N.E.R.O.: Nothing Ever Remains Obscure

As a story-focused first-person adventure game, NERO is quite remarkable. It’s surreal, heartfelt, bittersweet, and thought-provoking, and that should have been more than enough to carry it without the need for shoehorned-in “gameplay”. As it is, it’s a very good game, but it would have been so much better if it hadn’t tried so hard to avoid the “walking simulator” criticism and just ran with its strengths.

A walking simulator that drops you into an intriguing story, set in a wonderful world and scored with beautiful music, but still a walking simulator - and one with illogical puzzles and occasionally tricky controls at that.

A little below the technical standards of this generation, and not so brilliant in terms of puzzles, N.E.R.O. manages to narrate an intimate and devastating tragedy, in a very touching way.

An interesting concept of narrative videogame that forgets that it is a videogame. The best aspect is its beautiful and colorful artistic design.

N.E.R.O. fails at generating an exciting or mentally challenging experience, but it really doesn’t try to. This visually stunning title places a great emphasis on its narrative, which is both uplifting and devastating – you’ll be thinking about this one for a long time afterwards.

A narrative experience that's only suitable for a very specific audience that be delighted from start to finish while avoiding their obvious shortcomings.

A visually beguiling though relaxing explorative adventure, N.E.R.O fails to properly capitalise on its unique setting as its simple puzzles, brief duration, and lack of replayability ultimately damages its long-term appeal.

N.E.R.O. intrigues as an interactive visual novel, but it fails in its attempts to be a game. The puzzles here are laughably easy, and they subsequently get in the way of the storytelling. There are some beautiful cutscenes and an interesting story here, but they're too often impeded by unenjoyable gameplay.

NERO is not fun. NERO might have a powerful story. NERO might look pretty. But NERO is not fun. Nor enjoyable. Or engaging. Or really anything that may have driven me to want to keep playing.