I've recently been watching Blue Planet with my girlfriend, and beyond putting me in complete awe at the pure majesty of the natural world, I keep thinking about the people behind the camera. The patience, the planning, the incredible lengths needed to get these amazing shots. Some require the crew to be at the exact right place at the exact right time of year, with less than a few minutes' margin of error, and have every single condition in their favour to get a once-in-a-lifetime shot that lasts less than a few seconds. And they do it.
Nuts also makes me think of that. Granted, the shots I get are somewhat more mundane, but if I'm honest with myself, I'll never not be in awe at the beauty of a squirrel enjoying an acorn.
You take photos of squirrels in this game. It's kinda great, honestly. You set up cameras each day, and then at night you watch back the footage. You note where the squirrel moves, and replace your cameras to follow its routine. It's surprisingly engaging, and the beautiful colour palettes give the forest an unreal, haunting appeal. It gives me a chance to appreciate the environments in the abstract, beyond the luscious greens, browns, and yellows I normally associate with the woods.
It does get repetitive at times, and wasting a whole day's work by placing your equipment in the wrong spot does foster a deeper empathy with the documentarians of the real world.
There's a story here too, about an insidious company ruining the forest, and about critters that are acting strangely. It sadly end up mattering very little in the end, as the finale is one of the most abrupt and unsatisfying I've ever seen. It doesn't end so much as stop, with almost no threads resolved, despite the intrigue ratcheting up massively towards the game's final hour.
Ultimately, Nuts doesn't have much to off beyond its central gameplay conceit, which is a shame. It's a little too short to provide a solid narrative and just long enough to not outstay its mechanical welcome. But it gave me a change to appreciate some fluffy-tailed critters in their own habitat and that's not nothing.
Nuts also makes me think of that. Granted, the shots I get are somewhat more mundane, but if I'm honest with myself, I'll never not be in awe at the beauty of a squirrel enjoying an acorn.
You take photos of squirrels in this game. It's kinda great, honestly. You set up cameras each day, and then at night you watch back the footage. You note where the squirrel moves, and replace your cameras to follow its routine. It's surprisingly engaging, and the beautiful colour palettes give the forest an unreal, haunting appeal. It gives me a chance to appreciate the environments in the abstract, beyond the luscious greens, browns, and yellows I normally associate with the woods.
It does get repetitive at times, and wasting a whole day's work by placing your equipment in the wrong spot does foster a deeper empathy with the documentarians of the real world.
There's a story here too, about an insidious company ruining the forest, and about critters that are acting strangely. It sadly end up mattering very little in the end, as the finale is one of the most abrupt and unsatisfying I've ever seen. It doesn't end so much as stop, with almost no threads resolved, despite the intrigue ratcheting up massively towards the game's final hour.
Ultimately, Nuts doesn't have much to off beyond its central gameplay conceit, which is a shame. It's a little too short to provide a solid narrative and just long enough to not outstay its mechanical welcome. But it gave me a change to appreciate some fluffy-tailed critters in their own habitat and that's not nothing.