This has been an interesting one for me, a bit of an interest roller coaster you might say. When I first saw the trailer for N.E.R.O. I was super hyped, I loved the visual style of it and the smooth sounding voice over, and honestly the environment design got me super excited to give the game a try. However, when I first booted up the game and started to play, my heart sank. It felt like another ‘Dear Esther’, another walking simulator that had nothing to offer me but being spoon fed a story as I walk from place to place. Once again I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that you actually had to do and collect things to further the story. So began my experience with N.E.R.O.
Now comes the point where I would usually explain the plot, but I find myself in a bit of a predicament. The game’s story is integral to enjoying the experience. Knowing the story to this game in advance would make it almost certainly not worth playing. To clarify, this doesn’t mean that the story itself is anything particularly unique or amazing, but the way in which it is told is particularly enjoyable, so I will just satisfy myself by saying that the story is of a mysterious figure, arriving on an adventure by boat and exploring a brigand’s hide-away.
The game plays a bit like a cross between Dear Esther and Real Myst, although it’s not as dull as the former or as convoluted as the latter. In fact, many of the puzzles that you have to complete to progress through the game are blindingly easy, something which at first feels like it worsens the game. You soon come to realise though that the game has other puzzles which present more of a challenge; they’re just entirely optional, which is a bit of a genius move, really. It means that those just interested in progressing through the world as quickly as possible can do so without taxing themselves, whereas those who want to dig deeper and get a little more invested can do that as well.
The main mechanics of the puzzles are introduced to you as you clamber your way through the first area. The first and most used is a glowing ball that you can throw at things, which illicits different reactions depending on the things that you throw it at. Then you’ve got your standard switches and pressure plates used to operate devices or uncover things to throw your ball at, and finally you’ve got a companion whom you can tell to stand in specific places, often to keep a switch held down while you go through a door or something.
The biggest bonus this game has over others like Dear Esther is the fact that it comes with a run button, something other ‘walking simulators’ often lack. Having said that, it’s more of a slightly faster walk than it is a run, and it can still be tedious to be wandering through a dense forest looking for a collectible when you know you’re going to have to walk all the way back through the same forest again in a minute.
I would say that the biggest flaw in the game is the backtracking. Although it’s rarely strictly necessary, you will probably find yourself backtracking at least once in the game. Sometimes there are branching paths that meet at the end, and once you’ve followed one you’ll want to go back and explore the one you didn’t pick, or sometimes you’ll be searching an area for some collectible scrap of paper and you’ll have to go back through an area you’ve already cleared. Thanks to the slow pace of the walking, even with the run speed, these moments can get very annoying, and honestly it makes you want to stop searching after a while.
As I previously mentioned, there are collectibles scattered around the different areas, with each group of collectibles representing an image that will help further the story as you play through it. These collectibles are either hidden very well or not at all, there is no in-between here. If you look hard enough, you can probably find most of them on your first playthrough, certainly enough to get the gist of what the image is trying to convey, although finding all of the scraps can become a bit tiresome and a bit of a chore. The few scraps that are hidden in very difficult to reach places are annoying to try and collect because they represent an increase in playtime that can sometimes add hours to the game.
The graphics of the game are stunning and not because of their high realism. This game is a great example of games that look good because of their style and not their fidelity. The first two worlds you are in are filled with mystery and wonder, akin to a fantasy painting that used luminescent paint. The world is filled with stark contrast, dark and mysterious forests with glowing creatures and plants strewn about it. Abandoned villages with dark alleys and brightly lit windows and courtyards. The whole game is about visual contrast, and it really gives it a feeling of twilight (the period of time in a day, not the awful book series). Everything glows with the feeling of a summer night from your childhood, spent out with your parents when you long should have been in bed.
The music goes to compliment the whimsical style of the visuals; it’s very similar to Gregorian chanting, although nowhere near as dark as that style usually sounds. The ambient sounds of the different areas also fit very well with the music, usually things like water dripping in a cave or the sound of water gently running in a nearby stream. It all creates this atmosphere that feels like you’re being wrapped in a warm, fuzzy blanket.
The atmosphere I previously mentioned is present for most of the game, but things get a little…creepy during the third area you go through. Without wishing to spoil much, just think of the creepiest place a horror game can be set in that isn’t a haunted house and you’ve got an idea of where you’re going to be for the third act of the game. The horror overtones are only slight and it’s easy to tell that there’s no intention of scaring anyone, but it could put off younger players of the game, if there are any.
There is a final bit of criticism which I feel has to be leveled at the game concerning the final moments, after you complete the third act. I will once again refrain from explaining the story to you, but suffice it to say that it is a very emotional ending that takes place during those final few moments. I did find that these moments were almost making me cry at points, but I ended up being less affected by them because in the middle of reading the story I’d stop to try searching the nooks and crannies for scraps of the collectible images.
I’m not saying that the collectibles were a bad idea as a whole; really I think they added something nice to the game at large. However, I feel like they were unnecessary in the last section, it would have been better to either remove them completely or to have them be in places directly in the path of the player so they couldn’t be missed. Because of the distraction these things caused me, I sort of ruined the ending for myself, although I still thoroughly enjoy it if the truth be told.
Developer: Storm in a Teacup
Publisher: SOEDESCO Publishing
Platforms: PS4, PC, Xbox One
Release Date: 24th June 2016 (EU PS4)