Naissance

Naissance (stylized as "NaissanceE") is a free game on Steam. It isn't long – if you know what you doing it is about two-three hours, if you bumble around like me it is about five.

It is the game about making way through magnificent and strange environments by the means of pathfinding, first-person platforming, some light-based puzzles and occasional running. I'd say it is a walking simulator in sense that you walk around and enjoy the view, but even if it is, it is how such games should be done, in my opinion; 'Infernium' and 'The Wild Eternal' are similarly well-done 'walking simulators' about which I hope to write one day.

If you ever wanted to know how it is to be lost within "Blame!" or generation shaceship, play it just for that. Despite the few problems mentioned below, it gives a wonderful sense of alienness and discovery – I would go as far as recommend not to look at store page official streenshots. The game  also isn't afraid to create an overwhelming sense of scale – there are games with large levels, but they don't often feel that large.

I want to show all of my screenshots, but this is a game I don't wish to spoil

As for the gameplay, the game has a breathing mechanic where you can run for a very long time if you keep clicking for air intake at certain rhythm, and running for a very long time is very useful in this game. Breathing isn't too engaging, but it is better than to just press 'Shift'. Everything else you activate by stepping on or bumping in with your invisible body and 'Use' button does nothing.

More teasers

The game does have some frustrating moments and I think it is better to be aware of them and accept them before playing, otherwise the frustration might prevent you from seeing nice things later. These things prevent me from recommending the game enthusiastically, but I still think the game is very worth to go through.

• despite being a game from 2014 featuring very few textures and mostly uncomplicated objects the game doesn't render 100% smoothly even with best graphic options. I didn't try VSync and this might help, but even as it is the rendering defects are only noticeable and detracts in smaller, more enclosed areas, which is minority for this game;


• turn off mouse smoothing, it is on by default; 


• navigation from bodyless first-person perspective doesn't lend itself well to platforming even if controls are butter-smooth and here the controls, while pretty good, aren't butter-smooth. Thankfully, in most frustrating sections there are better checkpoints, so if you fall to death on certain lightning wind path, you won't have to repeat the whole section from the beginning;


• game occasionally breaks its own expectations beyond anomaly areas. There are invisible walls in a couple of places that otherwise look reachable; and on certain lightning wind path a previously safe falling distance is a 100% kill.


• 'Into the madness' section has two rooms (black and white) which are very disorienting and 'seizuring'. I don't have strobe sensitivity and the section is, mercifully, just one room, so it didn't give me a headache, but if I am to give a first place to the most frustrating segment, it beats lightning wind path. I am not sure if both of them leads to progression but I only went through the black door (into white room) and it worked well enough without a need to go through white door;


• when you come to two light-locked paths near the beginning of the game, do the right one first; it bugged on me and the corridor didn't appear until I quit and reloaded the checkpoint and thus reversed my progress in left path;


• platforming might get frustrating in the second half, but again, the sections are quite brief and checkpoints are usually good; 


• you can fall from certain heights and don't die, the redness goes away after a time; 


• leave breathing indicator on: yes, you can have full immersion, and turn it off, and only maintain breathing by the sound, but some sections are so dark that my monitor wanted to turn off and white reticle prevented that;


• if you keep on being winded to death in certain parts, just keep on running in one take, don't stop for breath or cover until you are on firm ground;


• fall into chasms at least once in every section; it will be a death, but the view is worth it; on an interesting immersion note, the bloody death screen doesn't go away until you click breathing button, literally taking the your last breath;


• go around as much as you can, because there are some interesting things hidden here and there; especially explore a certain sandy and seemingly blank place near the end;


• there is a way out of staircase trap, don't reload the game;


• at one moment you will be going a definitely wrong way; don't continue by that path however big the temptation is and it will save you some frustration;


• I will give spoilers for the ending and I will highly recommend going in blind, because the thoughts in my ignorant head as I was playing were much better than the thoughts in my knowledgeable head after the game ended. Really, stop reading and go play it for the process. You can check the spoiler once you see words 'Meet the Host'. Otherwise:
  Just like 'Antichamber', this game has no story (or it is way too much subtle) and there is no ending – the game just loops to the title screen with the words 'The beginning'. Given that 'naissance' is French word for birth, it might mean something but it still was a huge letdown. It is never explained who Lucy is, where she came from, what is going on, not even in Dark Souls-vague way. Hence, if you don't like chase bosses, just fall in Eternal Dive and see the last chase on youtube.