I started this expecting a light-hearted summer game considering the weather here right now is actually windy, rainy and dark. I guess the UK's two weeks of summer are already over. Alba: A Wildlife Adventure despite being a short indie game aimed at all ages kinda hit me in the gut a bit, and though the overall theme is one of education and hope it actually left me feeling a bit down about humanity in general but that is no fault of the game.

Quite the opposite, I think Alba is a lovely little relaxing title. You play the titular character Alba visiting her grandparents on an island. The damaged nature reserve is under threat to be removed in favour of an out of place luxury hotel. Taking it upon yourself with a friend to get a petition signed and stop it. This involves repairing bird houses, photographing wildlife, cleaning litter etc to get the locales on your side, stop the greedy corporation and save the day.

Though short and linear it's a small open world allowing you to explore at your own pace, talk to locals and find various birds and animals for your nature book. The game has a lot of heart and a nice simple visual style with clear cut blocky graphics. The music has this Spanish guitar feel to it and it all comes together nicely as a while as it progresses. The only real issue I had was that sometimes when interacting with objects or people the game would freeze for 3-5 seconds like it had crashed and it happened fairly frequently.

It's fairly short at only a few hours to 100% but that is exactly what I was looking for. I had a long couple of weeks, you see I work in the environmental sector of sorts which is why this game was both lovely and sad at the same time. Humans are destroying the world through both minor and major acts of selfishness. Destroying animal habitats and cruelty. Even just basic acts of spraying graffiti, littering all build up. Please play this and just think about what you do, what you buy and how you treat others, animals, recycle and reuse.

Agent Smith in the Matrix was right.

“Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”

From the BAFTA-Award winning ustwo games studio comes Alba: A Wildlife Adventure. An absolutely fantastic experience, imbued with personality at every turn, that can be completed in a single session, with an emotional finish and a great message about preserving nature and it's wonders.

Join Alba Singh, a cute pig-tail haired girl, as she visits her grandparents on a fictional Mediterranean island of Pinar del Mar. She is ready for a peaceful summer of wildlife exploration with her friend Ines in the town of Secarral, but when the mayor decides to doom the island's nature reserve to a sad fate, they decided to gather up signatures for a petition from the people of the town.

Alba: A Wildlife Adventure shows the power of a little girl and what she can do to make things better. It feels like the world is actually becoming a better place through small act of kindness and compassion that you could do in the real world today. It’s a good game to give to children, to help pass along the idea that they can make a difference, they can help the world, if they so choose. The game is a great experience for all ages though, and anyone can help out mother nature with small deeds through out their lives.

It's a beautiful experience that I was very happy to be able to experience. I have to thank my good friend Gina for gifting it to me, such a lovely game and it will forever stay in my favorites list. I wish more games would bring so much joy and happiness.

so good it almost makes me think i actually like summer. just ab everything on offer as texture is obvious from the first 30 minutes but its rly all u need,,,even for my Slightly Chunkier playthru where i went for 100%, its a less-then-four-hour bundle of deeply felt warmth, daring to be quiet and uneventful in ways even other games of its Calming ilk dont tend to do. and still the forward momentum is constant despite that, idk how they got the rhythm down so well. add this to the list of video game Places i will occasionally think ab and missing Feeling In My Hands

An easy-going, environment-minded game that caters to casual players and those who want to delve into entry-level ornithology.

Being already into the nature of birds and introduced to Spanish culture, Alba felt like a treat for simple knowledge while playing into the environment-related intrigue, such as running your own wildlife protection and helping society. The fauna book plays into the collectible element of the game and, as much as I could recognize several bird types IRL, there are some other fascinating types found here that ain't from my geographical area (since I live in Sweden).

It's a pleasantly wholesome game that merely took me a couple of hours to complete, despite the fact of moving around feels bogged-down by the lack of running speed or instant travel. A well-done game for relaxing and passing the time, while learning a bit of the Spanish culture and birds.

I love small open worlds, it is perhaps my favorite sub-genre or whatever, but Alba felt like a big level more than a small world. Too guided and not alive enough, which is a huge problem given the subject matter. The idea of a small spanish island where the main thing is to clean it and take animal pictures is super sweet, but the execution here is extremely bland, with an uninspired level design and not much happening around it. The characters felt fake as well, the flavor text actually read like it was flavor text, and the rest of the writing wasn’t that much better either.

На самом деле, я не особо люблю этот тип игр. Ну знаете, не геймплейно-ориентированые, а созерцательно-погружательные. Я геймер простой. Мне побольше собственно игры, а уж всё остальное по возможности.

И как не парадоксально, но это у меня уже третья подобная игра в этом году. Был симулятор подводника ABZÛ и покорителя гор A Short Hike. И по-большому счёту у меня к ним была лишь одна претензия - нераскрытый геймплейный потенциал. Я прекрасно понимаю, что это индюшатины и возможно авторы сделали всё так, как и хотели. Но поиграв в эти проекты, вы поймёте что именно я имею ввиду.

