Neva is an incredibly beautiful puzzle-platformer from Nomada Studio (Gris). Neva was released in 2024 on Windows, MacOS, Nintendo Switch, PS4/PS5 and Xbox X/S. I purchased it through Steam and played it on the Steam Deck.
Gameplay
Neva is side-scroller! If you have a Steam Deck, this is a fantastic game for it! The art is beautiful although not graphically intense – it reminds me more of games like Abzu.
You’ll play the game through Alba. She comes equipped with a sword and two basic attacks, she can jump, double jump and dodge. Oh, and the best part is her partner, Neva. Alba will not gain any new abilities, level up, or change in her combat. Neva grows throughout the game and will give extra support as she grows.
There isn’t much text throughout the game. The only lines of text that appeared were instructional. The lack of text throughout the game was a fantastic experience on the Steam Deck. I didn’t strain trying to read tiny text or have any issues with mapping buttons.
Neva is not a long game. I finished it in just a couple of hours, and I really enjoyed it! There are a couple of levels of difficulty available, and I played it on Story Mode. Essentially, I wanted to enjoy the game and not worry about dying… so I did!
There is a fair bit of combat in the game, but fortunately on story-mode I did not need to worry about my health. The only deaths I ran into where when I fell off of things while jumping. (Jumping is hard. See Fally McFallerson.) The puzzles were not overly difficult, but there were one or two that I had to look up. Eventually I figured out that the secret was to try turning around. (I admit I am not great at puzzles.)
The best, and most important feature of this game is that you can pet Neva.
Story
Neva is going to take you on a feels trip. Here is a trailer to highlight some of the art and the game play.
(If you really want to see how well the game pulls at you, here is a video of the first few minutes of the game. I’m warning you, it will hurt.)
Neva opens by showing you a beautiful world, and then suddenly, a bird just… falls from the sky. Then some more birds. As Alba is investigating this with her wolf-deer friends, they are suddenly attacked by a black mass of creatures. Alba pulls her sword and mother wolf-deer assumes combat positions…
And everyone is overwhelmed, and mother wolf-deer is killed leaving Alba with the pup, Neva. (This was less than 10 minutes into the game. I want to reiterate that I was not okay here…)
It’s not entirely clear what Alba’s relationship to the wolf-deer is, or what their overall role is (are they… gods? Spirits?), but they seem to be there to make sure that life is going to continue.
Alba and the pup then head out on an adventure which spans multiple seasons as the pup grows. Neva starts off being entirely dependent upon you – you will have to coax her to follow you, comfort her, and protect her. As you work through each of the seasons, Neva grows – as does your bond with her.
She’ll gain new abilities and begins to help you in combat, of which there will be a lot. Whatever the black-mass is, it’s destroying the world, and at times, even reanimating the dead.
I’m not going to give away the ending. It’s not a very long game, and it’s worth the play!
Overall Review
Neva is a very beautiful, fun game that performs beautifully on the Steam Deck. It was not a long game, and I picked it up for $20 on Steam – although you can probably grab the bundle of this and Gris if you wanted to try their other game! Well worth the money for me! It is a side-scroller with a fair bit of combat and a lot of puzzles, but not overly challenging. The difficulty options make it very accessible.
Was it fun, though?
Yes! It was the perfect length for this style of game. I don’t always need to play a game for 300+ hours. Sometimes two hours is perfect!
The Bardic Unicorn 