva, for all its visual similarity, is completely different in its essence. GRIS is deeply introspective – the heroine in a world of mysterious beauty is looking exclusively for herself, without facing real threats that must be fought back. Neva, with all the similarity of the protagonist (and almost identical graphic style), is dedicated to friendship, mutual assistance and struggle.
The theme of friendship itself – the girl Alba (her name can only be found out from the additional materials for the game) and the wolf cub Neva – is revealed in a very dotted manner; there is no psychological depth or detailed characters in the game. And this is not a flaw of Neva at all, this is the studio’s signature style, sketching out the plot with light strokes. Both Nomada Studio creations are poetic and, as in poetry, they care more about the overall feeling, rhythm, rhyme, emotional immersion. Suffice it to say that here again there is not a single line of text, and the heroine utters exactly two words – two names – throughout the entire game.
Even death is presented beautifully and poetically here.
At the same time, Alba and Neva interact a lot; they do not exist in parallel. At first, the wolf cub must be helped, comforted and calmed down in tense moments – but he grows and soon fights alongside Alba, becomes able to take on a spiritual form and even turn into a projectile. You can call your companion or hug him at any time. Yes, another game where you can stroke and caress an animal – this time, however, not just a pet, but a real friend.
Above, I didn’t just say that about the projectile. Yes, yes, Neva has a combat system – and, perhaps, along with the theme and avoidance of introversion, this is the most fundamental difference from GRIS.
Where would such games be without the obligatory chase scenes with obstacles?
At first glance, it is implemented here simply – one type of strike, a dodge-roll combined with a double jump. There is no upgrading or changing weapons, new techniques do not appear in the combat system from about the middle – and even that is only one, the already mentioned ability to “throw” Neva at the enemy. At the same time, fights do not get boring and can keep you in suspense throughout the game. Opponents and situations change, and there are several very tough bosses. Yes, Neva will not pose a real challenge – it is still a work created for the sake of emotional immersion and aesthetic pleasure, and not for strengthening reflexes and increasing self-esteem. But you will have to learn habits and timing while suffering defeats – especially from bosses. I’ll add that the battles turned out to be dynamic, rhythmic and not too long – the balance was maintained well, there was no imbalance in complexity bordering on tediousness, like in Ori (where the gameplay conflicts with the “fairytale” message). For those who do not want to overcome even the slightest challenge (and within the framework of such a work it is very easy to understand such a player), there is a legal cheat when you simply stop taking damage.
Most of the game is occupied by platforming elements – sometimes very complex geometrically arranged and never cease to amaze with new moves. Neva is divided into three equal parts (summer, autumn, winter) – and each slightly changes the rules of the game: somewhere you just need to jump accurately, somewhere you need to interact with Neva, somewhere exploding opponents (and at these moments Neva is very similar to the two-dimensional Neon White), somewhere you will have to pay attention to the reflection in the ice. The authors of Neva have a rich imagination, and they are not shy to demonstrate it – the game turned out to be not only beautiful, but also not boring.
⇡#Great beauty
And yet, the main thing worth opening Neva for is its visual perfection. The game is sometimes simply unbearably beautiful. Watercolor painting is accompanied by very subtle work with color (and yes, each season has its own color code, of course). It seems as if each game screen is perfectly aligned according to the golden ratio – the artists do not hesitate to make full-fledged art objects out of the environment – and this turns out to be very appropriate within the framework of the overall concept. The design of the antagonists is mesmerizing – they are both repulsive and creepy… and beautiful. In principle, I pressed the screenshot button a little less often than the jump or sword button.
There are also collectible objects in the form of sometimes hard-to-find white lilies – they create motivation to return to the game
The animations are executed flawlessly – both in battles, which are perceived as a dance, and in peaceful moments; Just look at the animation of Alba and Neva hugging – it feels like the point from which the whole game grew.
All this is accompanied, as last time, by very emotional Berlinist music at the intersection of neoclassical and electronic music – much of this silent work is based on it, working only at the level of images (including sound). Yes, Neva will have several small cartoon inserts; they are expressive, but still do not provide specifics, just like the interactive part.
At the same time, Neva is a much more transparent and, let’s say, intelligible product than GRIS. It’s still a game of images, hints and allegories that form a clear and very simple, but important idea, which is not difficult to understand. Yes, to some this will seem a simplification in comparison with the vague and evading any directness of the studio’s debut. I liked a little more focus on the idea without compromising the poetic essence of the creation.
Sometimes it’s completely impossible to believe that this is not just a beautiful creation of a talented artist, but part of the game
Neva’s very slender, seemingly perfect body still has some flaws. Sometimes the game lacks originality or courage: sometimes the sources of inspiration are too obvious (we are, of course, talking about Studio Ghibli cartoons and Team Ico games), or the reliance on one’s own experience turns out to be too obvious – some moments are completely copied from GRIS. But, to be honest, all this almost does not spoil the overall picture.
***
The most basic things are sometimes very difficult to say in simple words. About the importance of grief and the inner experience of loss. Or that the idea of death and the idea of birth are inseparable, the process of dying itself starts with the first breath – and this is the natural order of things, the cyclical essence of the universe. The key in such phrases seems to slip away between the lines, falls into the space between letters, leaving only the dry, rational rustling of empty phrases. To comprehend such things, there is an art that works, including on an emotional level, and Nomada Studio just undertook to create platformer poems that speak about important things in the language of unimaginably beautiful and touching games.
Advantages:
- This is an incredibly beautiful game;
- Which this time manages to tell a fairly clear story;
- But at the same time retains wild emotionality.
Disadvantages:
- Somewhere Neva lacks originality.
Graphic arts
Nomada Studio is, first and foremost, artists. And this is clearly visible in the incredible drawing. But the most interesting thing is that all this turned out to be wonderfully woven into the gameplay and brought to life with excellent animations.
Sound
Berlinist’s music suits what’s happening on screen very well. This time it didn’t give me goosebumps, but it copes with its hardest role – creating an emotional foundation in the absence of text, speech and with a minimum of sounds of interaction with the environment.
Single player game
In such games, which rely heavily on visuals and emotional content, you don’t expect interesting gameplay – they often turn out to be walking simulators. But Neva manages to be a varied platformer and a competent enough action game, and not just a desktop wallpaper generator.
Collective game
Not foreseen.
Approximate travel time
5-6 hours.
General impression
An art installation that was so played with an action-platformer with a powerful emotional message that it turned into some kind of special form of art.
Rating: 9.0 / 10
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