Nightingale Review

It’s survival month here at Sprites and Dice, which poses a unique problem for me. I really don’t care for survival games. I wouldn’t say I hate them, but there’s something about them that just doesn’t hold my attention. They always start with a short honeymoon: love for the combat, the thrill of finding resources, the satisfaction of putting my next weapon together. But soon enough the grind reveals itself and the gameplay becomes repetitive.

Then I tried Nightingale, published by Inflexion Games, and everything changed.

Nightingale is not like a lot of other survival crafting games, and that’s gotten it both a lot of praise and a lot of criticism from the community. I’ve mentioned before how this game does some things that seem plain bananas from a games dev standpoint. These folks have limited resources to make their game, and what they choose to spend them on is telling. Well we’ve finally received a capstone for at least the starting story in this early access title, so why not give it the proper review treatment?

Pop that umbrella glider and make sure your enchantments are primed. We’re diving back in the Feywilds!

Survival 101

Since my prior article was more about overarching concepts in Nightingale, I should start at the beginning here and lay out what this game is. Nightingale is a crafting survival game set in a steampunk, magical Victorian era. Fey and humans have been in contact for some time, and while the fairy folk have shared the secrets of magic with humanity, people have for the most part done with it what people do: abuse it for power and advancements. For some unknown reason, a deadly fog known as the Pale has begun spilling out into Earth from magical portals that traverse the Feywilds, the magical realms in which the various fairy courts hold power. Our world has fallen save one city, the game’s namesake, and only the Feywilds are otherwise “safe,” a relative term since they are still fraught with danger. Fleeing the Pale, you step through a portal and start your adventure.

You are found by Puck, a clever fey and servant to the lord Oberon, who cuts you a deal: his help in your survival in exchange for a favor at a later time. I’m sure there’s no way this could be trouble for us, but we don’t really have much of a choice. Puck knows this too. The joke’s on him though, as the character I made has always wanted to live in the Feywilds. And so, with our first stone tools in hand, we set off to build ourselves a little base, a home, where we will craft ourselves better tools, enchantments, guns, and the most important of survival necessities, fashion.

So far this game sounds, aside from the thematic differences, like pretty much your standard genre fare. And certainly in the first few hours of crafting gameplay, it reinforces that. You’ll want to make better tools, which means finding some metal ore to use in place of stone. Sharp eyed players will notice something about their first ores, though. They seem to have stats that they impart on tools and weapons, though these aren’t always useful. In fact, in the early game their bonuses rarely line up with what you’re crafting. Still, metal is better than stone, and so you craft some better gear for yourself.

Yet, something in the back of your mind tells you that things are not as they seem. Puck visits here and there, nudging you along a narrative that has you moving through the realms in search of the rest of humanity. Does he have your best interests in mind after all? And if you can just manage to find a metal that has, say, a range damage boost along the way, or maybe some hide to turn into leather with magic bonuses, those could be turned into some very purposeful new toys.

On that topic, we need to talk about what makes this game truly special. We need to talk about this game’s amazingly novel crafting system.

Dressed For Success

Imagine, if you will, one of any number of other crafting survival games. The time has come for you to upgrade your starter pistol for a more advanced version. To do this, you’ve had to scrounge up materials or parts as noted on your next level blueprint. You find the bits, you combine them, and voila! A shiny new gun. The problem for me comes in that this formula is often simply repeated ad nauseam. The level 3 pistol materials will be locked in the level 3 area, guarded by level 3 enemies. And the level 4 stuff will follow the same pattern. It’s an easy formula for developers to build around, a familiar feeling for gamers to learn and perform, indeed which many seek out, but I find it dull. Your first upgrade is special. It’s a milestone of your progress into the game, a solidification of your knowledge around the game’s systems. You’re learning and surviving better in the world. But after that it’s just rinse and repeat with nothing all that special to look forward to.

