Neva is a beautiful side-scrolling platformer from the Gris devs with an adorable doggy companion that is inevitably going to die horribly

GamesActionNeva is a beautiful side-scrolling platformer from the Gris devs with an adorable doggy companion that is inevitably going to die horriblyWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Devolver Digital)

A girl in a red cloak meets a white dog in a forest.

It took all of 30 seconds with Neva to become convinced it was going to break my heart, I just haven’t figured outhow. A side-scrolling, hacky-slashy-dashy platformer from the developers behind Gris, Neva puts you in the shoes of a red-cloaked girl and her faithful hound, a fantastical wolf/deer creature named, well, Neva.

(Image credit: Devolver Digital)

Helping Neva the dog scramble up a ledge.

I just don’t see this ending well.

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But that’s all speculation. In the 30 minutes or so I got with the game, at least, nothing especially terrible happened. That is, unless you count my absolutely pathetic performance against the endboss.

(Image credit: Devolver Digital)

Fighting an enemy on a decaying bridge.

It’s not anything you haven’t experienced before: The process of using your dash and jump charges to cleverly navigate across levels filled with things that want to hurt you is familiar to anyone who’s touched a 2D platformer in the last decade. But it’s well done and it feels good. Dropping off a ledge, timing a dash charge to thread my way between enemies beneath and above me, then popping a jump to bound up to the platform on the other side of the screen feels as good here as it did 14 years ago in Super Meat Boy. Heck, it felt good (in much gentler form) in Gris.

But unlike Gris, Neva also hands you a sword and invites you to go ham with it, hacking and slashing your way through enemies and obstacles scattered across its platform-heavy levels. Combat isn’t too complex—you slash your enemies when they’re open and roll through them when they attack, this isn’t Dead Cells—but it feels good to bob and weave between your foes.

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Unlike Gris, Neva also hands you a sword and invites you to go ham with it

Actually, I take that back. Combat isn’t too complexunlesswe’re in bossfight mode, where the game actually puts up a bit of a fight. After absolutely breezing through every preceding section of the game, my demo concluded with me hitting a brick wall against the big, beefy enemy it throws against you at the end.

(Image credit: Devolver Digital)

A black, ichorous mass dominates a level in Neva.

Now, to be fair, I was absolutely on tilt—there’s no reason it should have taken me any more than two or three tries except that I got in my own head—but Neva isn’t afraid to throw things at you that ramp up the challenge now and then. The boss required tighter timing and quicker pattern recognition than any enemy I’d fought up to that point.

A dog’s life

My demo ended with my (eventual) triumph over the boss, and I’m curious to see more. In the game’s early stages, Neva isn’t much more than a fluffy pal you occasionally have to pull out of danger, but the devs suggested that might change as the game goes on, with Neva gaining size and abilities that eventually turn that tale on its head: Your hound will begin looking after you rather than you looking after it.

Which sounds like it’s just what the doctor ordered. Neva is gorgeous and, for the half-hour I spent with it, was a pretty good time, but nothing I saw in that time felt particularly unique in a mechanical sense. I suspect that might change as the game continues to unfold and Neva gets bigger and bolder. You know, at least until the inevitable tragedy strikes.

(Image credit: Devolver Digital)

A girl in a red cloak and a full-grown wolf in Neva.

Neva releases later this year. You can find it over onSteam.

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Hop, skip, jump, slice#

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A dog’s life#

Hop, skip, jump, slice

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A dog’s life