И вот вы думаете, что моя подводка состоит в том, что Alba, стала той игрой, что удовлетворила мои желания в данном жанре (если это можно назвать жанром). Как бы и да, и нет.

И да

Вообще устанавливая игру в эпиках (где же ещё в библиотеке у меня могла оказалась такая игра), я ожидал некий тайкун на минималках. Буду облагораживать заповедник на острове без всяких экономических вычислений. Но нет. Это в большей степени симулятор "коллекционера". И разработчики явно учились у лучших) Ведь тут есть статистические полосочки, которые триггерят любителей платин. Слава богу, ачивки к этой игре эпики ещё не завезли. Поэтому моральное право не выполнять ВСЕ миссии у меня есть)

Но, конечно, какие бы "мотивационные" приёмы не использовали геймдизигнеры, без какой-либо базы, нафиг это кому нужно. Здесь же базой выступает аудио-визуальная составляющая. Не буду сильно растекаться о ней, но скажу, что сделано очень приятно глазу и уху. Ближайший референс, который приходит в голову - это Лука от Пиксар. Сюжет, правда, тут более "глобальный")

И нет

В корне это всё ещё игра без интересного геймплея. Даже фишка с фото спотыкается об одну очень странную ошибку. Ваши фото не влияют на игру визуально. На острове есть стенды, которые нужно заполнять фотографиями птиц. Но ставите вы не ваши фото, а заготовленные игрой картинки. Тот же прикол с газетами. Как можно было упустить такую возможность погружения игрока, ума не приложу.

Ещё одна странность (или это элемент сатиры). В чём соль. Остров находится в раздрае. И это не только состояния элементов заповедника, а просто разбросанный мусор по всюду. Но с кем ни поговоришь, все такие белые и пушистые. Вопрос: кто же притворяется не свиньёй?? Не мог же мэр с бизнесменом по ночам ходить и раскидывать все эти банки? Да боже мой, на лежаке отдыхает человек, а вокруг него всякий хлам. Просто смешно.

Играть иль не играть?

Чтобы ответить на этот вопрос, вы должны отметить для себя следующие утверждения верными:

- Атмосфера превыше геймплея

- Я готов(-а) услышать, хоть и милую, но всё же довольно детскую историю

- Минималистичный стиль для меня не проблема

Ну и в целом игра короткая (я за 2,5 часа прошёл). И если вас что-то удерживает в игре, то вероятно до конца вы пройти её сможете без усилий.

6 валяющихся банок из 10

When I first started this, my naïve first impressions were, "Wait... is all you do in this game just walk around the island and take pictures of the wildlife?" and, while the answer to that is yes, it's far more compelling than you may realise.

Alba: A Wildlife Adventure is set on the fictional Spanish island town of Secarral, where the titular character is staying on vacation to visit her grandparents. While she's there, the town mayor and a shady businessman make the announcement that the town's beloved nature reserve is getting torn down to make way for a five-star luxury hotel. Now it's up to Alba and her best friend, Inés, to form a Wildlife Rescue League and save the island with petitions and photographs.

It's a short, sweet and incredibly cute adventure that is very confident in its messaging and presentation and conveys that through simple, cozy gameplay as you catalogue all of the island's adorable animals (none of which you can pet, unfortunately.) The locals and locales of the island are all really charming as well, which helps sell its chill summer vibes and relaxing atmosphere.

My only complaints with the game are its animal variety and smaller things like not being able to move around while you have your phone out to take a picture. These two go hand-in-hand since the vast majority of the animals you encounter on the island are birds and many of them you're only able to catalogue by photographing them as they're flying. Since they never really stop or fly slowly enough, it can be quite tedious as you try to line up the shot and zoom perfectly.

But I digress. Despite this, Alba: A Wildlife Adventure is a truly wonderful game with a powerful message that is conveyed sincerely and naturally through the exploration and joy of its environment, helped by the oh-so-charming sights, sounds, and vibes of the island and its people.