Nightingale takes this concept of crafting and turns it on its head. Yes, better gear means bigger numbers, but your new gear is so much more than that. Every material in this game imparts unique stats on the things made with them, as well as unique visuals too! Earlier versions of the game restricted what gear could receive which stats, but at the time of writing all of this has been unlocked. Does that mean I can build ranged damage into a sword that will never use it? Yes. Which is silly. But the freedom to put whatever stats wherever I choose gives me a freedom that “build the level 3 pistol” will never provide.

This may seem like heresy to fans of the genre, but I’m going to say it anyway. Crafting in many survival games feels like an afterthought. Yes, it’s an integral part of how these games play, and yet for all that importance they rarely boil down to more than “combine parts at work bench.” I hear you saying already, “But don’t you do that exact same thing in Nightingale? You assemble your pieces and slap them together at a workbench.” Well, yes, partly. But you’ve already mentioned the point I’m going to make even if you didn’t realize it. You see, you still have to assemble the pieces, and this makes all the difference.

Crafting in Nightingale feels in no small part like you are handcrafting individual, tailor-made pieces of gear, specially wrought with time and loving care. As you reach higher levels of crafting, the consideration for what materials you shape into your component pieces becomes an even bigger decision. Sure, you need a barrel, stock, and action to make that ranged weapon, but how you assemble those pieces is completely up to you. At some point you will realize that each stage of refinement is a chance to tuck more stats into the final output, and so when you realize that more involved substitutions can be made for common requirements, your artisanal crafting burgeons!

Sure you can slap some rare lumber into a “lumber” requirement for that stock, but gilded lumber will also slot in, so why not process a valuable metal into it first? Cloth and leather slots can be filled with durable cloth and reinforced leather respectively. Those extra linings in the cloth or metal fasteners in the leather are one more unique flourish in the mastercraft that you’re weaving. Even the thread you pass into your loom to make the cloth bolts can come from a myriad of sources. Plant fiber can certainly be refined into thread, but animal fiber can also be spun, letting your source from your hunts in addition to things you gather. Inks can come from plants, but minerals can also be crushed and mixed. By the time you finally have your finished components, laying them down on that final workbench, and given the game’s vast amount of available crafting materials, you truly feel like you’ve made something wholly handcrafted, the product of all your naturalist and adventuring knowledge. It’s an experience I’ve not had in any other video game, from any genre I’ve ever played. Nightingale would not be the same, and dare I say less than half the game, without it.

Into The Unknown

If crafting is one component that makes this game unique, I will say that the story focus, taking you through fantastical realms, is the other. While I acknowledge that there are people who delight in building the most magnificent of estates, who can sink tens or even hundreds of hours into constructing resplendent rooms, doing little else, I am simply not one of them. My house will look nice and be functional, but I don’t have the architect’s eye, so to speak. Nor the patience. At some point, I crave adventure. Getting back out into the game’s wilds is what’s going to hook me, that exploration of the unknown, tackling quests and finding rare goodies to cart back home with me. I would be dreadfully dull if, as the saying goes, I was, “all dressed up with nowhere to go.” What good are all the fancy, handcrafted items we pack if we have no place to use them?

That’s not to diminish some of the amazing homes people have built in this game. While not as in-depth as gear crafting (it uses a more standard tile laying system), you can do some truly wondrous things with the building sets in this game. But when it comes to adventure, I have to say that the Realms Rebuilt update has been one of the best things to hit this early access title since its debut. Gone are the stories taking place in the randomly generated, but ultimately samey, realms your card combos generate (more on this in a bit). Dedicated story has been moved into purposefully constructed realms, and the relevant story NPCs have been relocated into them to match.

From a game design standpoint, this is a solid move. While the slot machine of random generation has been removed from the story realms, special locations you reach off a central hub in your safe realm, what we gain far outweighs the old presentation. Purposefully crafted realms allow us to experience a much stronger story, we get more dedicated puzzles to solve and environments to traverse, and the new boss fights fit perfectly to tie everything together. Each fight feels a little Legend of Zelda reminiscent, a small puzzle in itself that you solve not with your new dungeon treasure but with your keen naturalist eyes and knowledge you’ve gained in this particular realm. Each one seems to nudge you, gently asking, “were you paying attention?” The game is seeing if you’ve slowed down from devouring content and experienced the worlds around you, and I love that.

