English
Gamereactor
previews
Nero

Nero: First Impressions

Between Myst and Journey, the first Storm in a Teacup game is very promising.

Subscribe to our newsletter here!

* Required field
HQ

There's plenty of excitement in Italy regarding the growing indie development scene. The country, in fact, is becoming an increasingly rich breeding ground for indie studios that are ready to get involved, develop new ideas, and show their potential, without needing to envy the efforts of their foreign peers. Storm in a Teacup is certainly no exception to this. They're a brand new studio based in Rome, started just one year ago thanks to the endeavours of two industry veterans, Alberto Belli and Carlo Alimo Ivo Bianchi, who have decided to join forces for an ambitious project called Nero.

We define it as ambitious because the studio decided to start developing the game a very short time ago (they started in February 2014), and they want to bring their first project, a graphic adventure pitched somewhere between Myst and Journey, to current-gen consoles (in fact, Nero is an Xbox One exclusive). The circumstances around the project are certainly interesting and during Game Connection 2014 we had the opportunity to take a closer look at the game, with a hands-off guided tour by the executive director, Alberto Belli. After this brief session we consider it very promising.

Nero

There major element that immediately catches our eye in Nero is its dreamlike and suspenseful atmosphere. It's set in a dark world, but one that at the same time is defined by fluorescent colours. We move in a hooded child's shoes, having just landed on a small boat near an abandoned pier. There are some texts literally floating around in the world, apparently fragments of a bigger story, that we find along our route. It's a good ploy that pushes us forward into this dense and surreal forest, where we are searching for new clues and pieces of the story, fragments that can offer us some more details about who we are, where we are, and why we're there.

This is an ad:

As we wander in search of answers we can't help but be stunned by the beauty of this suspenseful atmosphere and the dark world all around us, even if the experience isn't exactly bug free at the moment. As the executive director told us, the build we saw was not the final version, and the game is still in development and has plenty of time to iron out the kinks. Indeed, the development process has been slowed by some of the issues the team are finding. The problems are primarily related to uneven animations and poorly defined textures, but when you consider the time frame in which Storm in a Teacup has managed to build the game as it is, these issues, in the end, are far from significant.

Nero

Shortly after our initial bout of exploration we discovered the first puzzle; this adventure is filled with them. There's a magic ball that the child brings along for the journey, which allows us to move obelisks and thus open up the road so we can continue our journey into this magical, but at the same time disturbing, world. Nero is a game where the atmosphere is the main focus, and the soundtrack manages to feed into this wonderfully.

Our hands-off session ends shortly after we reach a room with a mysterious pile of hospital beds, medical records and other items. We were very curious and wanted to know more, but ultimately we decided not to, as we didn't want to spoil the game before we were able to sit down and play it properly. Discovery is clearly going to be very important, and there's no point going into something like this forewarned.

This is an ad:

Our first trip into this surreal world was incredibly exciting. There's a nice balance between reality and fantasy (we have some suspicions about the what this world is, but we'll keep them for ourselves for now); Storm in a Teacup's first project proves to be an interesting experience, full of potential and absolutely inline with similar puzzle-adventures.

This glimpse of Nero has only increased our curiosity and our hope is that we'll be able to get our hands on it as soon as a new build is ready. The game's release is planned for next year, exclusively on Xbox One. The team still has a lot to work to do, especially on the visuals, but the base of a good game is there. Is Nero the (re)birth of the Italian gaming industry? We can but hope.

Nero

Related texts

0
NeroScore

Nero

REVIEW. Written by Fabrizia Malgieri

"Nero is interesting, unique, and original."



Loading next content