Early Verdict
Nightingale is a game I wanted to love.
It’s a game I kept telling myself and others about whenever more information came out about it.
I was excited, enthralled, and mystified by the idea of it.
Puck looks fancy yet intimidating.
It pains me to say my experience left a sour taste in my mouth.
It’s as though everything is half-baked at this point.
It’s my bread-and-butter genre.
Puck looks fancy yet intimidating.
My most-played game ever on Steam isConan Exiles.
You get the picture, I love these games.
So, of course, Nightingale has been on my radar for some time.
The portals sound as cool as they look
Which makes this review all the harder to write for me.
It’s a fantastical setting that invokes a true sense of wonder upon the player’s entrance.
I never knew how much I wanted steampunk vibes to invade my survival game setting.
Fishing isn’t a worthwhile effort outside of necessary quests.
Nightingale delivers on its setting, as well as its story.
Setting the player up for success, or possibly failure, who knows?
As for your voyage, the player is trying to return to Earth and the fabled metropolis of Nightingale.
I’m still finding cards 40 hours in.
It’s a fantastic change of pace from your everyday typical survival game story.
If you enjoyed something like Grounded, you’ll appreciate this as well.
The story is well laid out, and compared to other survival games, it is wild.
There are plenty of ingredients to choose from
Your first few are officially handed to you by Puck.
Still, afterward, players are tasked with crafting dozens of different cards themselves.
To start, there are three available Biome cards for players to use.
I love that the pistol reflects the color of the metal used
These include Forest, Desert, and Swamp.
You’ll get the opportunity to sample each of them during the game’s tutorial.
They all have their own pros and cons associated with their environments.
You’ll come across these pieces from the Nightingale trailers much later in the game
These benefits and negatives are something I wish were better fleshed out, but they’re still distinct enough.
Speaking of initial homes, players are also given Major cards, which combine with Biome cards.
Starting with the Abeyance card that players are offered during the tutorial.
Oh no, the same boss again?!
This card is fused with a Biome card to give players their beginning starter space.
From this location, the player will build their home and progress through much of the story.
As they progress, higher levels of Major cards will be obtained through methods I’ll touch on later.
These include numerous buffs and debuffs to player betterment in the realms in which they’re played.
The Fae Towers include assorted levels of enemies and puzzles.
The Crafting System
I wasn’t sure where I wanted to place this on my list initially.
This guy hits hard if you’re not careful
It’s deeper than any popular survival game of today.
Starting with the positives, let’s break down the items you collect.
You have multiple pieces of wood to choose from.
Praise the sun!
Which can sound incredibly dull, but just hear me out.
My pistol, for example, originally sucked.
Like, this thing was not worth it whatsoever.
Welcome to the Watch
That was until I came across Pursuit Ore.
The player’s first starting pistol uses multiple metal items, which include a trigger and barrel.
I felt like a bona fide badass.
Major Vaults are just fancy dungeons to fight realm bosses
The tedious portion of crafting comes when composing the pistol parts.
I said the pistol took multiple pieces of metal to make, remember?
This was a significant plus for me, as I loved this level of detail.
LOL
These ores and wooden bundles that go into the pistol truly change how effective the weapon is.
As the game progresses, you’ll make more and more complex items.
On top of these benches, players will also need to find, purchase, and craft diverse augmentations.
At times, it’s incredibly beautiful
While it’s a positive for me, I see the unfavorable effect this has on others.
The mechanics are simple and straightforward in their presentation.
Players can unlock a few sets of pieces through traders and random circumstances.
Beginning with imperfect wood and stone structures to the beautiful style of buildings shown above.
So what’s there, is there, and it’s serviceable.
Hopefully, more intricate pieces will become available to players as Early Access continues.
Gameplay loop
I count this time as everything between the tutorial and the end game.
I’m specifically talking about the main mission that Realmwalkers will adhere to.
One that, while full of excellent dialogue and story, needs something fresh implanted.
Players start in lower-tiered realms of forest, desert, and swamp biomes.
Naturally progressing through each along the way.
To go from one level to the next, I had to tackle “Sites of Power.”
It’s the identical boss every time.
A giant automaton with the same attacks.
It feels like a poorly disguised gear check without any natural creativity.
These bosses get harder, sure, but it’s not their attacks that change.
It’s their health pool and damage output.
Towards the end, they throw two automatons at you instead.
If this is where players spend 20-plus hours, a change needs to be made.
Bosses need an overhaul and given fundamental differences.
The mid-game overextends its stay if the developer plans to keep it as it is.
One that was featured in the trailers for Nightingale.
I took the more aggressive approach and tackled them head-on, and boy, was I thankful.
Each featured an array of attacks that fit their biomes and features perfectly.
They were a blast to find and face off against.
I even farmed a few for better materials.
This game needs more of this.
There needs to be more in-between enemies for players to tackle to keep them engaged.
I know games like Valheim do a terrific job of this, and more needs to be done.
Otherwise, you’re there for a potential quest to target one of these resources or possible enemies.
That’s really about it.
While it’s fun for a while, it gets tiresome later.
It needs to stay fresh rather than feel like a chore after a considerable amount of time.
Which is really the motto of this game.
It handled well to hit headshots with melee weapons; the game gives terrific feedback on them.
I love the dodge mechanic for light weapons.
There are things I truly enjoyed.
Overall, it felt good to attack.
Yet, I was annoyed by other things.
Especially the pistol that you’re able to’t aim with.
you’ve got the option to only aim using the slingbow and rifles.
Magic shows up, and it’s fun!
Adding a healing spell to my axe or earthquake to another item, I felt powerful.
With that, it felt problematic to use.
There was something about it that felt rough around the edges when casting.
It wasn’t even blatantly obvious to use, either.
I kind of came across it by accident.
End Game (So far)
Players will eventually reach what’s called The Watch.
It’s here you’ll learn of other Realmwalker efforts and their on goings.
Without spoiling any of the story, players will also encounter other online players here.
It’s when you reach this location that the whole always online thing finally makes sense.
You’ll get to tackle end-game dungeons as well that have puzzles and enemy waves with said players.
If you’re playing solo, no worry, as the game matches you seamlessly with others.
The idea of this is awesome; it’s the execution that again seems to fall just short.
You fight the same bosses that I mentioned during the final mission leading to this point.
They aren’t any different.
Instead, they’re upgraded gear checks again.
That’s the only difference.
The possibilities for this setup are fantastic, though.
The setup is there, but they need to find a better direction for it.
These Ascended realms have higher-tier resources, and I didn’t progress further.
I’m tired of it.
The Ugly
Technical Issues
These were rough.
I’m not going to attempt to put it politely.
Often, I found myself getting web connection errors during realm hopping.
From multiple computers on multiple networks, this would happen frequently enough to really irritate me.
Especially when the loading screens between realms feel like the initial GTA loading screen.
I was immediately met with a internet error when I realm jumped to the Watch.
It’s the screenshot I used at the beginning.
At other points, my game would stop updating.
I could still move around, but my stamina, health, and inventory stopped functioning.
I couldn’t even open a storage container.
Any work I had done over those last minutes was wiped clean.
Nightingale: Should you buy it?
You shouldn’t get it if you’re looking for a fresh experience throughout.
Watch some gameplay before deciding, as well.
What’s here is promising.
It’s the most “whelmed” I’ve ever felt.
It’ll be interesting to see where they take this game over the course of its early access.
