Nightingale early-access review: A rough but promising showcase of magic and wonder

The recent early-access release of Nightingale brought Inflexion Games' debut open-world survival to players. After a period of eager anticipation, fans finally got to experience the magic of the Fae Realms. Does this game have the potential to be a hit, or will it fizzle out amid the sea of survival games on the oversaturated market?

Thankfully, first impressions are positive - for the most part, at least. Here's why Nightingale is worth checking out despite a rough start.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinions.

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Nightingale aims to set itself apart from the survival crafting genre

What new dangers and wonders await? (Image via Inflexion Games)

The open-world survival/crafting genre has a massive audience, as seen with games like Minecraft, Rust, No Man's Sky, and the recent hit Palworld. These titles also distinguish themselves from one another with distinct mechanics and elements, but Nightingale has loftier goals.

Described as a "gas-lamp fantasy" adventure, it puts players in the shoes of a Realmwalker - a human stranded in mystical lands of the supernatural after a catastrophe hits Earth. The goal is to traverse various worlds of the Faelands and find a way to the titular Nightingale - a massive city that is the final Bastion of mankind.

These realms are rich with discovery and danger - and this is where genre veteran players will feel most comfortable with. The same core loop of resource gathering from the open world, item crafting for progression, and exploration is present here. Players will also craft different workstations like hide tanning benches, crafting benches, and more.

How Nightingale approaches these aspects is what makes it unique.

The Realm is yours to customize

There are a decent number of options to go through (Image via Inflexion Games)

Before we touch on how players can modify their open worlds, the first thing users will do after launching Nightingale is create a custom character. A plethora of options are available here, from minute face details to even ancestry - in other words, the latter allows the creation of parents and grandparents for the player character.

This, in turn, influences the look of the main character, which is not something one gets to see every day. It is somewhat disappointing, though, that the body shape cannot be customized - perhaps it might be In the pipeline for the future, alongside a re-customizable avatar, as finalized changes cannot be reverted. Once that is done, players select the starting gear and the world difficulty score.

Realm Cards are the backbone of Nightingale's open world (Image via Inflexion Games)

After a short tutorial, they are introduced to Realm Cards. These collectibles are used to customize the parameters of the procedurally-generated open world. The Biome cards allow picking between a forest (which is what I selected), desert, or swamp setting, while Major cards decide its theme, enemy, NPC spawns, and more. Players can also acquire Minor cards via exploration and questing.

These affect the world subtly, such as increased resource and harvest growth. Players will manage health, hunger, and rest in addition to stamina for performing actions like running and attacking. As with other games in the genre, the first main objective will be to create a safe house by establishing a Respite - an area around which hostile mobs will not spawn.

Initial safe havens will likely be crude-looking (Image via Inflexion Games)

Base building is another aspect that Nightingale shows promise in, as players can set down ghost blueprints of the building parts they need and design a house before committing to it. As they progress through the narrative and buy new items, blueprints, and more from merchants, they will be able to create additional elaborate mansions, fortresses, and palaces.

To do this, they will utilize a variety of tools, like pickaxes, weapons like slingbows, and craft gear to raise their overall Power Level. However, this complexity also comes at a cost.

A double whammy of overcomplex and undercooked

There is an incentive to consider using different material types in Nightingale (Image via Inflexion Games)

As per Inflexion Games, one of Nightingale's main selling points is its modular crafting system. In simple words, each type of wood, ore, and other resources players collect will have distinct attributes of their own, such as increasing damage or stealth efficiency. When used in crafting, they impart these traits to the end product.

This is a surprisingly smart idea that not only grants a further level of depth to player freedom but also promotes experimentation. Unfortunately, many resources (such as different types of meat) use the same icon. This makes it hard to discern what is what at a glance, making inventory management an absolute hell.

On the flip side, all resources, materials, and items in the game can be destroyed and turned into a currency called Essence, which is used to buy items from merchants or repair gear.

There are different types of Essences, and they can also drop from enemies, treasure chests, or as rewards from shrine puzzles - which, by the way, are disappointingly easy. This ensures no item goes to waste.

