I really wanted to see what NUTS had in store for me after that enigmatic ending to their demo. The game about squirrel watching seemed to hide a lot more than what it first showed and it has always been difficult for me to say no to a mystery. Especially if it’s about squirrels that collect dynamite and matches.
Now, after exceeding the four hours it has taken me to complete the adventure from beginning to end, I am forced to lower my expectations a bit. The good ideas are still there and the mystery takes you by the hand to a more or less satisfactory ending, but unfortunately both end up knowing little.
An idea of the most original
The idea behind NUTS couldn’t be more original. Our task is to watch squirrels, but far from doing it live we will have to do it by placing different cameras in the forest. At night we will review your recordings to see if we have captured something and, if this is not the case, we will have to reposition them to see if we have had more luck.
The opening track and stage structure makes following in the footsteps of the squirrels for multiple nights relatively easy. A mere achievement of trial and error tests with which, for example, we end the cameras in one part of the forest and finish the chapter at the other end of it.
As each night they follow the same route, you simply have to move your cameras from here to there trying to cover all possible angles. Once you have discovered where they are going and have lost sight of them, you have to reposition them to try to find the next section.
Suffered repetition
With different scenarios that we access each time we discover where the squirrels keep their stash, only some of them pose a slightly more complex challenge. Most of them are limited to asking you to repeat actions – place cameras, check the recording and start again – that are reduced more and more as you get the hang of focusing better on each scene.
Either because of the twists and turns that it seems to want to propose its story, or because of how good the idea of the camera is in the first bars, I expected something else from NUT S that never materializes. What you see during the first few minutes is what you will see during the rest of the game and, although there are timid variations, they do not always contribute more than what remains.
In one of the scenarios you have to chase the squirrels on foot and in another you must capture at what point they are at different times of the night, but the rest of the game involves going back and forth in search of the cameras until your objective is completed. With a campaign of just four hours it is fine, but I doubt that I would have been more enthusiastic if it lasted much longer without modifying its mechanics.
I commented in my impressions that, when in doubt about more recording options or other mechanics, its plot was what would make you want to continue recording squirrels . He was not very misguided, but he was hoping for something more powerful.
Although both the beginning and the end rely heavily on that idea, everything that happens in between does not enjoy the same force and seems a somewhat wasted tale. We definitely know why the squirrel kept acorns, matches and sticks of dynamite, but it has not managed to surprise us too much .
To take into account for its originality and the beautiful show of colors that it achieves with its particular visual style, NUTS is far from being one of those indies to highly recommend, but it does enter the group of those games to devour at once on a Sunday in rain in the afternoon.
NUTS
| Platforms | iOS, Switch and PC (analyzed version) |
|---|---|
| Multiplayer | Not |
| Developer | Joon, Pol, Muutsch, Char & Torfi |
| Company | Noodlecake |
| Launch | January 22, 2021 (February 4 on PC and Nintendo Switch) |
| Price | To be confirmed |
The best
- A unique and very successful visual style
- How her story prompts you to continue
- A pleasant and original mechanic …
Worst
- … although somewhat repetitive
- Some more variety and surprises are missing