Nightingale is a forthcoming open-world survival title with a unique narrative hook. Set in a world where humanity has been scattered across the mysterious Fae Realms, players must craft, explore, and fight their way through these unique environments to unravel to find the last surviving humanity city. Developed by Inflexion Games, partially staffed by BioWare veterans, Nightingale aims to shake up the survival genre status quo.
The Best War Games had the opportunity to speak with members of the Nightingale development team, including Inflexion Games' art director and head of audio Neil Thompson, about Nightingale's unique approach to character creation. Fans of Mass Effect and Dragon Age's robust character creation systems will feel right at home with Nightingale's offerings, as Thompson says the title features "everything you would expect from a fully specced customization standpoint," along with a few unique features and guiding principles.
Nightingale Hands-On Preview: A Brave New World
Although the survival-crafting genre is seeing a resurgence as of late, Inflexion Games' Nightingale truly stands out from the pack.
Good-Looking Adventurers Made Easy
As character customization systems become increasingly robust, it also becomes easier for players to get lost in the weeds or develop characters who look almost right, but ultimately a little awkward. It's practically a meme for players to spend hours in character creation, but there's a difference between doing so because you love it a la Baldur's Gate 3's character creation or because the character looks much worse in the actual game. Inflexion Games' approach to this beloved feature is to make aesthetically pleasing characters a simple task for players, even if they don't want to spend hours adjusting brow depth, blemishes, and hair highlights. As Thompson explained,
"What was uppermost in our minds was to provide a large amount of customization options, while trying to ensure that players could create aesthetically pleasing characters. We had a motto: “Easy to master, difficult to monster” to reflect just that."
While some players have a fondness for creating the most bizarre custom characters possible, it seems a safe bet that most players will want cool-looking characters that naturally belong in Nightingale's setting. Immersion seems to be a high priority for Inflexion Games, at least for players who prioritize that over the gameplay experience.
Abstaining from the Photo-Realistic Arms Race
Because aesthetic cohesion and satisfaction are the primary goals behind Nightingale's character customization experience, Inflexion Games is less concerned with achieving true-to-life visuals. Instead, Thompson hopes for stylistic consistency,
"Our characters are stylized as we didn't want to pursue an arms race of doing the most 'photorealistic' head; though again the material response is all important. The skin looks like real skin, the cloth like cloth, so that our stylized characters can sit consistently in our more 'realistic' realms."
Avoiding the pursuit of photo-realism seems like a smart play for several reasons. By focusing on developing a signature open-world style for Nightingale, the game is more likely to aesthetically stand out from other titles that try to replicate reality. Furthermore, truly cutting-edge, transcendent visuals tend to have harsher system requirements and demand development time that could be dedicated to other aspects of the game experience.
It will also be interesting to see how Early Access feedback helps Inflexion Games shape these systems. Players are never shy with their feedback, and it'll be interesting to see how that ships this feature throughout its Early Access period.
Nightingale
- Released
- February 20, 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
Nightingale is a PVE open-world survival crafting game played solo (offline or online), or cooperatively with friends. Build, craft, fight and explore as you venture through mystical portals into a variety of amazing and fantastical realms.
You are stranded beyond our world, cut off by the collapse of the arcane portal
network. This catastrophe has left you fighting to survive in a labyrinth of beautiful and dangerous Fae realms.
Your goal: become a skilled Realmwalker, and navigate the web of transdimensional portals. Only then can you discover your way to the magical city of Nightingale, the last known bastion of humanity.
Prepare to make your way through Faewild forests, harrowing swamps, and shimmering deserts as you unlock the portals leading deeper into the lands of Fae. Cook meals, build shelter and muster the spirit to persevere in the face of adversity.
