NUTS Review: Tinker Tailor Squirrel Spy
There is something to be said about beginning this new year by exploring a dazzling forest accompanied only by tiny, nut hoarding inhabitants. Surviving an emotionally taxing year in lockdown, I found solace in my newfound love for squirrel surveillance within a hyper-stylized fictional forest. This comforting sensation became the driving force behind NUTS’ simple, yet engaging and unique gameplay loop guiding me into uncovering the narrative Melmoth Forest held. While NUTS is a delightful debut title from a newly formed remote development team, lack of accessibility options and performance issues on the Nintendo Switch make it one that comes packaged with slight caveats upon a full recommendation.
Presentation
The use of a triadic color palette and variations of values within particular colors creates a visual presentation that leaves a lasting first impression. Pastel environments with contrasting tones on particular traits tightened up with bold outlines delivers the sense of living within a digital painting. With the absence of a ticking clock behind objectives, I found myself wandering the forest and taking in what it had to offer. With the help of an outstanding soundscape design and environmental level design, exploring Melmoth Forest became a meditative experience in its opening areas. While aimlessly traversing is not an objective nor one that will drive the narrative forward, the artistic execution creates an explorative gameplay mechanic allowing you to take a breath. Initially I was prepared for the aesthetic to feel stale as I delved deeper, but the color palettes and environmental designs adapt to the narrative with each of the games six chapters keeping the sense of exploration and discovery fresh.
What makes Melmoth Forest feel truly alive are the stars of NUTS; the squirrels. If I may be so bold, with the exception of Conker, these are the most authentic squirrels I have ever personally encountered in a video game. When applying the same artistic rules set within the environments to the creatures, the bold outlines and contrasting palettes highlight the frantic movements creating a sense of hyper-realism to the animations. The sudden pauses, tree-hopping, and brisk trotting filled me with a sense of watching an actual squirrel. With the objective of the gameplay being centered around performing surveillance on these fuzz-rockets, I cannot believe The NUTS Team made watching squirrels so fascinating.
What makes the presentation of NUTS challenging to completely praise is the lack of accessibility options. The visual realization of Melmoth Forest is a sight to behold, but similar tonalities within an environment’s palette may be difficult to distinguish for those who are visually impaired. At times, areas may feel washed-out and drowning in the base color. Exploring the options, I was disappointed to see the absence of a colorblind mode or options to adjust for a large player base. Additionally, as this is a title being released on Nintendo Switch and Apple Arcade, these options would benefit an even wider player base who will be playing on small screens. Even while playing on a large television, there were moments I found myself looking towards the sky in order to readjust and catch my bearings. Temporarily play-testing in handheld mode, I found myself in these scenarios a bit more frequently. While I understand The NUTS Team is small team consisting of five individuals, accessibility options are welcomed additions I would love to see implemented post-launch allowing the game to be comfortably enjoyed by all players.
Gameplay
The core gameplay loop of NUTS finds player engagement through its simplistic and unique take on puzzle mechanics. Throughout the six chapters, the centric goal remains unchanged: track squirrels, find key moments in their paths, print and fax photos, report to HQ. Similar to how fascinating I found watching the squirrels, I never could have imagine how immersed I would become tracking them into the night.
Upon beginning a new chapter and entering a new area, you will receive your main objective via a phone call with your boss, Nina. Once the goal is set, each segment within the chapter is now split between days and nights. During the day, you will utilize cameras on stationary tripods to surveil on squirrels starting at a point of interest marked on your GPS. For example, the point of interest may be a tree, so placing the camera pointing at the tree is a solid start. Entering your home-base caravan and sitting at the surveillance station triggers the night segment. Watching the monitors attached to the cameras and utilizing basic transport controls (play, pause, etc), you will begin tracking the squirrels. With the cameras being stationary, you will find your little friend running out of frame beyond the cameras sight, so it’s time to adjust. As you stand and leave the caravan, the next day segment commences.
