Review: Mists of Noyah on PS5

There are too many games out there with a great concept that just don’t come through in the gameplay. We’ve all heard the saying “Never judge a book by its cover,” but in the gaming world, developers need to follow through on their promises. We’ve seen countless examples where a game is hyped as the next big thing but fails to deliver once it’s in our hands. Take No Man’s Sky for instance—it’s an excellent game now, but I remember playing it on launch day and feeling let down. Mind you, Hello Games did work tirelessly to turn things around, and they rightly deserve applause for that. But remember, not every game gets that redemption arc. Today, we’re looking at Mists of Noyah on the PS5. It sounds genre-defying on paper, yet here we have another case where reality falls short of expectations.

Imagine a game blending the crafting charm of Terraria with the rogue-like excitement of a Metroidvania, where each playthrough offers a fresh experience. Sounds thrilling, right? If Mists of Noyah seemed polished, it could have been just that. Unfortunately, it’s a game that feels like it was left incomplete.

Upon launching Mists of Noyah and selecting my character, I was eager to see what adventures lay ahead. The core idea revolves around safeguarding your village from nocturnal monsters while spending the daylight hours gathering resources and constructing defenses. I imagined a tense atmosphere where venturing too far from safety or overextending my stay could spell disaster, not just for me, but for the villagers too. Instead, I found myself wandering aimlessly in a forest.

The absence of a tutorial in Mists of Noyah seems intentional, expecting players to figure things out as they go. While I appreciate being thrown into the action, provided there’s a basic overview and control guide, it felt more like a lack of effort than an artistic choice. I don’t necessarily need a gripping narrative from the get-go; sometimes unraveling a story piece by piece can be intriguing. Sadly, here it just seems like someone decided to skip crafting a tutorial altogether.

Quickly getting the hang of the basic controls, I began hopping between platforms, fighting foes, and collecting materials. I even managed to craft a set of wooden armor as part of the first quest. However, this was more a result of randomly clicking around in the menus than any understanding of the game. Dying reset me to the beginning without much knowledge of my objectives, now challenged by the arrival of night.

At nightfall, the enemies ramped up in difficulty, and my feeble bow was hardly effective. This led me to evade battles entirely, sprinting past foes in search of the village I assumed should have been my starting point. After multiple frustrating restarts, I stumbled across the village—and another layer of confusion.

The village seemed as underdeveloped as the rest of the game. Vendors stood silently, offering items without context, leaving me clueless about their utility. Spending my hard-earned gold felt like a shot in the dark, not knowing if any purchases were worthwhile at that stage. An encounter with a dungeon-proposing fairy saw me losing to a creature almost instantly, further dimming my enthusiasm. I pushed onward into different biomes, hoping for a spark of something more captivating.

Despite the allure of varied environments, the game’s biomes felt like simple re-skins of each other—changing only surface-level aesthetics. Transitioning abruptly from woodland to frozen tundra and then desert confused rather than intrigued me, exacerbated by a lack of clear directions. While the combat and level designs were passable, the incentive to progress was missing. Cool mechanics like day and night cycles became more burdensome than novel without a clear role for them in the gameplay.

A constantly ticking clock accompanies every moment, theoretically adding suspense as night approaches and danger extends its reach. Yet, this time pressure conflicts badly with a game that relies heavily on menu navigation and strategic planning. An awkward realization struck when I was idly reading a lengthy scroll, only to find the in-game clock continued to tick toward night. While a ticking clock could be an intentional design to heighten tension, it more likely signals overlooked features like an auto-pause—critical for uninterrupted gameplay.

In essence, Mists of Noyah presents as an unfulfilled promise. With no real connection to its world or storyline, players wander lost in an unexplained adventure. It seems this game was pushed out prematurely, lacking the polish and affection that makes a title memorable. It’s a pity because its visual presentation hints at potential. However, as it stands, Mists of Noyah fails to make a compelling case for devoting your time or money. To borrow an old saying, it’s all style, no substance. Sorting out its core issues could have crafted a different, glowing review.

If this were an Early Access title, the current state might be forgivable, allowing room for critiquing an unripe project. However, charging £8.00 for something so incomplete feels unfair, especially when comparing the steeper Steam price. The console version appears more like a long-overdue port of an already lackluster PC game than something fresh or refined, coming off as an opportunistic cash-in rather than a genuine gaming experience.

Ultimately, Mists of Noyah is one you might be better off skipping. The potential was there if more care had gone into its completion. As it stands, it’s a perplexing shell of a game that falls short of its ambitions. Perhaps save your eight quid for a title that truly deserves it, offering not just aesthetics but an engaging, fulfilling journey in return.