Game: Lost Nova
Genre: Action, Adventure. Indie, Simulation
System: Steam (Windows)
Developers | Publishers: Jon Nielsen | HopFrog
Controller Support: Full
Price: US $11.99 | UK £11.39 | EU € 11,99
Release Date: May 11th, 2022
Review code used, with many thanks to Jon Nielsen.
Lost Nova is an action-adventure indie title released on Steam by solo developer Jon Nielsen.
In Lost Nova, you play the role of Mia, a young space adventurer who has gone off in her spaceship for a well earned holiday. Unfortunately for Mia, she ends up stranded on an alien planet with a damaged spaceship. So begins your adventure as you help Mia gather what she needs to fix her ship and get back home.
Stranded on an Alien Planet
All Mia has to help her on this strange planet is her laser gun. Lost Nova is a combat-free game; Mia uses her laser gun to collect resources and earn currency for buying upgrades for her boots and batteries that provide stamina/power for the laser gun.
You will be scavenging stuff to upgrade your gear or repair your stranded spaceship most of the time. Using Mia’s laser to blast plants, trees, and rocks to find crystals is great fun, and the mechanic works well in the game. The resource management is also handled well, as once you return to the ship, everything you have collected automatically goes into a machine which allows you to upgrade your gear.
Complete Quests and Puzzles
In addition, you will help the local fruit-based characters with some fetch quests, talk to cute little apples, help Father bear find his unruly bear cubs, and chat with a robot to work through its artistic burnout. All the characters are fun to talk to on the strange planet.
Well-written Story
The story is well well-written, as is the dialogue with the NPCs, and it’s peppered with humour throughout the five hours or so of gameplay which you can continue after finishing the story. The storyline is enjoyable and kept me hooked until the end; it’s a very chill game.
Lost Nova isn’t a survival game, as you aren’t rushing to find food to survive, and there is no impending death looming around the next corner. Instead, it’s a game to take your time and stop and smell the roses along the way. With no time limits or anyone pushing you on to the next level, everything in the game can be done at your own pace.
Controls
The game can be played using the keyboard and mouse, or if you prefer, you can use a controller. I used a controller, and for the most part, it works well. However, I didn’t particularly appreciate how Mia was controlled to jump across gaps.
Using a controller to jump involves pressing the LT button and the R stick to bring up a cursor to aim where you want to land. Once the cursor indicates it’s a safe spot to land by turning from red to white, you press the RT shoulder button to jump. Unfortunately, I had a problem keeping the R stick steady enough to find a safe place to land as the cursor moved quickly.
Conclusion
All in all, Lost Nova is a wholesome sweet chilled-out game that’s a delight to play. Of course, it won’t suit all gamers as the relaxed atmosphere, and the gameplay wouldn’t suit players that are heavily into combat since it combats free. However, it’s a fun, enjoyable trip to a distant planet with beautiful artwork and cute characters with wholesome vibes. If all of that looks good to you, I definitely recommend playing Lost Nova and helping Mia return home.
Final Verdict: I Like It A Lot 