At first glance Creatures of Ava may seem like a simple exploration adventure about taming wild creatures, but the overarching story tackles many philosophical themes, examining how to respond to extinction and whether it’s right to intervene. While it offers an exciting landscape to travel through and an intriguing premise, the game fails to reach its full potential as the pacing makes it hard to connect with the story and characters, which is further hindered by the boring gameplay mechanics. I really should have enjoyed it, but ultimately it felt like a mediocre experience.
Your journey takes you across the planet Ava, where you tame creatures and relocate different species to protect the wildlife that lives there. Imagine an intergalactic Noah’s Ark, only you’re sent on the ultimate rescue mission. The story follows Vic, a passionate researcher, and her mission to save the wildlife from the destructive Wilt infection. This deadly disease turns gentle creatures into savage beasts and threatens the entire ecosystem of the planet.
At first, Vic’s connection to this cause is lacking an explicit explanation, other than her concern for the welfare of the animals. It’s hard to understand and support her actions! As the story progresses, it becomes clear that Vic’s commitment to this conservation is deeply rooted in personal motivation, but because it failed to grab my attention for the first few hours, I never really felt connected to the story or the characters. That’s a shame, because I appreciate the themes and motifs explored.
The option for a pacifist run is a relatively common phenomenon, where no damage is dealt during the entire playthrough in order to achieve a certain achievement or unlock a special ending. From the beginning in Creatures of AvaVic only uses non-lethal force and refrains from using weapons to attack. She can only defend herself by dodging attacks and running through the environment. She can also use the mystical staff she finds on the planet to heal creatures affected by the withering infection. The combat system (if you can call it that) revolves around avoiding incoming aggression from creatures while using the staff to cure their illness. As you can probably tell at this point, if you’re looking for a monster catching experience similar to that of Palworldyou won’t find that here.
To save the creatures that inhabit the planet, you must first eliminate the disease they’re infected with, then tame them using a flute. Basically, you’re the space exploration version of the piper. You come to the planet, promise salvation, and gain the trust of the native creatures by using your flute. Not threatening at all. Playing the flute itself isn’t too complicated. When you play a song, a music wheel appears with icons of root notes. Each of these represents a note you’d find on a real flute. The creature you’re trying to tame will visually display the notes it responds to above its head. It’s easy to play the musical instrument, but some faster tempos and longer songs will require a few tries. Guess I won’t be the next Beethoven anytime soon.
Taming creatures is important because they will follow you after you gain their trust, so you can take them to the rescue bots facilities scattered around the map. But you can also bond with the creature, allowing you to temporarily take control of the beast and use its special abilities to open new paths, like breaking ropes on a bridge or charging into a fungal barrier. Again, this could have been an interesting concept, but the implementation is a bit boring here. Once you have control of the creature, all you have to do is walk to a blocked path, use the ability, and that’s it. There’s no other reason to use the creatures that inhabit the land, and I wanted them to play a more significant role in the gameplay.
To progress in the storyline, you must complete quests for characters you meet on the planet. These quests require you to travel back and forth to collect various items or speak to specific characters to gain information. The whole game feels like one big errand quest, and I didn’t feel much of a sense of accomplishment when I completed one. A greater variety of tasks that were more distinct from one another would have benefited the overall narrative tremendously.
There are four ecosystems to traverse, each with unique environmental features. One of the ecosystems is a beautiful prairie, while another is an overgrown jungle with dark and gloomy swamp areas. You cannot enter a new ecosystem until you reach a certain part of the storyline. Some of the creatures are fantastically designed and reflect the environment you find them in, making exploring new areas one of the more enduring aspects of. Creatures of Ava.
The landscape you traverse is similar to the Metroidvania genre. You must explore the wilderness and navigate platforms at different levels to reach certain areas. The path can often be blocked and you must use your staff to clear the environment. This might include, for example, a spell to raise a rock from the ground so you can use it as a makeshift platform, or a spell to remove a Witherbloom, a giant, overgrown flower. The terrain is relatively easy to understand and I always enjoyed traveling to the next destination on the map.
It may seem like I was overly harsh Creatures of Avabut that’s because there are some excellent ideas here, but the execution fell short. There’s nothing wrong with a creature taming title deviating from a traditional combat system and taking a pacifist approach. If anything, exploring that path can provide an opportunity to create a distinctive identity in the genre, but you need to make sure other aspects of the gameplay are compelling. I often found myself going through the motions rather than wanting to see what was next. Oddly enough, I think the game tried to be too clever for its own good, and that backfired. It included too many ideas, and little thought was given to how those mechanics could benefit each other. If you like some of the concepts that Creatures of Ava If you look into it, you will find some positive qualities that might be worth your time. However, I don’t think I will return Creatures of Ava any time in the near future.
Creatures of Ava is available for Xbox Series X and PC.
6
Let your intuition guide you as you play a thrilling action-adventure and creature rescue game. Understand and tame the creatures of Ava and let them guide you through a variety of ecosystems – all in the hopes of saving the planet from a life-threatening infection. PC version tested. Review copy provided by the company for testing purposes.
Creatures of Ava explores some interesting philosophical concepts, but the lackluster gameplay mars the experience.
