Bite-sized Review:
Europa

By Chris Picone, 20 October 2024

Europa is a charming 3d adventure that takes you through the ruins of a fallen terraformed utopia on one of Jupiter's moons.  It's a lovely setting, a sweet story, and a relaxing gaming experience that's family friendly but probably most appealing to the younger generation. 

Aesthetics

One of Europa's selling points is its "Ghibli-inspired" art style.  Although there were a few statues and things that were reminiscent, I found that to be a bit of a stretch, though it is a great looking game.  I did find the world a little simplistic in some regard and the cartoony main character gave me some "younger player" vibes that I just couldn't shake, even with the relatively complex story.

Gameplay

You play as Zee, a young child (and apparently an android) mysteriously alone on this ruined planet, equipped with a "zephyr" jetpack. You're left free to roam the world, seemingly without guidance, although the apparent "openness" of the world is very much an illusion. Europa's surprisingly linear, and while you are encouraged to explore the immediate area for secrets, if you stray too far huge gusts of wind blow you back into playable section of the level. While I enjoyed the open world feel, I found the linear reality to be too narrow at times, and the constant wind gusts somewhat jarring.  The playable world's still quite large but the developers have made an effort to make the long journey more exciting by adding some dynamic movement in - flying, gliding, jumping, climbing, sliding, that sort of thing.  It definitely adds to the fun in some areas but unfortunately I did find much of the movement to be a little clunky - Zee would slide in unexpected places and levitation points weren't always where I thought maybe they should be to enable smooth flight. I don't know - I can't see many complaints about that so maybe it's just me.

Verdict

I enjoyed Europa, although I did feel many aspects of the game were a little clunky and could benefit from some more polish.  Thinking about it, I probably enjoyed the visual elements more than the game itself, although it was a nice piece of visual story-telling. I think younger gamers would find more to love here. 

Links: 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2214880/Europa/