Europa is a stunning game with a rich world to explore and a story worth telling. I was blown away by the brilliantly designed and competent world that small indie studio, Novadust Entertainment, was able to produce.

Having kept my eye on the early development, I was relieved when I finally booted it up. I knew from the very minute I stepped foot onto the surface of Jupiter’s moon that this was a game I was going to fall in love with.

The lush, Studio Ghibli inspired, world is beautiful. The biggest compliment I can give it is to compare it to something along the lines of Breath of the Wild. With stunning vistas on the horizon tantalisingly calling my name, I wanted to explore every inch of the gorgeous fields that lay before me.

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The development team has clearly taken inspiration from classic games like Journey and Abzu.

Europa is full to the brim with interesting creatures, puzzles to solve and a mystery to uncover.

Europa, What a Wonderful World!

Europa’s world is gorgeous. The sun is constantly shining during as the wind blows through the fields, making it all feel so alive. With creatures walking and flying around, every inch of the world feels explorable. It’s this kind of world that fills you with a sense of discovery, I was constantly searching and looking around every nook and cranny.

*The ruins depicted what humans had left in this world, from giant robots to turrets.*

Europa is not so much an open world experience but one that comprises of different open zones to explore. Each of these areas showed many signs of the conflict that preceded this adventure. Giant robots were strewn across the meadows, turrets were still trying to defend their position and large bridges had collapsed. The world was completely immersive.

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A Story Worth Telling

Europa is an experience first and foremost, blurring together storytelling, art and gameplay over its four hours. It found a great balance; the key to enjoying games like this is a story that hooks you in. The main story is captivating and should be one that you experience for yourself.

*The beautiful story told through Zee’s father*‘s *notebook.*

Scattered throughout the world are torn pages from your father’s old notebook that help piece together the story. As the story unfolded, it continued to teased me with mini cliffhangers, making it the type of game you could easily complete in one sitting.

Having a narrator for the story added to the immersion.

Another thing that impressed was the game was voice acted. Zee’s father narrated every work of every page — it was produced so well. I could feel the emotion in the father’s voice.

Gameplay: Fly Away on my Zephyr

The open zoned areas were a pure joy to explore with the truly amazing movement a highlight of this game. You can run, jump, glide and fly around this picturesque world. With the Zephyr strapped to your back, you use blue fuel dotted around to help you zoom to amazing heights. Reaching the tops of large ruins was no problem, you might even find one of the games 40 hidden crystals there.

Europa’s Glorious movement.

The flow of the movement was extremely satisfying. There’s no fall damage, even though you land with a thud, you slowly get up and continue exploring. This took the risk out of exploring really high places. With movement being such a key aspect to the game, my only gripe was the walking speed. I would have loved an option to sprint because as soon as I lost my momentum walking seemed so slow.

A Little Puzzle Break

Intertwined within each area were some rather easy environmental puzzles. I loved that this game was a relaxing experience and the puzzles maintained that feeling. You’re usually tasked with unlocking large doors to get into the next area. Find pressure plates, light torches or search for little wisps to unlock the way forward. There were some light platforming puzzles too, involving giant cubes that would disappear or change direction as you jumped. It was just enough to change things up.

*Activating these blocks was one of the simple puzzles in Europa*

These puzzles were in no means difficult. In fact, you really just had to travel around the area you were in to find the required switches. In a game like this, I do not want to be bogged down in completing challenging puzzles and getting frustrated. I was more than happy to have a little break from whizzing and gliding around the open world to take some time to open the way to the next area.

There’s a great sense of anticipation to reach every new part of Europa. With so many new landmarks before me, I just couldn’t wait to get out there and explore some more. My snapshot button was working overtime!

Characters Inspired by Studio Ghibli

Europa wears its inspirations on its sleeve and this is a good thing. The characters and creatures are beautifully designed in a Studio Ghibli style. Video games are a perfect medium to explore this art style and it worked so well here.

*Zee’s design was inspired by Studio Ghibli characters*.

Helder Pinto, the developer for this game, is a former art director from Overwatch and Diablo 3. His experience is on show, with a clear art direction spread across the entire game.

Full of Familiar and Unique Wildlife

The creatures in Europa were a highlight. With a mix of familiar and android based creatures, they were all unique. There were rabbits with horns on their heads, deer leaping through the grass and lizards scampering around rocks. It left me pondering how these Earth like creatures managed to end up here on Europa.

*The further you delved into the world the more android based creatures you would find*

Then there’s the hybrid creatures known as Gardeners. Some were buzzing around like bees whilst others had rocks on their back and hid as soon as you ran by.

I felt particularly frustrated by one that kept shooting purple ooze at me and it looked a lot more robot-like than others. These quirky android creatures helped discover more of the game’s narrative.

I loved discovering the new android creatures of this world!

Throughout my journey, I obtained a sketchbook where I was able to document every creature I came across. As I opened my sketchbook, the animals would appear on the pages, as if they were being drawn before my eyes. This was a really fun way to record them. Collecting all the creatures made the journey feel even more important, like I was actually doing some kind research to share. It was a great addition to a game and I am proud to say I found them all!

Graphics: Breathtaking Views and Slick Performance

Europa was a very polished experience. I had no major performance issues.

The game looks like a watercolour painting and even has a mode where you can set how much you want the world to look like a piece of paper — a very nice touch. While interesting, I preferred playing with paper mode off; those anime style graphics were perfect and crisp.

I played through the game on my ROG Ally in docked mode and had all the settings turned to “Epic”. I was able to see the grass swaying in the wind, all the detail in the ruins without a single stutter. This is a true credit to the efforts of the small development team here.

Music to My Ears

The music matches the world wonderfully. Composer Matt Thomason was able to create an atmospheric soundtrack with beautiful piano, again giving me Breath of the Wild vibes. It would just subtly play in the background and then get louder and prominent as you entered a different point of the journey. I enjoyed vibing out to the tracks as I ventured throughout the world.

The piano in this part was wonderful

I expect there to be a certain ambience when I am playing around in a world like Europa. Again, this was just wonderful. The sound of wind gushing, water flowing and the buzz of android bees. It was all here. Sound is such an important aspect of a game to me and helps me to get immersed in the world.

Pack Your Zephyr and Take a Trip to Europa!

I am so happy I got to play Europa. The more I think about it, the more impressed I am that a small indie studio could put together such a well put together and interesting world.

Although it was a rather simple experience, with no real enemies to fight and a rather linear story to follow, soaring over the fields with my Zephyr jetpack was a true highlight. I unlocked new knowledge about the wildlife, found out about the world’s history and hummed to the relaxing tunes.

*Seeing Jupiter in Europa’s sky was always a breathtaking sight*

From solving light environmental puzzles to finding crystals in tough to reach places, there was enough to do in each area to ensure I fully explored the world.

With its short playtime, Europa is a game that can be enjoyed by gamers of all skill levels. So go on, go grab your Zephyr, fuel it up and head out on this amazing adventure!

Europa will be released on October 12th on PC via Steam and on Nintendo Switch for $22.50. There is a demo available now on both platforms.

Quest Daily scores Europa:

8.5/10

A review copy of Europa was supplied to Quest Daily for the purpose of this review.