So as not to spoil the fun of exploring the story realms while you work your way towards Nightingale city, I’m going to stay intentionally vague. They are best experienced with the sense of wonder that accompanies walking through those massive, ancient stone portals for the first time. If you’re itching for extra adventure, though, the card system is this game’s unique way of generating the endless feywilds. Two cards are fed into a portal device, denoting its realm type (forest, swamp, desert) and subtype (things like provisioner, astrolabe, or hunt to name a few). Once in a realm, you can further modify it with minor cards, changing the weather, day/night cycle, and even the appearance of the trees and sky.

These cards fundamentally change properties in the realms, making crafts stronger or resources more plentiful. Or even altering gravity. There are some truly wacky possibilities. Some of them have a very “why would I ever use this” kind of feel, but trust me they all have their uses. The card system ensures that you’re never wanting for places to harvest more resources or test your new gear. They can be reset as many times as you like, though some of us pick particularly scenic ones to build our full-time estates in. If, like me, you enjoy the feeling of combat, gathering, and the basic gameplay loop, you’ll never be at a loss with these endless realms to traverse.

Nightingale After 400 Hours

You might’ve guessed by now, especially if you’ve read that first article I linked at the start, that for me the “special sauce” of this game comes in the in-betweens. It’s the way parts come together to make something that is greater than their sum, coloring my glasses with rose tints and finding me spending two hundred hours more after an update that, prior to, had already seen me spending two hundred plus hours exploring.

For one, I find that the slower pace of crafting, the careful consideration of materials and methods for my next project, makes a nice counterbalance to the rush of combat and thrill of adventuring. It’s a pleasant feeling, after working through a story realm, to come back to my estate for prep. I rest up, grab a solid meal (crafting includes gourmet food buffs as well), and put together new equipment to help me in the upcoming confrontation. Above the din of hammering at my forge and the clattering of the loom as it weaves the makings of my next garment, I listen to the crickets in the forest below me, the birds calling as sunset slips over the treetops. It may just be a video game, but I find myself sighing wistfully nonetheless.

On that note, the audio profiles in this game are top notch. From the sounds of nature around you to the swish of swords and the click of a rifle’s bolt action, to the sound of cloth on stone as you pull yourself over a ledge, everything is crisp and weighty. The sound effects of this game lend a sort of tactile satisfaction that immerse me in the gameplay. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t stopped more than once to take in my surroundings, the rain pattering off my umbrella with the feeling that if I inhaled at that moment I could almost smell that clean, fresh air around me. The effects of strong audio work in any game cannot be overstated. Go ahead, reload any of the bolt-action rifles and tell me you’re not instantly in love.

We should also talk about builds, specializations in the game that power up certain playstyles. I enjoy two things immensely across all games: fashion and builds. Give me the ability to custom my look and custom my playstyle and I will give your game all my attention. While making synergistic builds isn’t a requirement for finishing Nightingale’s story, for one it certainly helps you along the way.

For two, there are also fun activities in the endgame, such as boss rush mode, which yield loot that you can’t otherwise find naturally in the game. Yet. I’m sure those items are slated as regular drops in later realm updates. This mode is a tough challenge for even seasoned realmwalkers, and I love that the devs have basically said “we’ve included a mode for all you folks who want to see just how powerful a build you can come up with.” Weapons, magic spells, clothing, and food/realm cards all come together to accomplish some truly crazy feats. Fellow Sprite and Dice writer and lover of Square Enix games, Eric, mentioned to me that this feels a bit like a Square title in that respect; you don’t have to break the game to beat the main story, but the game itself encourages you to push the limits if you want to beat all the additional content. Needless to say, I’ve spent a hefty chunk of time testing out various crafts and builds against boss rush mode, wearing a satisfied smile all the while.

