"Neva" Review - Gonna Let You Down

Publisher: Devolver Digital

Developer: Nomada Studio

Platforms: Playstation 5 (Reviewed for), Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, Maybe Older Platforms

If I had to describe Neva in one word, it would be "unremarkable." I realize that's starting things off on a fairly negative note, but given how it seems to have 9's and 10's on various platforms, I may be in the minority here. I also want to stress that I don't mean it's "bad," or that there are no redeeming qualities...it's just that most of it is, as I said, unremarkable. Last thing before I move on: there will be spoilers in this review that might seem major, but I'm leaving out the truly important things. So, strap yourself in, because this is going to be a short-but-bumpy ride!

In Neva, you play as a woman evidently named Alba. Why Nomada Studio decided to give this person a name when it's never used in-game at all is beyond me, but whatever. The titular Neva is a half-dog/half-deer kind of animal who is a good girl. And for reasons you can likely ascertain just from looking at the box art, this is not the game you want to play if you're mourning a pet...I'm not ashamed to say this made me weep like a baby at times. Despite that, aside from an excellently executed twist responsible for a lot of my tears, this story is pretty bare-bones. The setup is this: we start off with a cutscene in which an adult half-dog/half-deer animal and Alba attempt to fight off some kind of corruption in nature that produces monsters. Alba is knocked out over the course of this fight, and when she awakes, she finds that this adult animal has sacrificed her life so that her puppy might live. We're then given a bit of text on-screen to show that time has passed to spring, and Alba and her new companion Neva set out on a journey to continue fighting that corruption and to find its source. From there, it's pretty much just that journey and no real plot elements. Now, as predictable as the setup of corruption in nature sounds, I have to mention that it's not necessarily predictable. This isn't a metaphor for pollution in spite of the fact that it produces humanoid spider creatures. In reality, it's more like some kind of non-specific negative spiritual energy. So it's not quite as predictable as it might seem given that this developer's only other project is Gris, which is the ten trillionth indie game about depression....

Wait.

Maybe the bad spiritual energy corrupting nature is depression in this case? 

Anyway, moving on now!

Gameplay is a mixed bag of environmental puzzles largely ranging in quality. In the late game there are several excellent puzzles involving strategic use of portals and using a mirror to complete platforming challenges. However, when the game isn't using these concepts, it's using finnicky jumping puzzles that require jumping from platforms at exactly the right moment in order to proceed. These jumping puzzles aren't as hard as you might think, but they're just finnicky enough to be mildly irritating and not feel satisfying. 

There's also some fairly frequent combat, but this is likewise not much to write home about. You have three hit points that can be restored by landing hits on enemies, and this works out given that enemies take far too many hits to die. Not only that, they do a thing that annoys me: after three hits they fly a distance away, meaning that you have to slowly walk over to them to continue attacking, by which point they've already teleported somewhere else more often than not. It's a small thing to complain about, but I wish developers would realize that whether or not you can close distance effectively is a major factor in enjoyment. Similarly, bosses are cinematic marvels, but they can be quite large and dodging doesn't seem to have consistent i-frames. 

As for why dodge i-frames are so important in Neva, there's one major reason: the game commits the cardinal sin. That is to say, you take contact damage from enemies for no reason. Unless an enemy is on fire, has spikes on it, or the whole point is to jump on them, there is no valid reason to take damage if you run into an enemy. Period. I will never let that slide in any game for as long as I live, and I sure as hell won't let it slide here.

So, story and gameplay aren't anything to write home about...what about technical quality? Well, sadly, it's a mixed bag as well. The art is gorgeous, and certain levels are jaw-dropping (Fall part 3 comes to mind), and like I've already said, the bosses are cinematic marvels. However, in many sections of mostly-empty sidescrolling, for some reason beyond me, there are truly jarring framerate stutters. It's as if the camera spends half of these segments trying to reset itself, and the result is legitimately almost nauseating. The game is mostly static backgrounds, how on earth can it be so hard to keep the experience smooth? It's not like it lacks funding, what with Devolver Digital footing the bill! It's not like the developers lack experience in this game style, given that it looks almost exactly the same as Gris in some aspects! Why is this so hard for them? There aren't many technical aspects to speak of, but the fact that there's so much variety in quality despite that is not a great look.

Folks, when all is said and done, Neva is pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a developer like Nomada. It's as I said in the beginning: unremarkable. The story beats that are meant to make you cry do, in fact, make you cry, so it does what it sets out to do. But the context in-between these beats and nearly all of the actual game pieces are lackluster, and it's all wrapped up in a technical package that has no right to be as flawed as it is. I'm going to remember Neva for a long time for how it pulled on my heartstrings (and probably would have even if I weren't still working through grief), but a tug on the heartstrings just doesn't cut it when everything else is subpar.

Let us review:

Basically nonexistent story - 1.0

Some weak puzzles - 0.5

Consistently weak combat - 1.0

Cardinal sin - 1.0

Unstable framerate despite low tech stakes - 1.0

The final score for Neva is...

5.5/10 - Slightly Above Average

Better luck next time, Nomada Studio, better luck next time