Nightingale Early Access Review – Shallow Realms

There’s a feeling of tangible excitement in Inflexion Games’ Nightingale, the recently launched Gaslamp Fantasy survival crafting title that mixes dimensional hopping with Fae lore. After raising your Gear Score and unlocking that Herbarium Card, taking trips to the Provisioner Realm to buy up the materials to craft an Enhanced Enchanter’s Table and craft the card itself, you’re finally ready to take the next step. Slotting the card in, you pass through the Realm Portal, and the message arrives.

“Failed to connect to Nightingale server.”

"With all the established gateways collapsed, you must embrace the Realmwalker life, traveling between worlds and interacting with other survivors while also dealing with the manipulative Puck to reach it."

Try again, and the message says, “A network error occurred.” After trying yet again, it loaded into the instant before I walked through the portal. Granted, I could now venture into this new Realm, but the hype was significantly lessened. Sadly, I was used to these server issues by now, and with Nightingale being online-only, simply traveling between Realms became a coin toss.

Inflexion is aware of the same and will add an offline mode, but it doesn’t make the best first impression, especially when so many of its competitors have it from the get-go. However, even with it, Nightingale isn’t necessarily about wowing you in the first hour (or even the second).

It’s somewhat on the slower side, which works pretty well given the aura of mystery and intrigue surrounding its plot and lore. Unfortunately, as you spend more time hopping through Realms, the various systems responsible for suspending your disbelief start to show cracks.

The story outlines how humanity, now in the Victorian Era, forged a relationship with the Fae. Harnessing their magic has allowed for incredible feats, but unfortunately, it also seemingly attracted the attention of The Pale, who launches a sudden attack. As an Earthen survivor, you take a risk and dive into a Realm Portal, eventually learning about the fabled city of Nightingale. With all the established gateways collapsed, you must embrace the Realmwalker life, traveling between worlds and interacting with other survivors while also dealing with the manipulative Puck to reach it.

"Your overarching goal is to find a way to Nightingale, with several smaller steps necessary to achieve the same, as with any survival crafting game."

The city isn’t currently in early access, so whether it’s truly a haven remains to be seen. Overall, the story starts interesting, as you eventually transition from a fleeing refugee and shaken survivor to a capable Realmwalker. You meet characters like Wilhelmina Sasse, a newspaper reporter with different gossip, and Bass Reeves, a Lawman pursuing a thief across the realms.

Each has made this life their own in different ways, like embracing the joy of wandering or the thrill of adventure. It’s not a large cast, but they’re all distinct (despite the utter lack of facial animations). Of course, in terms of voice acting, Marc Warren is undoubtedly the star as Puck. His poetic words belie a borderline-duplicitous personality, but his delivery and tone are consistently excellent.

The plot can take a bit to get going as you learn the basics of gathering, hunting, crafting, building and venturing to other realms. There are three biomes in early access – Swamp, Desert and Forest. Your overarching goal is to find a way to Nightingale, with several smaller steps necessary to achieve the same, as with any survival crafting game. It can feel a bit restrictive initially, but once you gain more Realm Cards and can craft portals, things start to fall into place.

Realm Cards are essentially a way to craft different realms. You select a biome and then modify it with a Major Card. The Abeyance Card provides a realm with minimal danger and sets a Respite Point, which is where you can teleport back to at any time, even in another realm. It makes the world suitable for building an Estate, but because of its low power level, you’ll need to venture into other more dangerous realms to gather higher-tier Essences and become stronger. Thus begins the journey for an Antiquarian Card, then an Astrolabe Card, followed by a Provisioner Card and finally, a Herbarium Card, each paired with specific biomes depending on the story quest.

"The structure of Nightingale thus plays out as follows. After establishing your Estate and reaching a specific Gear Score, you go to a higher-level realm and repeat the process."

When venturing to a realm, it’s a good idea to seek out the nearest Fae Tower to earn some quick Essence, have nearby points of interest appear on your map and play some Minor Realm Cards. These grant more localized effects, like dealing more damage or causing the sun to never set.

I often went with low gravity to mitigate fall damage and soar across locations easily, but increasing Essence gain, carrying capacity, and more is also great. It’s not so much a game-changing feature as a means to tailor to your particular need at the time, but I like it, especially since some of the Minor cards can have adverse effects (like taking more damage on top of dealing it).

The structure of Nightingale thus plays out as follows. After establishing your Estate and reaching a specific Gear Score, you go to a higher-level realm and repeat the process. There are Sites of Power where you’re tested before receiving other Major Cards, but otherwise, you complete points of interest and gather Essence. Initially, gear is upgraded with Tier 1 Essence and then enchanted. Then you learn about higher tiers of crafting and refining, as better equipment and weapons also increase your Gear Score.

However, it feels like there’s no payoff to the grind – like you’re grinding out Gear Score just to reach the next step of grinding even more Gear Score. On the one hand, I like this idea of shifting between realms, creating this network of portals and exploring everything they offer. Then, you return to your Estate and add to it with new crafting tools or decorations. Sadly, the Realms themselves lack enough to ground you.

"It’s a shame because the overarching lore and settings are very fascinating. Discovering pieces of Hope and reading cards about other survivors or the Fae’s lore is interesting, and their art looks gorgeous."

