Nero

We had a funny feeling when we initially tried an early build of {Nero}. The ambitious project by Storm in a Teacup makes use of an interesting combination of anxiety and magic, and as such it had us torn between the fear of what would be revealed next, and the curiosity driving us to uncover what else the disturbing story had to offer. Because if there is one thing that has caught our attention it's the fascinating narrative hidden in the few hours it takes to complete this experience. It's a highly personal and emotional story, which perfectly blends with the dreamy atmosphere that characterises the whole experience. {Nero} - an experience that lies somewhere between {Myst} and {Journey} - is able to offer players a world that interweaves surrealism (à la Alice in Wonderland) and an air of real life.

A feature that, at first glance at least, defines {Nero} is undoubtedly the enchanting scenery around us. It's an obscure setting, sometimes suffocating, but at the same time it's punctuated by fluorescent colours that amplify the suspenseful feeling present throughout the game. There were several moments when we simply stopped to take in the surreal world that opened up in front of our eyes. And it's in this place, in a balance between dream and nightmare, that our adventures as a mysterious hooded child began. We land on what appears to be an abandoned pier in a small boat. To welcome us there are some mysterious floating texts, apparently fragments, pieces of a story - or rather, two stories told in parallel, colour-coded. We find more along the way, and it's what drives you to explore every nook and cranny in search of the next clue.

In order to continue the adventure and unlock new elements of the story (which gradually becomes more and more intense) you need to solve puzzles - rather simple in the beginning, but then more and more elaborate - and the game world is full of them. Through the use of a sphere of light that the child brings with it, we'll move obelisks, and, with the help of a mysterious friend that we meet on our journey, we'll be able to activate some pressure plates which, in turn, unlock new doors and new narrative elements.

It's not all that complicated, and while the choice to use such simple mechanics could lead to an experience that feels unfulfilling, we believe that Storm in a Teacup decided to adopt such a spartan system as their focus is mainly on the narrative they wish to convey, and it's this narrative that the whole game is built around. The story - which, of course, we don't want to spoil - covers topics of great depth and complexity, such as disease and maternal love. In addition to the puzzle solving, {Nero} also has a section dedicated to collectibles - fragments of photographs/pictures - which pushes the player to search further and thus discover more about the story.

The structure does a great job of revealing the information, a drip-feed of narrative over the course of the adventure. Almost like a modern reinterpretation of the myth of Plato's cave, we gradually walk away from the suffocating darkness of the forest in which we find ourselves at the beginning of the game. This journey coincides with our total inability to understand the story, fooled by a tale told with scattered pieces that we try to piece together. This magic world leads us to deal with harsh realities, revealing piece by piece the underlying theme of our gloomy adventure in {Nero}.

Another element that has us impressed was the increasing rhythm of the narrative; as you progress through the adventure it becomes more constant. This progression coincides perfectly with the increasingly frantic captions that reveal the underlying story. During the adventure, the fairytale mood that we find in the first part of the experience makes way for the sad story that the game wants to tell. To further accentuate the mood there is the wonderful, sometimes disturbing soundtrack that accompanies us throughout, which in turn sits next to the amazing voice work that articulates the story. Combined this makes for an experience that offers great emotional impact.

But if up until now we've had nothing but words of praise for Storm in a Teacup's first game, it's also true that the experience has some problems. The first serious issue is the many dips in framerate; these at times make the game unplayable. In particular, we noted that these dips are found when we run, or after loading screens when moving from one section to another, both forcing us to wait for a full minute before stabilising. We asked the developers whether we could expect a future a patch to address this, and one is apparently on the way.

Along with other minor bugs - mainly pop-ins that appear in several places, and some extremely long loading times - another problem was the controls. For some reason the button to run has been mapped to RB, which succeeded in giving us some annoying cramps during longer sessions. In our opinion, this was a rather unfortunate choice.

{Nero} is interesting, unique, and original. Keep in mind that this is the debut game from a developer established just a few years ago, so while it's not exactly free of problems and has some significant bugs, {Nero} is also a game that had us enthralled. This first effort from Storm in a Teacup shows that the studio has great potential and some brilliant ideas, but it also confirms that they need to improve on the technical side if they're going to deliver better, more stable experiences. One thing's for sure, we're intrigued to see what they do next.