On the surface, NUTS feels like Trial And Error: The Video Game. Constantly readjusting cameras in a rinse-and-repeat manner may sound like a chore and flat out not fun, but it’s honestly thrilling. Moments of squirrels coming into frame are accompanied by a pop of excitement in the night, followed by captivating detective work during the day. What enhances the loop further are the paths the squirrels take throughout each chapter. The optimal path is not always obvious. Most of the time I felt pleasantly surprised by discoveries I’d come across and paths I’d follow, particularly in the later chapters. On top of the already engaging core loop, each chapter has its own variation on surveillance mechanic keeping you from never doing the same task twice.
It’s important to note that at the time of this review, I have encountered severe frame rate hitching in one of the chapters which hindered gameplay and inevitably led to a hard crash. Avoiding spoilers, one chapter leads you to a dense swampy area of the forest. Traversing the area became quite unbearable as frames would drop causing a stuttering effect in movement. Adding onto the frustration, it is one of the larger areas with one of the most intricate objectives. This objective tasks you with sending multiple photos of the squirrel you’re tracking at six specific timestamps. As I sent my third photo, dialog audio dropped, followed by the game hard crashing as I left the caravan. Upon restarting the game, progress did not save, forcing me to stutter through the first three photos again through completion. Luckily, these issues were mostly contained to this one chapter. The frame drops occurred one more time during a climatic moment in a later chapter, causing the impact to be loss in what was meant to be a hard hitting cinematic scene. If this Nintendo Switch version contains a day one patch in the coming weeks, this review will be updated to reflect any improvements or changes.
Story (Spoiler-Free)
The narrative behind NUTS explores themes of wildlife preservation and, in this case, the effects a particular corporation is having on the environment. While this is not unfamiliar territory in fiction, the way NUTS presents its story feels fresh. The utilization of gameplay and the environments themselves elevate an otherwise conservative story into a rich experience with genuine twists and turns.
Similar to Campo Santo’s Firewatch, the game is a solitary experience. The only points of interactions with other character is through Nina on the other end of a telephone, and the transporter, Simon, through notes. The story primary unfolds through its gameplay, as Nina reacts to your surveillance and portrays ongoing conflict purely through audio. Harkening back to sound design, the soundscapes are executed brilliantly here capturing tense moments happening on the other end of the phone. And with the accompaniment of a great performance, I found myself clearly visualizing each scenario being expressed.
On top of the gameplay driven narrative, the use of environmental storytelling highlights the purpose of why there is conflict to begin with. Avoiding spoilers, it felt inspired by That Game Company’s Flower with an ever changing environment through progression to portray narrative. Not only is this achieved through landmarks and points of interest, but through changing color palette choices exaggerating particular moods based on the situation at hand. And as silly as this sounds, even the particular placements of the squirrels themselves within the environments enhance key narrative moments. Finally, within the environments, the use of optional collectable cassette tapes help bring Nina (and even a few of the squirrels) to life and deepening your connection to Melmoth Forest.
While the story itself is relatively predictable and nothing groundbreaking, core game and production design kept me interested throughout. But the true heart of the narrative lies within the characters. Without ever physically seeing Nina and Simon, they are two characters I deeply cared for throughout the adventure. Tackling wildlife preservation and corrupt corporations could have easily felt cliche. Not to mention, presenting a solitary narrative experience purely relying on soundscapes is an uphill battle. But with solid writing and a great solo performance, it turned into something inherently its own. And for a game about spying on squirrels, that’s quite remarkable.
Breakdown
Game: NUTS
Developer: The NUTS Team
Availability: Apple Arcade (January 22, 2021), Nintendo Switch, PC (February 4, 2021)
Reviewed on Nintendo Switch (Docked)
Runtime: Apprx. 4 hours
Pros:
+ Dazzling artistic presentation
+ A simple, yet engaging and unique gameplay loop
+ Environmental and auditory storytelling
+ The squirrels.
Cons:
- Lack of accessibility options
- Severe frame rate issues hindering gameplay (contained to one chapter) and distracting from an impactful story moment.
Final Thoughts
NUTS is a prime example of what makes indie games and the developers behind the code so special. Never in my life would I have dreamt of playing a game about watching squirrels. Let alone one with a radiant visual and auditory design housing fascinating gameplay at the core. While it’s far from perfect, NUTS is an utter delight. One that is truly unlike anything I have played in the past. Save from the lack of accessibility options and the minor pre-launch performance issues on Switch, NUTS is an experience I believe all should give a chance.
Review Written by Mike Towndrow