This is due to their procedurally generated nature. When you encounter a giant mammoth-like skull with structures to explore, it’s awesome, even if there isn’t much practical use. The same goes for clearing out an Occupation and accessing a portal into a small mini-dungeon, where you find lots of Essence and ammo. Over time, these same points of interest keep cropping up with very little to distinguish them. The same goes for the puzzles, which mostly consist of interacting with cores in a specific order or interacting with glowing writing on the walls.

Again, this is early access, and Inflexion will probably add more over time, but besides the mini-dungeons, everything feels a little too straightforward and simplistic. As pretty as some sights can be, they’re ethereal and inconsequential as you load up another realm to see the same kinds and farm even more Essences to upgrade your gear, purchase materials, etc. Even those with characters important to your progression lack much to distinguish them from your standard biomes in terms of content.

It’s a shame because the overarching lore and settings are very fascinating. Discovering pieces of Hope and reading cards about other survivors or the Fae’s lore is interesting, and their art looks gorgeous. The same goes for discovering mysterious architecture and statues and wanting to learn more about their significance.

Compare this to the overarching plot, which starts slow but doesn’t increase the tension. There’s an air of mystery and magic that could be expanded on further; some secrets or things that provide compelling reasons to explore and tell you more about the world (which I hope is coming down the line). At least you can discover new recipes and Realm Cards.

"Resource management could also be better – certain materials like Ingots can come from different resources and thus occupy separate slots in your inventory and storage."

The building in Nightingale is solid – not super remarkable, but it follows the blueprint approach, where you place an outline of a structure and then insert resources to build it. Copying and removing structures you build is seamless.

There’s plenty to unlock, and several players have already begun creating remarkable-looking Estates. It’s mind-boggling that you can’t upgrade your base over time with better materials. A wooden structure will stay that way until you tear it down and replace it with stone, which feels tedious. At least repairing items is quick, and you can pick up all materials on the ground by holding E.

I also found the Grit system interesting, as resting and eating food are mandatory to keep your maximum health and stamina from depleting. Keeping your crafting and cooking benches in roofed structures is also essential to reducing their timers. As annoying as it can be, it emphasizes the importance of building a proper Estate. When you’re away from it, there are structures throughout the realms where you can take temporary shelter, so I didn’t find it too oppressive.

Resource management could also be better – certain materials like Ingots can come from different resources and thus occupy separate slots in your inventory and storage. They do have an impact when used to craft something, but it can be annoying when you run out of space. It would have also been nice to have an option like Palworld where crafting items also accesses your storage, thus cutting down on questioning whether you have the required material in your storage, on top of the additional busywork of fetching it.

"Unfortunately, fights usually boil down to charging head-on and smacking enemies with melee attacks if you’re not firing from afar."

I didn’t find the crafting too complicated otherwise, but more information on the stats and Gear Score of equipment before you craft it would be nice. Some resource streamlining would also be ideal, like converting surplus Essence into higher Tiers to cut down on grinding them out.

As for combat, it’s also very straightforward, with ranged and melee weapons available. Wielding a knife lets you hold another item in your off-hand and dodge, thus avoiding attacks by stepping back or to the side. However, weapons like the axe can deal more damage, even as they consume more stamina and use both hands. Different enemies are vulnerable to different types of damage, so while Automatons won’t flinch from an axe strike, a pickaxe to the face can be effective.

The Pale’s foes have a bit of variety, with the blade-wielding type being more acrobatic while the bombardier hangs back and pelts you from afar. Their AI isn’t too complex, and they can bumble around occasionally. Unfortunately, fights usually boil down to charging head-on and smacking enemies with melee attacks if you’re not firing from afar. Controls feel responsive, especially when weapon switching, but combat lacks that “oomph” or visceral quality to really stand out.

"If it wants to be the video game where fun comes in many forms, be it the call to adventure or the pull of narrative mystery – Nightingale needs a lot more time and work."

It would probably help if the bosses also had more to them. I didn’t dive into the current end-game dungeons at The Watch, so I don’t know if they fare any better there. Overall, combat isn’t bad, but it is simple to a fault and becomes repetitive over time, especially with how much of it there is and how mechanically shallow it feels, even with the Augmentations and Infusions thrown in.

Outside of server issues, Nightingale has its share of bugs. Perhaps the worst is a soft lock, which prevents a portal from fully manifesting early and requires making a new character. Others include materials seemingly clipping through the world, enemies getting stuck on objects, weird physics, and whatnot. There weren’t any hard crashes, so I expect the above to be fixed sooner rather than later (hopefully).

As it currently stands, the potential of Nightingale is immense. Its story and setting are intriguing, and if your computer can handle it, the visuals and art style are incredible. The overall structure is also unique with its realm-hopping, and being able to apply different effects depending on your needs is cool. However, as unconventional and intriguing as it is, several fundamental systems need further tuning and improvements, to say nothing of the sheer quality of life features required.

It isn’t a bad experience, though. There’s this intangible element encouraging the exploration of different realms, even if the combat, Gear Score grind and procedurally generated points of interest start to wear on you. Who knows what the next could hold? Nevertheless, if it wants to be the video game where fun comes in many forms, be it the call to adventure or the pull of narrative mystery – Nightingale needs a lot more time and work.

This game was reviewed on PC.