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Some games get under your skin from the very first encounter, as soon as you lay your eyes on them. You feel a deep connection to their world, where the art style, story, and every other aspect align perfectly.
That's exactly how I felt the moment I first played Creatures of Ava. I immediately loved the game. The vibrant world, fantastic soundtrack, unique characters, beautiful art style, and engaging gameplay mechanics all just clicked for me. It felt like one of those hidden gems you discover among a sea of similar titles.
However, as the game progressed, its flaws began to surface, and I realised it wasn't exactly what I had initially thought. It's rarely the case, but one can always hope, right?
In theory, the story should be the strongest suit of this game, as Creatures of Ava is a heavily story-related title. However, I would be lying if I said that the story was particularly impressive or that it managed to hold my attention for a long time.
In Creatures of Ava, you play as Victoria, a researcher whose ship has crashed on the planet Ava during an expedition to cure the planet of an infection known locally as Withering. This disease transforms healthy flora and fauna into infected, aggressive beings. Victoria's main goal will be to use all her knowledge and resources to save this planet.
By doing so, she will cooperate with the locals, learn their customs, earn their trust, and eventually connect herself with this beautiful place and its creatures. As the game progresses, Victoria will become more connected to the various customs of Ava. She will have to face difficult decisions made by her friends and colleagues.
The story heavily relies on emotions and empathy, often making you think about how you would respond in similar situations. Those emotional moments are pure brilliance, and I assure you, when those moments strike, you'll shed a tear or two if you're an emotional soul. However, a major drawback of the story is its predictability and lack of real plot twists and intrigue. Everything feels uniform, and from the very beginning, you can easily guess the ending, and you won't be wrong.
In the manner of a true RPG, Victoria will have choices while talking with the NPCs, and those choices will steer the game in different directions. However, it cannot be said that those RPG choices affect the story, and I must say that their existence is questionable at the very least.
However, it isn't all about the story in Creatures of Ava; the gameplay's virtues are there as well. Creatures of Ava can be described as a mix of various games. Essentially, it's an action RPG with platforming elements. The core gameplay revolves around rescuing the creatures of this planet, making it somewhat reminiscent of Pokemon, or more specifically, the recent attraction, Palworld.
The mechanics are, however, somewhat different than in Palworld since you don't use the rescued creatures in battles or anything like that; they are primarily part of the game's story. However, many mechanics involve these creatures, such as rescuing them, which is one of the collectables on the maps, as well as taming, petting, and various other interactions.
One of the tools you'll be using is your camera, with which you'll study those creatures, and there's an entire minigame for taming them using your flute. All in all, the mechanics related to the creatures are interesting and feel satisfying, even though, over time, those activities can become repetitive.
In Creatures of Ava, you won't be using any sort of weapon; your primary tool will be a staff called the Nafitar, made especially for removing withering. You'll use Nafitar to heal both creatures and plants and solve puzzles. This staff can be upgraded as well throughout the skill tree to become even more efficient.
Apart from Nafitar, you'll be able to upgrade your attributes, various tools, and spells, and each upgrade will cost you skill points. Skill points are earned by exploring the world, solving main and side quests, and researching creatures and plants.
When you discover a new plant or animal, all the data is recorded in Avapedia, which you can always review to track your research progress. Each creature has different research stages, and as you study them in these stages, the metre fills up until the research is complete. Additionally, using a special tool, you can teleport the creatures you have tamed to the ship for further study, all with the goal of curing the infection.
The gameplay of Creatures of Ava is very sophisticated, but sadly, over time, it can become monotonous, and without the quality story that can hold the entire thing together, there's a chance you lose interest in the game before you reach the conclusion.
Perhaps Creatures of Ava's strongest asset lies in its gorgeous visual presentation. The game is simply beautiful. Ava is a stunning planet, featuring breathtaking vegetation, vibrant and beautiful creatures, abundant flowers and herbs, and a striking blue sky. You'll fall in love with its incredible art style from the very start of the game.
The graphics are not realistic; instead, they have a charming, cartoonish style. The characters and environment are designed in this visually appealing manner, and the vibrant colours alone are likely to grab your attention, just as they did mine.
Anyway, do not think that Creatures of Ava lacks the advanced and modern graphical setting characteristic of the newer, more popular titles. You'll find an abundance of those in the PC version of the game; from the Nvidia DLSS 3.7, lumen and foliage settings, and many more, you'll be able to tweak the game to your preferences.
The frame rate in the PC version is pretty stable, but only inside indoor environments. In the open-world sections, it can significantly drop, especially inside towns and settlements where there is a higher concentration of NPSs and activities in general. The FPS in some sections can drop from the stable 60 FPS and more to even lower than 30, which can sometimes become totally unplayable.
At first, I thought it was due to the higher graphical settings, but even when I lowered them, the problem persisted. Perhaps those issues will be addressed in the following patches, but until that happens, I must confirm that the frame rate problems are real.
Conclusion
Creatures of Ava brings us some high-quality ideas that can be really interesting at the start, but the execution often falls short. These ideas tend to become repetitive, making the game sometimes even steer towards monotony. Coupled with a story that should tie everything together but isn't particularly convincing, it raises the question of whether the developers truly achieved their vision with Creatures of Ava.
However, the high-quality graphics, charming art style, and emotionally touching moments in the story can be a good reason to give Creatures of Ava a chance; at least, who knows, you might even like it. Especially because the game will be available on Game Pass from the launch day, so if you own this subscription, by all means, try it.
The Good
Unique characters and beautiful art style- Interesting mechanics related to creatures
- Emotionally touching moments in the story
The Bad
Repetitive gameplay- RPG choices with questionable impact
- Frame rate drops in open-world sections
