In 2021, developers Feral Cat Den releasedGenesis Noir,a rather unique adventure game about a watch peddler trying to save their love by preventing the Big Bang, all presented in a noir fashion, as the title suggests. It was a clever game with stunning visuals and music, and came out to a good amount of acclaim, evenwalking away with two Independent Games Festival awards(plus two other nominations, including one for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize). So how could you possibly top something as impressive as that? Well, they found a way, teaming up with indie publisher Fellow Traveler for the sequel,Nirvana Noir.
Here We Are Now, Entertain Us
Nirvana Noirpicks up whereGenesis Noirleft off, with No Man being a man of two worlds. Quite literally, as the impact of their decision has resulted in two different realities, one which has the world of Black Rapture, the traditional, jazzy, monochrome setting of the first game, where the Big Bang wasn’t fired, but then there’s Constant Testament, described as an explosion of color and sin, with more psychedelic visuals evoking pop art and the 1960s as if to truly illustrate that this is a world that’s moving forward compared to Black Rapture’s more 1940s-era setting. It’s here that the demo shown started, where No Man is a criminal informant tasked with getting information on a growing counterculture movement that’s concerning people due to a new drug involved.
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After walking around for a bit, taking in the new setting and all of its color, and picking our jaws up off the floor, we head into a popular butcher shop to get some information out of the butcher there. After a bit of small talk, he starts to realize what No Man is looking for. The game then switched to one of the surreal puzzles that its predecessor is known for, as the butcher actually grinds up their text boxes into sausages using a massive meat grinder, each with a letter, and we have to form the correct words with them in order get the response needed to get the butcher to open up. Language is one of the big themes inNirvana Noir,so it makes sense for some of the puzzles in Constant Testament to involve more wordplay. It’s a fun twist and having multiple responses for different words is a nice touch as well.
In contrast, a look at a scene in Black Rapture seesNirvana Noirgoing back to something more traditional. We start out by trekking across a bit of the same neighborhood encountered in Constant Testament’s scene, naturally feeling more dreary. Though again, that doesn’t stop the visuals from being breathtaking. Heading into a club, No Man travels through a more familiar scene as echoes of themselves move through it, where the player can examine everyone involved. At the end lies our goal: a giant animatronic display that can provide a part needed for a clock tower. To get it, players have to operate a remote control in order to trigger various combos of movements and displays needed to wreck the whole thing, resulting in our prize. It’s nice, fun and has a lot of experimentation, showing that the puzzle design in this world will be just as creative as well.
Regardless of what universe you prefer, both ofNirvana Noir’sworlds combine to create one spellbinding piece of work, one with intriguing mysteries for No Man to solve, all of them expanding upon the world ofGenesis Noirin interesting ways. No word yet on any possible release window, butNirvana Noiris set to begina Kickstarter campaignto help fund some parts of the game sometime soon,much like with the first game,so stay tuned for more info on that as we await more info on this psychedelic adventure.
