Creatures of Ava shows off a new world ready to be explored with stunning graphics and a fun soundtrack to accompany you.
Inverge Studios are the creative minds behind Creatures of Ava with this being their second game after Effie, a 3D platformer and fantasy game. Rather than sticking to the platformer gameplay they are used to, Inverge Studios moved on to an adventure game with Creatures of Ava and 11 Bit Studios came on to publish.
Recently they have taken on the publication of many different independent games and have proved to be giants of the independent game world with most of their recent publications being a hit, Creatures of Ava seems to be following the trend of being a fantastic addition to their games.
Creatures of Ava has a very simple story. You play as Vic who has crash-landed on the planet Ava and now has to explore. It turns out the planet has been infected and is now filled with hostile creatures that are in need of being cured.
With the help of Tabitha, a researcher you are in contact with throughout the game, you have to explore the planet and cure the animals as well as the infected plants that keep areas of the planet trapped away from you as you try to help the inhabitants.
When describing the gameplay in Creatures of Ava it would be easy to compare it to a Pokemon game. But is it really like Pokemon? Well, not really as you are here to be peaceful, not using your trapped creatures to fight others.
Instead, the gameplay is about curing the creatures of the planet from an infection that has taken over Ava. But in fighting this infection you will actually do so with music rather than the typical gunplay some may expect from such a game.
The gameplay can be broken down into two main parts, the exploration of the combat, but not real combat of course.
The exploration is a wonderful section of the game. Creatures of Ava has a diverse world filled with unique biomes which makes exploration feel like far more of a joy than the chore it can often feel in more sparse, less unique worlds.
The exploration is also improved by how extensive it can feel within the game. For example, once you have created enough of a bond with the animals you have the ability to play as them and explore previously inaccessible areas.
The exploration takes a while to build to this, however, as you start with just a staff, a camera, and the instructions from your friend Tabitha who is a researcher Vic is close to, as you enter this world. When loading in the game you are swiftly introduced to the healing and the photos that are the main part of introducing the creatures.
The camera is a great tool, it slightly slows down what you are focusing on to make it easier to take a good photo and the UI is very clear as to what you are photographing and how to improve the photo.
This is a great step in accessibility as well as making the game clear to those who may be looking to take a more artsy photograph as it encourages you to center the photo on just one creature rather than finding a group shot.
Once a photo has been taken of an animal it is added to a database to allow the player to learn more about each of the animals which is a great addition to Creatures of Ava as it adds still more depth to this already vast and intricate feeling world. The camera is not limited to just introducing the creatures, however, it is also used for the collectables.
Throughout the game, there are multiple collectables that all emit a little music. They can be up high, across a valley, or in a cave and only able to see from inside. The way they are collected is by taking a photo of them to add to your database.
It is a great integration of the collectables into the main story as it feels as though it is a real way these characters would collect things from the planet, taking photos rather than removing items from where they belong.
The combat is also integrated in a way that feels fitting for these peaceful characters we have been introduced to so far. Vic starts with just a staff which is a key part of her kit, the second part of her kit is a flute that she can also use to help the creatures found on the planet of Ava. The full kit works as follows.
When you find an infected creature they will be hostile towards Vic due to the planet-wide infection. You then have to use the staff to cure the infection. The staff locks on to whichever creature you are trying to cure. While locking on movement is made a little harder to navigate so you will have to make yourself familiar with the dodge button nice and early, often sidestepping still-infected creatures.
You can also lock on to multiple creatures at once. This is a great feature although there is a bit of a curve when it comes to keeping all the animals in the line of sight to stay locked on and maintaining all the connections at once.
This becomes harder towards the end of the game when you are working to cure multiple species of their infections at once as most of them have differing movement patterns that can be hard to track all at once.
The second bit of the kit is the flute you find while exploring an ancient temple at the start of the game. This flute can be used to tame animals that have been cured of the infection. This is done through a simple mini-game.
There could be an argument made that this mini-game is too forgiving. However, Creatures of Ava is a peaceful game and this focus on peace and a calming experience can mean that a slightly easier mini-game suits the overall atmosphere of the game a lot better.
Once you have trained an animal you have the chance to control it. This is a great part of the game that really shakes up the gameplay as well as allowing access to new areas. While this is a lot of fun, I do wish it had been utilized a little better with the collectables.
You could use the animal you have tames to scout out a hard-to-find collectable and then have Vic access it from a different direction. It is not a feature that would change the game entirely, but it would be a lot of fun if added.
You can also use the flute to lure creatures around. This means you can pull them towards collection units and send them to your researcher. This is a key part of the game as collecting enough creatures opens new areas to explore and progress towards completing the game.
The staff is also an exploration tool as it cures huge flowers of the infection, opening up the world to explore still more of the map.
This is also where the puzzle and light platforming comes in. These puzzles are all fairly easy, moving pieces of puzzles into place. There are also times you have to perform a small amount of platforming in order to heal the flowers, this is to either move a part of the surrounding set out of the way or just move to a more advantageous location to cure one of the flowers.
Being built in Unreal Engine 4 there were always going to be fantastic graphical capabilities in Creatures of Ava. The art style will remind most of Fortnight due to the cartoon aesthetic rather than the realism that has become so popular in recent years.
However, this far more cartoony style is a great way to build a diverse world in Creatures of Ava. The biomes can be exciting colors and the animals are built in weird and wacky ways as they have no need to stick with what the player is used to seeing in a game. This is a great choice as it suits the somewhat wacky premise of the game.
Each of the biomes and the creatures is unique which is a great way to add visual interest to the game. It seems as though most biomes were built around a single colour and that is stuck to throughout the design of the flora and fauna. This is a great way to build up the areas as they are ultimately not real but feel more so because of the consistency within them.
In some moments of Creatures of Ava, there is a vast horizon that can lead to a limited draw distance. This is utilized within the cutscenes though in a really interesting way. In a cutscene near the beginning of the game, you are shown a vast and empty horizon which is then zoomed in on to reveal a temple.
This is then visible for the rest of the game. It is an interesting choice and adds a lot of visual intrigue to the game as a whole as you are now waiting for what is going to be revealed in the next horizon.
The sound design in Creatures of Ava had a difficult challenge to complete as the soundtrack needed to create a landscape of a whole world as well as having sounds for each biome that feel unique. This is done incredibly well. The animals all have unique sounds as well and the music for each section is suitably tranquil or intense as they were needed.
There is voice acting in Creatures of Ava although not every conversation is voiced, some are simply text across the bottom of the screen. While this isn’t an element that breaks the game it can be a little jarring.
You can sometimes go for over an hour of gameplay, reading the text on screen, and then suddenly you are surprised by a character talking to you. It can act as almost a jumpscare if you have the music cranked up particularly high. The voice acting is very good when it does happen, Vic is particularly good and leads the game really well.
The rest of the sound is through the music you play to the animals as you tame them. Each animal has its own song you have to play to it. These songs are all great and fit in with the other sounds the animals make. The creatures have unique sounds as well which is great for making each biome feel different and making the world feel more vast.
Creatures of Ava is a great game for those looking to explore a new world in an exciting way. The graphics and sound make the world feel real and add so much immersion to the game. The story is also simple enough to allow you to jump in and out of the game, which is great for a relaxing game you may want to play for just an hour at a time rather than all at once.
The gameplay is engaging and the “combat” is really fun, particularly the mini-games to tame creatures with the flute. It would have been great to have the game fully voice-acted, it is the only place you can see the limited budget.
