What do you do when you learn about a deadly disease killing a planet? You go rescue all the inhabitants of course! Creatures of Ava start you off landing/crashing on the planet of Ava. It’s up to you and basically you alone, to rescue all the creatures and convince the local intelligent population, the Naam, to leave the dying planet and come live on the space station Bioark.
There is so much to explore and find in Creatures of Ava and you are able to complete all achievements on any difficulty, so play whichever you prefer! We went with Story mode to get the most out of the game as we could in our first playthrough, but we may plan to play on a harder difficulty later to see just how challenging it can get, and boy can I already imagine just how tough it could get. As you wander around the world, there is plenty to do and find. The main goal is to rescue enough creatures and send them to the Bioark to save them from extinction. Each Biome houses unique creatures to its own area and each one has special abilities that can interact within its own biome. Some of these interactions include, breaking a special plant wall that is blocking access to closed off areas, dropping bridges to help access areas, opening special plants that drop items, digging up items in special spots, and MORE! Not only are there quite a few creatures that have special interactions, but YOU as the player take control of them to do the interactions! Ever thought of running around as an alien deer or maybe you want to leap to crazy areas as a frog, Creatures of Ava has you covered. BUT WAIT, there’s more. YOU CAN PET THE CREATURES, ALL OF THEM. You heard me right, the pets are in the game. Once you rescue them from corruption or tame them, you get the ability to pet them! What more could you ask for?
So what’s this about corruption and taming? The world is dying and it’s up to you to save all the beautiful creatures of Ava. You will come across several spots of corruption and with the help of the friend you find and a handy staff, you can stave off the corruption and cure creatures already tainted. As you progress through the game you’ll unlock special abilities with your staff that will help you in your quest to save all of the creatures and help navigate through the different biomes. While you are exploring the biomes, be on the lookout for different puzzles and always keep your camera ready to snap a picture of a new creature or objective. You can take photos of both normal and corrupted versions of creatures as well as all interactable Naam and special wind chimes around the map to gain extra more experience to help unlock new skills to increase the potency of skills and stats. Make sure you are thorough as you progress through the biomes or you may miss things that are hidden!
If you’re looking for a nice exploration and a story of empathy as you save all of the creatures, Creatures of Ava may be for you. It’s a nice chill game, with enough action to keep you on your toes and a longer than expected completion time to finish the story. One nitpick I have for the game is the character narration occasionally. The voice acting is fantastic, don’t get me wrong there, but sometimes, mainly when you’re doing very simple puzzles the character will make a few too many comments about how easy said puzzle is, why is it so hard or taking so long. Also when you are taking pictures of the creatures and Naam the protagonist makes comments along the lines of ‘Could you stand still and pose for me?’ just kind of weird and some of the comments are just surprising for the tone of the game. Other than that I’ve really been enjoying the game and it’s been my go to for a lovely game in the afternoon. Great job on making this fun and beautiful game developers!
