Naisancee (PC) Game Review

 

(This game has almost no story to spoil, but I will discuss the final section of the  game briefly, so consider that a mild gameplay spoiler warning for you)


Naisancee is a surreal/abstract exploration game where you play as a girl named Lucy, who is lost. I'll let you know ahead of time there is nothing else to spoil narrative-wise, as the game has no story beyond that and consists mainly of wandering through a dreamworld and enjoying the sights and sounds around you. This is not to say it is devoid of any gameplay, as it does also contain challenges such as the occasional puzzle and platforming section. But the simple act of exploration was easily my favorite thing about the game. Almost every environment is a fascinating experience. some environments are fairly abstract, while others mimic those of our own world, but are still strange and empty enough to be disquieting (not unlike the "liminal spaces" images I enjoy following here on tumblr). Some areas are massive and seem to stretch on for miles, while others are small and claustrophobic.  The game's unusual musical score and ambience definitely added to the very weird feel of its world. It's one of the more artistically impressive uses I've ever seen of the Unreal Engine.

Unfortunately, all this praise about the atmosphere unfortunately comes with a warning - the aforementioned sections of game-play can sometimes be very unpleasant. First person platforming is often awkward in *any* game, but in this title it is sometimes made even worse by areas that are overly dark, overly bright, or in one instance, containing an eye-straining strobe-light effect that makes it very disorienting and probably unsafe for epileptic users.

End-of-game spoilers ahead: The finale was unfortunately so unenjoyable for me that I never finished it, especially after finding out there was no story-line conclusion to reward me for my troubles. It involves a lot of very fast-placed tricky platforming and harsh lighting that made it hard to see what I was doing at times, and I eventually got the point where I couldn't even figure out what I was doing wrong anymore as I died over and over.
(final spoiler section ends here)

Despite those flaws, I still DO recommend this title because it's nice to see something that is clearly an artistic passion project and is trying something new,  even if the game-play gets a little fucky sometimes. I played all the way up to the end just to explore as much as possible and was glad that I did. Another plus for the game is that it's free! It is hosted by steam, but it's also DRM-free if you launch it from the UDK executable.