What’s on the cards for the next big survival game?
The bones of the survival genre are well defined. You cut a tree to get sticks. You hit a rock to get flint and stone. You open a crafting menu and turn these things into tools and weapons and a campfire. Is that a critter in the distance? Harvest its meat for food and its skin for leather.
Whether it’s Valheimor Arkor even Minecraft, the skeleton remains the same –instantly recognisable, like a T-rex in a museum. The question, then, is what else is going on? What meat is clinging to those bones? What skin is holding it together? Valheimhas vikings, Arkhas dinosaurs, and Nightingalehas fae.
NEW INFO
Set in 1889, in an alternate history where humans coexist with magical creatures, Nightingaleopens with disaster. Atoxic miasma, known as The Pale, descends on the Earth. The only city free of the deadly fog is Nightingale, kept safe thanks to an ancient contract with the fae. In the opening moments, you’re cast adrift in the portal network linking humanity to the fae’s realms. Your goal: find your way to Nightingale.
First, though, you’ll be journeying through the realms –exploring the worlds of fairies and spirits and rabbit/lizard hybrids whose skin you can use to make a cape. You can fashion the materials you collect into crude items directly from the crafting menu, but it will wear out quickly. Higher quality tools will, of course, require a crafting bench. Even based on a short preview, the general flow of crafting feels extensive. There are a number of building options and styles, as well as advanced tools and weapons with magical effects. Even the workbenches you make can be enhanced by the items you place near it in a way that makes it easy to picture the ever-expanding to-do list. Gather materials to build a whetstone to enhance my weapons so I’m better able to fight monsters that drop what I need for the next big upgrade project.
MAJOR AND MINOR CARDS CAN FURTHER TWEAK THE SETTINGS OF THE REALM
It’s the tried and true formula that’s helped make the genre so absurdly satisfying. But in Nightingale, getting access to the resources you need for better equipment means exploring new biomes and hunting of different creatures. Finding materials won’t always be a matter of picking a random direction and hoping for the best. Instead, you’ll build your own portal and travel to a new realm.
BIG TRICK
Nightingale’s big trick is its realm card system –letting you generate new worlds based on the cards you add to your portal. Abiome card will define the type of environment you’re travelling to, and thus the flora and fauna that you might encounter. Then, major and minor cards can further tweak the settings of the realm –ho
