Naiad

Release Date: 2022-12-10

Developer: HiWarp

Swimming across a lagoon with flowers floating on its surface in Naiad.

Reviews

A visually appealing but shallow and repetitive game where you play as a water spirit interacting with nature. - Rock Paper Shotgun

Naiad is a relaxing, minimalist exploration adventure game where you play as a water nymph swimming in a mysterious river. - IGN

Naiad is a watery delight about wild swimming, offering real pleasures and real frustrations with a purpose in mind. - Eurogamer

A visually beautiful game where you play as a water nymph, swimming and completing nature tasks, though the puzzles can be inconsistent and the story heavy-handed. - Aftermath

A beautiful puzzler where you play as a river spirit helping animals and navigating interconnected rivers to reach the ocean, but the controls can be temperamental. - PushSquare

Naiad captures the childlike bliss of playing in nature’s waters as you guide a forest nymph through crystalline streams, interacting with the environment and warding off the impacts of human intervention. - Polygon

Overview

Naiad is a relaxing, minimalist exploration adventure game where players control a water nymph and interact with nature. Players learn to swim, dive, and dash through the waters, find animal friends, and use their swimming skills to remove obstacles and help them find their way through a series of interconnected rivers, finding secrets as they go. However, the gameplay is shallow and repetitive, with arbitrary puzzle solutions and a predictable story. The game aims to be relaxing but can induce restlessness and anxiety due to its lack of clear direction and meaningful consequences. The game's second half is not as fun as the first, which is kind of the point, as the world of humans slowly intrudes, and with it bespoke puzzles which have to be untangled, often to open the route forward and move you onto the next section. The game's pacing suffers from repeatedly foreshadowing the end without delivering, leading to impatience and frustration. As you progress further and you get closer to humanity, things get bleaker. Pollution is everywhere, muting your singing and slowing your movements. Cleverly, colour saturation in the environment starts to drain too, taking you from vibrant cerulean streams to oil-slicked, refuse-filled sewers. As Naiad, players ward off loggers who cut down trees and bring light to waters blackened by an active mine.

Platforms

PC [1] [2] [2] [2] [2] [2] [2] [3] [3] [3] [3] [3] [3] [5] Switch [1] [5] PS4 [1] [5] PS5 [1] [5] XONE [1] [5] XSeries [1] [5]

Exploration [0] [1] [2] [3] [5] Relaxing Game [0] [1] [2] [3] [5] Nature [0] [1] [2] [3] [5] Indie [0] [1] [2] [3] [5] Puzzler [4] [5]

Pros

✓ The game features gorgeous visuals, with each frame resembling a painting in motion, showcasing light-dappled water and breathing bushes. [0] [2] [3]
✓ The game features a relaxing, whimsical soundtrack and sound design. [4]

Cons

✗ The interactions are shallow and repetitive, leading to a feeling of busywork rather than engaging gameplay. [0] [2] [3]
✗ The game's actions are often divorced from their consequences, with arbitrary solutions that resist puzzle-solving. [0] [2] [3]
✗ The story and emotional beats are predictable, and the game's attempt at moralizing feels cloying and dull. [0] [2] [3]
✗ The game's pacing suffers from repeatedly foreshadowing the end without delivering, leading to impatience and frustration. [3]
✗ Trying to move and sing simultaneously is temperamental, and finding what things you can interact with, and how, is often a head-scratcher. [4]

Gameplay

Exploration

Players control Naiad, a water spirit, and explore a river environment by swimming and singing to interact with fauna like frogs, ducks, birds, and butterflies. [0] [1] [2] [3] [5]

Puzzles

The game involves light puzzle elements where players experiment with the environment using Naiad's abilities to progress, such as luring frogs, reuniting ducklings, and singing to butterflies and birds. [0] [1] [2] [3] [5]

Story & Setting

Players control Naiad, a newborn water spirit introduced to the world by a talking cloud. [0] [1] [2] [3] [5]

Visuals & Audio

The game is visually gorgeous, with each frame resembling a painting in motion, showcasing light-dappled water and breathing bushes. [0] [1] [2] [3] [5]