9.5/10

positive wildlife conservation themes and pretty wholesome.

the gameplay isn't anything too insane. most of it is just taking pictures and pressing A until you've interacted with everything in a given area, but it's clearly created for a younger audience and so i don't think its fair for me to say "wow gameplay chugs" or anything like that. definitely the best part is trying to get all of the animals scanned on your phone, as you can listen to the sounds they make in the wildlife guide and then recognize that sound in game to figure out where they are if you can't easily see them.

unfortunately, i feel like so many birds look like each other (lmao) and that's kinda just a fault of reality, i guess, but when they're flying in the air and such it's very difficult to actually tell what a bird is unless you're pointing the camera at it. as such, a large portion of this game is spent looking at birds with your camera that you already have logged, which ends up feeling a little silly. totally could be a me problem though for sure. also, the wildlife guide is disappointingly bare. it has all of the creatures, what they look like, their scientific name, and their sound, but that's it. there's no fun fact or diet or wingspan or anything listed about the creatures, and that ends up making them feel more like checks on a checklist as opposed to creatures that you should strive to conserve, which i feel reduces the effect of this game overall.

there is a website called Ecologi that supports reforestation, and the creators of Alba, Ustwo Games, commits one tree to that mission for every game downloaded or sold. as of my time of writing, they're currently in place 5th on the leaderboard for businesses with just over 1 million trees funded, which i think is pretty neat. to conclude: Alba: A Wildlife Adventure is a cute and simple game without much mechanical depth, but one for a good cause. i think it's pretty easy to get behind, and definitely deserves to exist.

a very cute little educative game but i would say it's suited more towards children, i wish i had this kind of games to play when i was a kid... i would absolutely love it. but now as an adult, i would say it lacks many things - my biggest complaint being the lack of description / information on the guidebook. it would be amazing if every animal had their description (i think it should be a default with this kind of game, i thought i just didn't know where to check but turns out the option is simply not there) - this way we would be able to learn actually cool facts and possibly memorize them but the way it is in the game, i forgot about most of the birds 20 minutes after scanning them. one other thing that struck me as weird: there is no achievement for scanning every animal? i am not saying this is bad, it just felt like a different choice to me since i was 100% sure there would be an achievement for this from my previous gaming experiences. to end on a good note, the sound design was absolutely amazing and i loved learning about each animal's unique sounds!

Tal vez se deba al hecho de que la naturaleza tan idealizada de este libro de colores para adultos contrasta mucho con mi propia experiencia de niño, pero hay cierto carácter impostado en las formas de este juego que me echa un poco para atrás. Lo peor de todo, en mi opinión, es que a las criaturas de esta historia no se les permite, ante todo, ser criaturas. En vez de jugar a explorar por tu cuenta, meterte en líos e ir un poco a la tuya por la isla del Secarral (ya sea para matar el aburrimiento o incordiar a tu familia), juegas el papel de una niña híper-idealizada que puede hacer literalmente cualquier cosa que se le proponga. A un juego con tan poca profundidad se le va la vida, en mi opinión, cuando intenta meterte muchas tareas a la vez. Al final, lo único que haces es recolectar y rellenar el cuaderno de las tareas, y no creo que eso esa lo que unas vacaciones deberían ser.

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Perhaps it's due to the fact that this adult coloring book contrasts so sharply with my own experience as a child that used to vacation in a similar place, but there's a fakeness to this work that turns me off. The clearest example I can offer is that the children of the game are never allowed to act as children. Instead of exploring on your own or getting into shenanigans because you want to kill boredom or annoy your family, you act as this highly idealized girl who's the best at everything they ask her to be. A game with so little depth loses me when it tries to cram so many tasks at once. In the end, all you're doing is collecting and filling in your notebook, which is not what vacations should be about.

Absolutely lovely experience, It was so fun exploring Alba's world!

Its main appeal are the 60ish birds (and a handful of other animals) that populate the island and breath life into it with unique animations, patterns, and most importantly - sound.

My only complaint is that Alba is essentially a snap like game where you photograph and catalogue birds, but the game cares very little for photography. There's no real album in the game and the catalogue adds a premade photos, ignoring the actual one you took.

Nevertheless it is a rich and vibrant island that anyone should pay a visit.

A mediocre game that fails at fundamental levels. I think the game doesn't understand what it needs to do to be relaxing. Constantly having the camera taken away from me when I talk to a character doesn't feel relaxing, it's stressful and annoying. The incredibly slow pace of walking isn't relaxing, it's extremely frustrating. There's no jumping or anything either to do when you walk from place to place, nor much to see after you've been through an area once or twice.

The concept of finding animals is cool, but underdevelopped and there isn't much else to the game.

C'est cool d'avoir un jeu qui sensibilise à la préservation de l'environnement et de la faune et on se prend vite au jeu de photographier tous les animaux de l'île. Il y a une petite intrigue qui sert de fil conducteur, c'est pas fifou mais c'est raccord avec le sujet du jeu. Graphiquement, pas de quoi se taper le cul par terre mais c'est mimi dans l'ensemble. La jouabilité, là c'est mon souci. J'y ai joué sur mobiles et ça se passe à peu près bien dans l'ensemble, le gyroscope fonctionne etc... Sauf que régulièrement, le jeu a tendance à centrer la caméra vers le bas et ce qui fait qu'on avance en regardant le sol bordel. On peut recentrer la caméra, la bouger et ça se remet correctement à force d'avancer mais c'est bien bien relou.