Review – Europa (Switch) | WayTooManyGames

GodisaGeek: The narrator has a gentle, warm cadence, perfectly in sync with the meditative soundtrack that is a heady brew of mournful piano and strings. There is no jeopardy to speak of other than Zee’s isolation. The countryside does have other lifeforms; there are conventional fauna like rabbit and deer that dart and scatter in the presence of your footsteps – but there are also strange alien beings. Turtle-like beasts amble around peacefully, with their bodies constructed with growing plant life, like miniature versions of Torterra from the Sinnoh region in Pokemon. One of the early sequences introduces a huge, snaking serpent creature that seems hewn from rocks from the ground beneath it. Zee eventually gains the ability to sketch the denizens of Europa in his journal.

Conveying an entire mood is no mean feat in a game. And what artist and designer Helder Pinto has accomplished here may just be the most emotionally impactful game I can remember playing for some time. It manages to transport you into a state of what I can only describe as euphoric relaxation. It doesn’t ask you to keep an eye on an energy bar, learn a ton of button combinations, or worry about having to kill things. It is just you, alone, soaring and gliding through a gorgeous world that becomes the gaming equivalent of an effective mindfulness exercise, an escape from reality. Wonderful.