Creatures of Ava is a third person adventure game that twists the mechanics around rather than combatting alien creatures as would be traditional when crash landing on an alien planet, instead in this story we are here to save the creatures which involves utilising a mysterious alien device we soon discover called the nafitar. With the nafitar in hand we can essentially clean away the corruption away from the creatures, known locally as the withering and prepare them to be teleported off the doomed planet to the safety of the bioark awaiting in space above.
Of course as is often the case in games things aren’t quite as simple as this as there is inevitably local intelligent life that doesn’t want to be transported away from their homes along with the fact that gameplay comes in the form of dodging and washing the creatures while they fight back against you in corrupted forms, there is however a lot more besides this not only with the unravelling storyline which will be experienced throughout your playthrough but also the fact that there are many hidden secrets and puzzles to solve which utilises a variety of the creatures powers to alter the world around you and allow further access to new area’s of the planet.
The locals of course will have sidequests of their own which will send you hunting for artifacts in a variety of abandoned bases and mysterious locations which usually involve utilising the creatures around to solve before teleporting them into the safety of space, and while later updates did make it so that you can’t lock yourself out of progress by teleporting creatures into space as they will respawn this does seem to go against the whole aspect of the game itself and teleporting all of the creatures on the planet away.
As you progress through the game you will learn more about the history of Ava as you travel alongside your new companion Nimar a local archaeologist who believes that the antaris and he Nafitar are the key to preventing the withering and saving the planet, and the further you delve into the mysteries the stronger your Nafitar becomes as it takes on aspects and powers previously utilised by the Antaris in their attempts to prevent the withering aeons ago, and it is with these new powers that you unlock the ability to travel into even newer area’s and new biomes where new creatures await.
Overall there are 4 distinct biomes to explore each with a plethora of creatures usually around 6 unique in each area though some of the powers they utilise will often be the same, with the capability of cutting down bridges, fungal barriers or even smashing through walls and knocking down pillars being the most common puzzle elements you can utilise, and while it’s fair that each area have their own creature that can do these powers it does feel like a lot of the creatures essentially just do what you could do in other biomes with a different body.
Music is also a key theme in the game as you will also have to master the art of creature taming utilising a flute, where you have to first find and learn the biomes master tune and then listen to each creature as they play notes to you and play them back in order to gain their trust, these add further to the gameplay elements and make it a fun experience overall mixing the cleaning and non harmful combat phases where the creatures are fighting against you helping restore their previous nature while they utilise evolved and dangerous skills against you that only exist in those forms, dodging and staying alive until they’re cleaned alongside taming and leading the healthy creatures of area’s to teleporters and also inhabiting them to solve puzzles and find extra lore and upgrade secrets.
I feel like they did a very good job of combining the storyline while giving a sense of danger and skill required gameplay to progress throughout the game alongside sprinkling in puzzles that require thought and foresight not to remove any creatures before you have ensured you’ve taken all actions you might need to with those creatures, there is also a collectability sense with the avapedia or those who want to maximise a collection, tracking statistics like photographing all of the creatures in their various states, petting them and utilising their abilities alongside the number you have saved from the planet.
Every biome is also distinct with it’s own population of characters each who have a comedic sense all of their own as they twist your nickname in new and imaginative ways and have their own missions for you to perform in order to gain their trust to attend the overall gathering in the central biome.
I would recommend playing through for yourself to truly experience the story, and the gameplay was good and entertaining which you can imagine would be a challenge to make a non harmful game that still feels challenging and somehow they managed to cover that balance well, especially as the creatures become bigger and more dangerous the further into the game you progress. It took me 16 hours to complete the game and while I missed a couple of things I did get most of the items and secrets in that time so your play time may vary. I will say that trailers at game shows like summer games fest seemed to show a different storyline where Tabitha and the locals vanished mysteriously and the protagonist was supposed to investigate why they all vanished and the storyline definitely went in a completely different direction to that without this deep underlying mystery but it was still an enjoyable and fun time with a worthy story about nature and life with entertaining gameplay and puzzles.
Get creatures of Ava for yourself now at https://humblebundleinc.sjv.io/1raYna also available on steam at Save 20% on Creatures of Ava on Steam
