Neva Review (PS5) – When I played Gris for the first time with its PS5 release, years after everyone else played and loved it, I was honestly disappointed in myself for not having checked it out sooner. So much that I made a point that I wouldn’t miss Nomada Studio’s next outing.
That outing is Neva, which at first glance looks like Gris now with a bit of combat – which it sort of it, but thankfully it’s also a hell of a lot more than that.
Yes, Nomada Studio has, with Neva, made a game that functions very much like Gris in its structure, moment-to-moment gameplay, and look.
But rather than just being “Gris with combat,” Neva is the team at Nomada Studio evolving and improving on absolutely everything, and making a game that somehow doesn’t just equally follow up what was already a classic title, but surpasses it in every way.
Proven almost entirely by the fact that while Gris made me emotional, Neva made me openly weep before credits rolled.
Neva Review (PS5) – A Slow Walk To Cry
Summer
Firstly, this will be a spoiler-free review for the most part. There’s some predictable narrative beats that I’ll talk about for context but I’ll leave out the real big ones (which are also partly the ones that made me weep before the end of the game).
Also, to avoid confusion, when I’m talking about the wolf Neva, it’ll appear as plain text. When I’m referencing the game Neva, it’ll appear in bold.
Neva centers around Alba, a young woman bound to a mythical wolf and her cub, named Neva. We never exactly learn the name of Neva’s mom, but we do see her sacrifice her life for Neva and Alba within the first few minutes of the game.
The broad strokes of the story are that Alba and Neva then grow together and form their own bond while ridding the world of this all-encompassing darkness that threatens their world.
However the more important layer of the narrative that builds over the six hour runtime of Neva is the relationship you, the player, build with Neva as you watch him grow.
Over the course of four seasons, you see Neva grow from losing his mother as a pup, to a full adult that’s fighting against this darkness side-by-side with Alba.
There are times where the game separates you, but how you come together, and how protective you, the player, begin to feel over Neva becomes the narrative thrust of the game. You want to defeat this darkness less because it saves the greater world, but more because saving the world means saving Neva.
You build a bond with Neva through beats the game forces you to take, but also the ones it doesn’t force you to take, and instead implies. For example there are a few times in the course of Neva’s earlier hours where your wolf, Neva, will be threatened, and you’ll have to come in and save him.
Taking a moment with Neva to pet and comfort him afterwards is noticeably different than if you chose to pet Neva in a peaceful moment. There’s rich storytelling in each movement, in how both Alba and Neva are animated that stands out within the context of what’s just happened.
Another huge part of how this connection builds is that you can call Neva to you with a simple press of the triangle button, at which point Alba also calls out to him. Her calling out “Neva” is the only dialogue the game has, and playing on PS5 means her voice comes out of your DualSense’s speaker. It’s a small but deeply impactful touch.
All of this paired with the stunning visual landscapes that are almost always on display in every scene in Neva, and another hard-hitting score from composer Berlinist, the Nomada team has once again pulled off telling a heartfelt story with almost no words at all.
Fall
So Neva delivers strong storytelling, stunning visuals and an emotionally charged score in spades. Gris did the same, which is why it remains a beloved indie game.
What Neva also delivers on, (that Gris did not have) is much deeper gameplay. I was immediately hopeful for the platforming because from the game’s opening moments, you can double jump and dash, both on the ground and mid-air.
It’s already more than Gris ever had to its platforming, and I was glad to see that the further I got into Neva, the more complex the platforming became by layering on new complexities picked up by the few extra abilities you acquire as Neva (the wolf) grows.
The puzzles are also similarly a lot more complex this time around, though there was never a moment where I was actively stuck for any mainline challenges.
The most complex puzzle-platforming challenges are all optional, and while there were a few I spent some time trying to figure them out, I didn’t bother with many of them because it felt like I was breaking up my pace too much. I wanted to keep going in the main story, but it’s great to know these challenges are there for a second playthrough.
Out of all the gameplay improvements though, my personal favourite is not only the inclusion of combat, but the approach Nomada Studio took. With a ‘three strikes your out’ health bar, it’s a lot easier than you might expect to die, especially if you’re playing in a sloppy manner since most of the enemies aren’t made to be too challenging. Neva is never trying to be Dark Souls.
But it does have a bit of Bloodborne to it, because you can regain all three of your hit points by fighting back and landing hits of your own. Staying on the offensive is the only way to stay alive during a fight, you can’t heal mid-fight any other way.
Once a combat section is complete, you can regain health by reaching certain checkpoints, or sometimes Neva will howl and heal you himself. But until then, you have to carve your survival out of your enemies, and it works brilliantly.
Especially because if you were to remove that healing method and replace it with an Estus Flask-type system, the combat would become insanely boring.
Combat encounters and enemy attack patterns are simple by design. Though all the aforementioned gameplay improvements make it clear that Nomada is responding to criticism Gris received, the story is still the focus. Nomada wants you to experience the narrative the team crafted, and they aren’t about to let the combat get in the way. That’s also why there’s a no-death difficulty option, if you want it.
But having the default be this offensive-focused combat system where you can only recover your health by continuing to attack is the perfect amount of friction to make even the shortest and simplest of combat encounters a lot of fun to get through.
Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that while the enemy attack patterns may be simple, their designs were always much more impressive, exemplified best in the few boss fights scattered throughout the campaign.
Winter
Unfortunately not everything is a direct improvement from Nomada’s last outing. Some things stayed the same, like the lack of a sprint button.
Please, Nomada Studio team, if you’re reading this I implore you to at least have the discussion around adding a sprint button, at least one more time if you’ve already talked about it.
I get that you want to direct my gameplay and pacing so that I’m not missing any of the stunning art and visuals you worked tirelessly to bring to life. I get that you want me, as the player, to slow down and take certain moments in.
But a sprint button doesn’t have to get in the way of that. If Alba moved even just a little bit faster by default, I’d take that. I don’t exactly want to be constantly jumping and dashing in the air just to move a little bit faster.
The few chase sequences that pop-up in Neva’s campaign only left me wanting for a sprint button even more. For a game that’s generally firing on all cylinders in its relatively short six-eight hour runtime, I was actually taken aback by how Alba’s slow movement speed almost made it feel like a chore to play.
In fairness, there’s a section during the Winter chapter where you’re able to move faster, but that’s contextually limited, which only makes the moment you have to switch back to Alba’s slow walk even more dreadful.
Spring
Neva is easily one of the best game’s I’ve played all year, and one of the most emotional stories in games today. It’s gameplay is solid, with puzzle-platforming and combat that is never too difficult that it frustrates, but that also means it never surprises or delights with creative challenges.
However, Neva is a must-play game because it’s just that beautiful. The visuals and art on display are stunning, and thanks to a stronger gameplay focus, Nomada Studio has delivered on such a cohesive and worthwhile work of art that Neva is not to be missed.
I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a mark for how Neva hits emotionally. I said at the start of this review that I was weeping by the end, which I was – but I know that my relationship with my own dog adds a layer that other pet owners will know. Non-pet owners, especially those who’ve never had a pet, your mileage may vary on how hard the story gets you.
But Alba and Neva’s relationship is much more than just that of a pet and their owner, and if you look at what the team from Nomada has said about Neva, the game is more about the relationship between a child and their parent. So it’ll still hit relatively hard.
Pet owners beware of additional emotional damage potential.
Neva is available on PS5 and PS4 on October 15, 2024.
Review code generously provided by the publisher.