Neva is the wonderfully beautiful tale of Man’s Best Friend

Neva is the beautiful tale of a woman and Man’s Best Friend — kinda. Our protagonist, Alba (her name is never actually said in the game, so thank you to the Steam page for this helpful information), is bound to a wolf cub with antlers after its mother is killed following an encounter with dark forces. Alba names the wolf cub Neva and goes on a journey to keep the world safe while the dark forces change the world around them.

I don’t own a dog, but I’ve grown close to my roommate’s doggo, Darragh, in the past year or two. He’s adorable, and I occasionally take him out for walks, hang out with him in our backyard, sneak him treats and pet him a bunch. He’s such a good little guy, so when playing Neva, I became a bit more emotional than I had expected.

The game takes place throughout the life of the wolf cub, and you get to watch the cub grow up and become more confident in its abilities. But when you start the game, it’s just a baby and similar to my roommate’s dog, Darragh, I just wanted to keep it safe with everything I have.

In this puzzle-platformer-adventure game from Barcelona-based Nomada Studio, Neva occasionally disappeared off-screen because she caught a whiff of something further ahead. Alba, with a button press, can call out “Neva,” but if the wolf doesn’t return and you call out again, you can hear the fear in Alba’s voice. This would then fill me with anxiety and worry, wondering if something happened to the cub. This is further accentuated by the DualSense controller. Whenever Alba calls out, this comes from the controller’s speakers. Maybe this makes the game feel more immersive or dynamic, but whatever the reason, I enjoyed this feature. Sometimes, these enemies born from darkness would grab onto the wolf cub, and you’d have to repel their advances. It feels tense, and you want to protect Neva at all costs.

During this stage of the game, platform challenges are complex for the wolf cub, and unfortunately, you can’t pick up Neva — that’d be too easy, right? — so you must find ways of getting the cub to these difficult-to-reach locations.

However, the season changes after facing the first major boss, and Neva grows up a bit. During this stage, Neva can magically get up platforms herself, and she can fight. Instead of calling her name in fear, you have to pull the animal off downed enemies. You can tell that the beast hates the shadow enemies just as much as Alba. It’s compelling after being hunted for so long by them.

There is a lot to this story, but I don’t want to spoil too much. It’s emotional, thrilling, heartwarming, and has its share of surprises.

Neva is gorgeous; walking through a desolate, decaying landscape makes for great storytelling. The world surrounding the two protagonists loses its wildlife throughout the seasons and becomes colder and darker. This creates a sense of urgency, and I wanted to finish the story as quickly as possible to keep Neva safe. The artwork itself is beautiful in that fun indie way. It doesn’t look like the latest God of War, but it’s charming and lovely in its own right.

Neva has easy combat that I was able to pick up quickly. Most enemies only take a couple of hits before dying, and as the game progresses, these enemies develop new ways to fight. Some grow wings, others get blocks to shield them, and others are grotesque monstrosities. You and Neva will have to defeat these monsters, but you’ll gain more abilities throughout the title that can really help fight the onslaught of foes.

Neva is fun, and if you don’t mind some platforming challenges and tears, you’ll enjoy this indie title.

Neva launches on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and PC on October 15th.

Image credit: Devolver Digital