During The Game Awards 2022, we got a new trailer for the upcoming survival game Nightingale, and it is looking like it’s going to be a hit with fans of Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, and Fantastic Beasts.
Earlier this week, we got the chance to sit in on a presentation from Inflexion Games about Nightingale and there’s a lot of promise here, even in a very saturated genre of game. Set in an alternate version of the Victorian era, humans communed with a species named the Fae. Though antagonistic, these creatures offered humans an avenue to incredible technologies including a network of portals that take them to realms beyond their imagination.
Check out the brand new trailer here:
Nightingale starts with a catastrophe that traps you, the Realmwalker, in a dangerous land with no way of returning to our own world. That’s why Inflexion Games has underscored the importance of collaboration, though, PvP is potentially on the horizon if the game gains ground with its community. “As groups of players, you can connect your Realms with your own portals, you can have easy access to each other's Realms,” explained CEO Aaryn Flynn. “So it's a lot of fun there to build out. You know, the original idea was what we called the Silk Road, which is to be able to build portals all the way up to the most fantastical Realm as possible and run up from one side to the other and go there and back.”
Each Realm is approximately two kilometers by two kilometers and features a coastline. You’ll collect Realm Cards that signify what sort of world is on the other side, and mastery of this mechanic means that the deeper you dive into these Realms, the greater the rewards. Obviously, this comes with a level of risk, and should you miscalculate how many shells were left in your shotgun against one of the Fae Assassins, you’ll wake up in your Respite Realm with only what was equipped at the time of your death.
“We found that was a bit punitive,” said Flynn of the choice to prevent players from losing everything in their inventory, adding that this outcome does discourage solo players. “You lose what's in your backpack and it stays at your death marker. You can find your way back and reclaim that but you have a curse on you during that process, so that curse eventually expires or you can either wait it out.” The core ethos of Nightingale is all about carving your own path in this dynamic shared world, be that crafting consumables to rid yourself of a curse, or dressing in the clothes that you want to roleplay in, regardless of gender.
The team also boasts talent from BioWare, and as you might have guessed, that has informed Nightingale’s cast of characters and narrative development. “We have stories to give you thought provoking ideas to point you in certain directions, but ultimately, it's emergent narratives,” continued Flynn, commending his previous team for their command of cinematic storytelling, but that won’t be what players should expect from Nightingale. “We want NPCs and others to offer you ideas, thoughts, provocations and rewards for stuff. But we do that in a much more simple storytelling style. However, I hope the material is still compelling and interesting for players to go into.”
Indeed, the game is brimming with lore and feels fully formed already. There’s a moment where a player glides down to the ground, swooping past a giant stomping through the trees, using an umbrella. Nightingale is beautiful, and though I personally struggle to gel with the genre of survival games, I am so curious to discover more about the Fae and the powers that drive these fantastical Realms. I’m partial to a creature feature too, and the monsters that the team have crafted are nothing short of horrifying in some cases. Like the Harpies that “wear” a human face, wrapping themselves in their wings to look like a figure shrouded in a cloak emerging out of the mist.
The game’s closed beta will begin early next year, and launches in early access in the spring of 2023 for PC.
Featured Image Credit: Inflexion GamesTopics: PC, The Game Awards