Neva is the video game equivalent of Oscar bait. It’s in no way bad, but it’s part of a specific formula that goes back for over 20 years now. “You (possibly with a [pet/sidekick/sibling]) explore a big scary world full of creatures of darkness with minimal exposition” is video games’ answer to the star-studded historical dramedy. If anybody ever gets someone like Christopher Nolan to make an Ico clone, the resulting product and/or service will win enough awards to warp local space-time.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Neva. I was pretty sure I would, which was part of why I didn’t cover it before now; it seemed like Neva was already guaranteed to find an audience. As long as I’m running clean-up on 2024’s indie games, though, there’s no reason not to cover it.
Neva is the second game from Nomada Studio, the Spanish developer that made 2018’s Gris. It’s easiest to describe as a short, occasionally challenging puzzle-platformer, but its visuals absolutely carry the show. Neva is 4 hours of surreal landscape paintings with a video game attached.
You play Neva as Alba, a young swordswoman who lives in a vast forest with her young wolf companion Neva. One summer, a corruptive force invades the forest, which tears apart and warps the landscape while turning many of the local animals into monsters. Alba and Neva are forced into a running battle for survival that unfolds over the following seasons as their world slowly dies around them.
At least, I think that’s what’s going on. Neva tells most of its story through context and visuals, with no expository dialogue; I only know your character’s name is “Alba” because the official website says as much. As a result, much of Neva is open to interpretation, as a dark fantasy adventure and/or a parable about the experience of raising children in the Anthropocene.
I initially thought that was all it’d be. The first half-hour of the game is also its weakest point, where you spend a lot of time running past colorful vistas without much in the way of actual gameplay. As the corruption spreads through the forest, however, you’re given more to do.
Before too long, Neva turns into a gauntlet of monsters, toxic vines, strange ruins, and the disintegrating landscape. If you’re the sort of person who clears Super Meat Boy for fun, there isn’t much in Neva that will slow you down, but it’s got a few decent challenges in store.
Neva only has three health points, but you can restore them by landing six hits in a row, which sets up a smooth and intuitive flow to its combat. You’re on a razor’s edge much of the time, but it’s easy to make up for your mistakes as long as you pay attention to enemies’ patterns.
Some of those are mitigated by Neva herself. Initially, she’s a defenseless puppy. While Neva is never actually an escort mission, its first level is mostly about shepherding Neva to safety as the forest continues to devolve. By the second level, the seasons have turned and Neva has grown up a little, so now she can take care of herself. Before long, you’re more like Neva’s sidekick than anything else, in an experience that’s meant to recall the relationship between a parent and a growing child.
It’s a carefully designed, beautiful experience, but Neva does run into a couple of the usual pitfalls you get with this kind of environmental storytelling. There are a couple of areas where it’s difficult to tell what you’re meant to be doing, due to color contrast, inconsistent signposts, or the camera panning too far out to make out important details.
If Neva has a single big problem, however, it’s that first half-hour. It’s never less than fascinating to look at, with a closer grip on its visual storytelling than most games even try for, but the opening level did make me wonder if it was just a vaguely interactive movie. If you give it a chance, Neva opens up into a short, often emotional game with enough challenge to keep it interesting.
Anecdotally, it seems like I’m not hearing as much about Neva as I did about Gris back in 2018. I do remember there being a sort of anti-hype cycle with Gris, where it got initial raves but didn’t catch on as hard with a mainstream audience. I wonder if Neva is suffering as a result, or if it got a comparatively weak initial reception due to the packed release schedule last October.
It’s worth your time, though. Many games I’ve played that look this good were barely games at all, but Neva finds a solid overall balance. It’s a decent action-platformer, as well as a solid achievement in interactive storytelling.
[Neva, developed by Nomada Studio and published by Devolver Digital, is now available for PlayStation 4&5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC for $19.99. This column was written with a copy of the game purchased on Steam.]