Houses will keep players safe from the elements (Image via Inflexion Games)

That said, the fact that players need to have the materials in their inventory to create something makes crafting even more cumbersome. It is infeasible to carry around large stone blocks that encumber the player; Pocket Pair Inc.'s latest hit survival game, Palworld, solves this issue by automatically using up resources tucked away inside chests and other storage places.

This is a far cry from the snappy item destruction/movement scheme, allowing players to move around chests loaded with resources without having to put them back into inventory. Without a transmog system in place, players will also have to carry a mishmash of gear since they will likely aim for the best possible stats to raise their Power Level.

More quality-of-life additions are likely on the way, and Nightingale could do with improvements in the combat department as well. As noted in our Nightingale overview, combat is fast and fluid at first glance. In execution, however, it is janky. Overall, it is fairly simple too, with skirmishes revolving around hack-and-slash for melee weapons and ranged attacks using firearms.

In addition to foes, other spectres and magical apparitions can also spawn (Image via Inflexion Games)

Besides that, players can dodge while holding light weapons or block with two-handed ones like axes. Who do players use these tools on? The hostile denizens of the Fae worlds, of course. From the ghoulish Bound that will hunt down their target in hordes to hostile wildlife like Waywovles and Harpies, players have no shortage of foes to tackle.

It's too bad fauna and monster spawns are sparse, and even then, the enemy AI is dumb and easy to exploit. Given how big these worlds are, players will likely not encounter much unless they travel to other worlds using a dedicated Portal in each realm.

The ups and downs of exploration

Solving puzzles will have rewards waiting at the end (Image via Inflexion Games)

Among the foul beasts are also Apex Creatures, massive entities usually indifferent to the player. They may be provoked to battle or be persuaded to trade for items. This brings us to discoveries in Nightingale - which is, again, a mixed bag. The open world is vast, with different sights depending on the selected biome.

This includes mysterious pillars and points of interest. In the latter's case, I found a bunch of rare ore beneath a floating pirate ship ruin. The former, however, can be confusing; players will see plenty of oddball ruins, temples, and bizarre architecture dotted around the landscape. While piquing interest, most of them turn out to be pointless geometry that serves no purpose, gameplay, or otherwise.

Not every moment of exploration will be rewarding (Image via Inflexion Games)

This feels fairly misleading in the spirit of exploration. Thankfully, things are mostly enjoyable otherwise. The best part about wandering around Nightingale's world is its varied nature and day/night cycle. Using the Umbrella protects the user from the elements and helps slow down falls from height. Speaking of the weather, the open world is teeming with dynamic effects.

The desert biome's scorching heat threatens to overheat the player while under direct sunlight. On the other hand, hiding in the shade cools them. Running around in the rain will wet the player, and opening an umbrella keeps away the wetness - the same for avoiding hailstorms, though that will significantly damage the equipment's durability.

These AI helpers are very one-note in their behavior (Image via Inflexion Games)

This makes exploring Nightingale feel interesting even though the rewards for it are lackluster - and non-existent at times. Players can also recruit companions to help them explore the magical worlds and fight foes in addition to being a walking closet for storing items - but once again, the game's poor AI rears its head. This is a far cry from Sons of the Forest's Kelvin.

What is truly not exciting, however, is the requirement to play online-only games. Currently, it is not possible to play Nightingale offline. This has drawn the ire of countless gamers on Steam, resulting in a Mixed reviews status.

Final thoughts

Nightingale can be a looker at times (Image via Inflexion Games)

From a visual standpoint, Nightingale looks good, but performance-wise, it can get rough at times - though that is expected from an early-access title. The game also boasts co-op for up to 8 players. I did not have anyone to play with though, so that is one aspect I cannot comment on. To conclude, should players dive into this early rendition of Nightingale?

In my opinion, no. At least, not yet. Even after just a few hours into the game, it is very obvious that it needs severe quality-of-life additions and tweaking before it even becomes a worthwhile experience in the long run. Despite some interesting elements and mechanics, it does not have enough meat on its bones.