Nightingale Game Review

Nightingale is an early-access survival video game by Inflexion Games released on February 20th, 2024. They’ve stated that the game is going to be in early access for at least a year. Nightingale’s storyline takes place in a Victorian-era gaslamp fantasy setting, most similar to steampunk. The game is a survival type, which means you’ll need to gather resources, food, and whatever you need in order to survive.

Gameplay

Before you start going through tutorials and exploring the world, you’ll need to create a character. At first, I was kinda frustrated because they wouldn’t let me try to recreate this Adonis-like perfection that is my face. But I decided to be a better man and let it go. Once I was done with that, the tutorial of the game started.

Now before I continue talking about my experience, I want to make some things clear. The game is in early access and you are bound to run into some problems. So don’t look at it as hating a game but more as positive constructive criticism. Some of the problems that I will mention aren’t personal but something I’m certain that people will be annoyed by. Since I made that clear, let us move on.

Speaking of problems, during a tutorial in a desert biome, collecting those wretched Plant Fibers was a damn challenge. To be fair though, that’s the only place where I had trouble finding them.

After I was done with the tutorial, I was given a choice in which “Safe” biome I wanted to set my base. I chose the Forest biome, which seemed like a great place for a start with plenty of resources that can be found easily. Plus, I didn’t want to deal with that desert nonsense again.

After setting my base, my next task was to improve my gear, and doing that also improved the base. Gathering resources for everything is a tedious task, especially at the start due to the limited amount you can carry. Granted, it gets easier once you craft a better backpack. So I suggest you do that first.

One issue I’m 100% sure most people will have is not having an option to use materials in storage. You need to have them in the backpack to craft something with them. In the beginning, it might not seem like a big deal but once you progress deeper into the game, it can get overwhelming to find the right material. There is a fine line between realism and something being tedious/anti-fun. I’m quite sure they’re already working on fixing this.

Graphics

Nightingale features different maps with all kinds of biomes. Most of them are filled with beautiful stuff. I dare say that some of them are even so mesmerizing that if you add some chill music to them, you’ll be completely wowed by it. In the dark gets a little bit trickier to get around but that’s what you would expect from survival games like this one. On looks, it gets a great score but when it comes to interacting with some of the stuff, it definitely still needs some polishing.

Besides a few bugs here and there, there wasn’t really anything significant that really put me off from playing Nightingale. I love exploring every part of the map. I do believe once you get past that initial part of the game, it gets more fun. More stuff happening and you get stuff much faster.

We can go on and on about it but in the end, it’s still really early to say that the game is good or bad. Mainly because it’s neither here nor there. It’s not bad because it’s an early-access and it has shown a lot of potential.

Also, it can’t be called good, because there are tons of things that need to be addressed/fixed before it can be called that. It all depends on the developers’ involvement with the community and actually working upon given criticism. And if you are expecting the finished and polished game or if you expect all of it to be fixed in a little under the month then I suggest that you just wishlist the game and wait a little more. If you want to play a game with similar(ish) mechanics, check out Palworld (link to my full Palworld review here).