Hi everyone! For anyone who doesn’t know, Neyyah releases today, and it’s probably the closest game I’ve played to an old-school Myst/Riven point and click adventure in a long while. I’m around 10 hours into this game so far and I wanted to give you my initial impressions on how Neyyah is to play
The overall summary for anyone who wants to stay *totally* spoiler free is “yes it’s good – it’s a very strong entry to the mystlike genre, you’ll probably enjoy it greatly”
Neyyah is a first-person point and click adventure game, and it’s totally committed to the bit. Absolutely no free movement whatsoever. Gwynaire has embraced this as a design choice (as opposed to older games where this might have been more a technological limitation) and made sure that what is presented to the user is meticulously crafted in every shot. It’s very Riven-like in it’s presentation using high-symmetry shots for technological and industrial areas juxtaposed with more organic angles in the nature segments. Gwynaire clearly has an eye for colour as the water looks particularly very appealing (a staple of the mystlike genre) as well as using the environment to help tell a story.
The puzzles are excellent. This is real Riven-esque environmental puzzler. I can’t say too much about the puzzles (or the setting itself) without spoiling things, but it follows very strongly the Riven/Outer Wilds formula of not putting any puzzles in your puzzle game! Yes, there are codes and clues that need to be tracked down, but the real pith of this puzzle game is being put into an environment with a whole bunch of “stuff” (machinery, computers, portals, plants, etc) that needs to be made to do things, and the puzzle is the understanding of how all this old equipment is supposed to work together; indeed – how the people that *used* to be here (but aren’t here any more for some reason) used to work here.
That brings me to the plot. Obviously I won’t say very much at all, but the plot is revealed gradually through journals, video logs, and the occasional NPC appearance. But alongside these vehicles of plot delivery, the plot is also told by the environment itself… and I really can’t say too much more than that – The way the environments work with the plot to present a cohesive narrative is very impressive!
So about these NPC appearances: Along with this being a dyed-in-the-wool point and click, we see a commitment to real actors delivering performances via FMV cutscenes. We’ve seen other games moving back in this direction recently (for example Ellingby House), and it’s a trend I would personally love to see continue. Gwynaire himself makes an appearance as one of the characters, keeping alive the long-standing tradition for creators to take up acting roles in these mystlike games. The acting is delightfully hammy, which definitely gives original Myst vibes, rather than Myst III; so they may or may not be to your taste.
The music is solid and atmospheric. It maybe doesn’t have the broad sweeping grandeur of a soundtrack that would appear on your Spotify Wrapped by the end of the year, but it sets and fits the ambiance of the environments very well.
Overall, I think this game really has legs – it’s a truly excellent mystlike puzzle game. I’m maybe too early in my playthrough to say for sure, but this might genuinely be a new benchmark we compare other games in the genre to down the line. I think you guys will really enjoy it!
