Naiad is a gorgeous puzzler made by means of a solo developer underneath the identify HiWarp. In it, you play as Naiad, a river spirit tasked with serving to animals as you navigate your means thru a sequence of interconnected rivers to your quest to succeed in the sea.
This visually shocking recreation is unfold out over 16 episodes, each and every in its personal biome. For the primary six chapters or so, you’re necessarily on a lazy river, unfastened to have interaction with as a lot or as low as you prefer. Hardly are any of the puzzles required to development ahead, although the in-game rewards surely incentivise fixing them. It’s an ordinary problem curve, transitioning from just about a strolling simulator right into a puzzler correct.
As you move additional and also you get nearer to humanity, issues get bleaker. Air pollution is all over the place, muting your making a song — your number one method of puzzle-solving and interacting with animals — and slowing your actions. Cleverly, color saturation within the setting begins to empty too, taking you from colourful cerulean streams to oil-slicked, refuse-filled sewers.
The puzzles get extra advanced too, as it’s a must to account for the perils that humanity has wrought upon your in the past pristine biome. Whilst the problem is maximum welcome after coasting during the early parts, the controls tend to get in the best way. Looking to transfer and sing concurrently is temperamental, and discovering what issues you’ll be able to engage with, and the way, is incessantly a head-scratcher.
Those negatives are outweighed by means of the sheer wonderful thing about the identify because of the implausible use of color, in addition to a soothing, whimsical soundtrack and sound design. Taken as an entire, Naiad is a identify with implausible artwork and sound in addition to one thing to mention, although the gameplay isn’t all the time firing on that very same stage.
