P.A.M.E.L.A. Steam early access review – NVYVE Studios delivers the goods

P.A.M.E.L.A. on Steam

Let me get one thing straight. This is not a review in the sense that I am passing final judgement. P.A.M.E.L.A. is an Indie game from Canadian game developer NVYVE Studios. They started development with just 4 employees and now have 8 working for them. Without a dedicated publisher to fund them they are obligated to seek funds. They managed this through the Steam Greenlight program after the trailer for P.A.M.E.L.A went viral. Now they have readied the first playable version of the game – available on Steam for 22.95 $.

It is thus necessary to remember that the game is not yet finished, debugging and development of content is set to continue over the coming months. But I think the game is solid enough to at least pass a preliminary judgment. So what is P.A.M.E.L.A? That is a little harder to explain. It is a survival game for one, with all the zombies trying to kill you how could it not be. Although the developer insists they are not in fact zombies. There are plenty of action, and RPG elements as well. The game’s beautiful environment are inspired by Mirror’s Edge while story leans a lot on Deus Ex. Neither are bad influences. Yet the story, set in the futuristic city of Eden is also decidedly hard Science Fiction.

As a player you are awaken by Eden’s A.I. called P.A.M.E.L.A – after a disease has turned most of the into not-zombies.

A serious game

P.A.M.E.L.A is a very serious game. The world in which you as the player need to survive is harsh and frankly unforgiven. The first time I ran into a not-zombie I managed to defeat it with ease. Only to die 10 minutes later of hunger. Players will nonetheless quickly manage to survive the environment. That said, the perma-death combined with the absurdly long loading times ensure that for now this game is only for the die-hards. But potential players should remember the harsh difficulty is a design choice. I happen approve.

So is there anything that underwhelms? A few things, all easily forgiven if you consider the limited resources of the developer. For a start the audio feels a bit simplistic, the music is good but the special effects are somewhat repetitive – especially the sound of footfalls. Obviously technical issues still persists – the long loading time even had me doubting the in-game message that it had not crashed. Since I have started playing the game has already been patched several times. So far the has been a steady increase in quality.

I hope this preliminary judgments to check out this game.