Neva it will make me cry. This almost happened at Summer Game Fest, as the game’s intro cinematic faded to black literally only a minute into my time with the demo. I won’t reveal what happens in those opening shots, but it broke my soul. It also perfectly prepared me for the pounding danger and devastating beauty I would lose myself in for the next 45 minutes, along with my new best friend, Neva the she-wolf.
Every aspect of Neva breathtaking. Plays like a living watercolor illustration: Alba, the main character, has long, thin limbs, a cloud of silver hair, and a billowing red cloak that descends elegantly behind her with every jump and fall. Neva is a young white wolf, fluffy and energetic, and the two share an intense bond that is repeatedly reinforced and tested in the demo.
The world of Neva feels a bit more grounded than that of Gris, the game that put Nomada Studio on the map in 2018, but it’s still filled with layers of magic. The landscapes beyond the 2D plane through which the Alba and Neva pass have incredible depth—dense forests hiding secrets and mountain ranges towering over broad valleys, sharp peaks piercing the sky in the distance. The demo has lush meadows covered in vines and weeping branches, sunlight streaming through gaps in the leaves, and cave systems with dark, narrow corridors. Sometimes Neva takes a Frank Lloyd Wright approach to design, squeezing players through claustrophobic thickets that suddenly burst onto fields of thick green grass, the camera pulling back to show how small Alba and Neva really are in this space.
Trees, leaves, rocks, and roots make up the game’s side court with sloping platforms and floating islands made mostly of stone. Hints of fantastic alien technology appear with increasing frequency as the demo progresses, as do hordes of inky black enemies with round white faces, mouths open in soundless screams.
Platforming in Neva is intuitive. There is minimal on-screen text in the game and instead direction comes from the environment, soft highlights and sunlight marking the correct paths in a way that feels completely natural. I made my way through most areas of the demo, jumping on ledges with almost subconscious impulses, knowing I could trust the game’s subtle instructions. There are areas of stark darkness that Alba must clear in order for Neva to progress, and sometimes it’s necessary to leave the little wolf for a moment, generating instant separation anxiety. Neva screams and screeches as she learns how to traverse the world, and they are heartbreaking sounds. I could clearly feel Neva with each jump, making sure she could follow my path, holding back to watch her take big leaps, petting her after each success and constantly calling her name.
Alba’s voice is like a fairy tale and the way she says, “Neva? Neva. Noooo!” has become an earworm I can’t shake. In the days since I got home from Summer Game Fest and reunited with my two little dogs, I’ve been walking around the house saying, “Neva?” as if those were their names. It was a very confusing time for them, but they got a few extra treats, so it’s all good.
Struggle in Neva feels intuitively like a platformer, with simple inputs leading to satisfying slashes of Alba’s sword. The enemies, long-limbed creatures that emerge from dark lakes in the ground, slash at Alba with their sharp fingers and cast deadly blobs at her, but one by one, they’re pretty easy to take down. Alba is able to get incredibly close to any creature before it takes damage, and this generous proximity makes fight scenes feel like a dance, with constant action and minimal interruptions. I didn’t die until I got to the boss fight at the end of the demo, where Neva and I had to fight off a giant creature, double-jumping around it to slice through its legs and back while dodging its attacks. I beat the boss after three deaths and the scene felt like a fitting escalation of everything I had learned so far.
I am convinced that every review of Neva (including this one) will mention how quickly and easily the game will make players cry, and I want to take a moment to acknowledge the magnitude of that achievement. The bond that Nomada Studio has built between Neva and Alba is incredibly strong, and that type of emotional connection doesn’t just happen when you put an animal and a human in the same scene. Neva is a constant source of anxiety and joy: the little must be protected at all costs, and she feels like a physical part of Alba’s being, necessary for the protagonist’s survival. Neva establishes their shared trauma, and each subsequent mechanic strengthens their partnership—protect, caress, repeat. Neva and Alba need each other and their shared love echoes through every frame of the game.
guaranteed Neva it will make me cry.
Neva is due out for PC and PlayStation 5 this year, developed by Nomada Studio and published by Devolver Digital.
See all the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!
