Nightingale’s Survival Aspects Are Familiar, But Its Strange Worlds Hold A Lot Of Promise
Our band of Victorian survivalists opened a portal to a swamp filled with vicious creatures, and then we went hunting. A magic spell created by one of our group pointed the way across the festering, waist-deep waters, which carried some unknown disease if you lingered in them for too long. Man-sized rats and frogs appeared at the fringes to slow our progress, but eventually, we found our prey: a fire-breathing beast called a Humbaba, big as a building, that lumbered across the landscape.
It took six of us, a whole lot of magic-infused rifle ammo, and a few deaths along the way, but before long, we toppled the beast. We skinned it and carried away its flesh to fill our stew pots and aid our crafting plans.
This is Nightingale, a survival game from developer Inflexion Games that goes into early access on February 20 on PC. We recently spent about six hours playing Nightingale in a preview event with developers, trying both the early game in a single-player experience and venturing out in co-op. It’s a game about alternate dimensions: Rather than dropping you onto a massive map that spreads out over great distances and includes multiple locations and biomes, Nightingale is made up of smaller, procedurally generated “realms,” each dominated by a single biome. You access these realms through magical portals, defining your destination by using special Tarot-like cards you can find or craft throughout your journey.