And on the topic of the overall gameplay, I have been very impressed with Nightingale’s allowance that we should play however we see fit. Without spoiling any story points, I will say that reaching Nightingale city was one of the best experiences in the entire game, not simply because it heralded the end of this first story arc or how beautifully rendered it was, but because it presented an “end game” playground for our seasoned realmwalkers.

There were, as one example, snipers on the rooftops. Unlike other games, Nightingale didn’t simply lay down walkways and collapsed rubble for us to run up to these enemies and defeat them, a simple video game pathway to guide the gamers. This was a literal city, with enemies in inconvenient, yet fun to reach places. Fly up to them with charms and umbrellas, engage them at range with guns or magic, or use a tool like climbing picks to grapple up the sides of buildings, the choices seemed as numerous as all the gear we could have declared as our favorites by this point in our adventures. It was as if the devs were saying, “We’ve put this little challenge here to test you. There are no obvious solutions. Go ahead, show us what you can do.” I didn’t know that Victorian fey urban warfare was a thing I needed, but I’m happy we have it in Nightingale!

The End Of The Beginning

Early access games are always an odd recommendation. What you see at the point of this writing may not be what folks find a year from now. Or indeed, what exists now if you remember the game from its pre-Realms Rebuilt state. You buy into an early access game because, like adventuring the feywilds, you enjoy the journey. You accept the bumps in the road as part of the experience. And certainly, having seen the crafting system alone change several times in major ways, I’ve experienced some of those bumps already. For one, there's still a lot of jank floating around. Animations aren't all smooth, and some get stuck in funny ways if you, say, swap weapons too fast. The sound design may be excellent, but you'll still be hit with a mix of "this section is voice acted, and these sections are still just text." Heck, the guy that runs the Watch is supposed to have some kind of pet near him for lore purposes, but that's still not been animated in as far as I can tell, with your character having a dialogue choice that reacts to something that, at least for me, has never been there. The skies are breathtaking in dozens of different ways, but the day/night transitions still hit like someone is dumping several buckets of progressive light or dark over your head all in one go.

As another point of contention, while we've gotten increased build limits on how much stuff you can put into your estate, there are still hard limits on just how massive you can make it. It's much bigger than it used to be, but people who want to blanket an entire corner of the map in construction may be sorely disappointed (tip: if you don't connect the constructions, you can still build disconnected structures that may achieve the desired effect). I've also had cases where quest NPCs fell into areas they couldn't get out of, effectively blocking quest progress until I reloaded and found a way to very carefully guide them where they needed to go. Friends have shared stories of NPCs in their estates glitching into walls or sleeping midair over beds like they need an exorcist. In the worst cases, I've been disconnected from the server and prevented from logging back in for about 20 minutes as the game thought I was still playing and had to wait for the server-side timeout. I accept all of these things as "it's just early access and will get polished out," but if you're unused to early access games they bear mentioning.

That's not to say this game is bad. It's very good, in fact, with the Steam reviews trending ever upwards with each patch, update, and content release. There is jank, yes, but there is also beauty. When this game is firing on all cylinders, it's a true marvel. Given the hard work of Inflexion Games, I have to say that if they keep up their pace, it will be only a matter of time until this game reaches a finished state not unlike that polished gem you're slotting into your latest magical hammer haft. If you are looking for something that’s different in the crafting survival genre, or you’ve never quite clicked with these kinds of games and are still looking for the one that will hook you, you should definitely give Nightingale a try. The game is in a healthier, more refined spot than it’s ever been. The story realms are solid additions, the crafting system works beautifully, and there are all sorts of quality of life upgrades that I’ve not mentioned which make this title far better than it was at launch. It’s been much better optimized for multiplayer too since my first article. If what we have now is any indication of Inflexion Games’s plan for future updates, we’re looking at a bright future indeed. Maybe I’ll see you in the feywilds, down in the boss rush dungeons or at a merchant in The Watch. Tip your hat to me if you do, and I’ll wish you well before we both head back out to our endless adventures.