Nowhere throws you into bleak and beautiful Nordic forests | Hands-on preview
From the moment I started playing the preview build of Nowhere, I was on my own with no knowledge of where to go or what to do, other than trying to work out what happened to a group of missing people. I was at one with nature, trapped in the confines of a dense and majestic Scandinavian forest, with little to go on. For twenty minutes or so I was getting more and more frustrated as I didn’t know you could actually run, and with a lot of ground to cover, this made everything so much better.
Once you start to find your feet and traipse around the woodlands, you’ll start to see some strange goings on, whether something out the corner of your eye, a piece of clothing or a dropped item, or something much worse. In one area I found a circle of tablets surrounding a dead body holding a photograph. Was this one of the missing people I’ve been tasked with finding, or were they part of some weird ritual that ended badly? There’s a lot of intrigue and unanswered questions, but it’s your job to find out.
You’ll pick up items and see if anything matches the description of those you’re searching for, but it can sometimes be difficult to find the items in the murky environment. You really have to look among every location in case you miss something. With all the freedom Nowhere provides, it’s also easy to miss key pieces of information. Running through everywhere with a fine-tooth comb is a necessity if you want to find them or at least try and work out what the hell is going on.
You can take photos of intriguing places to look at later on, as well as turning on some kind of sixth sense that lets you see parts of the environment differently, or at least show your thoughts through text that pops up on screen. While investigating a church, I found pools of blood that didn’t give much away, but by using this mechanic it gave a bit more background to what I was thinking at the time. The horror of Nowhere comes in smaller doses that don’t rely on big jump scares, but rather on the general feel of anxiety and dread you slowly begin to feel in the pit of your stomach.
At one point, after wandering around for a while, the sky began to turn red and the forest started to look and feel different. The music changed and the nervousness started to sink in, and after a while, I saw some weird creature in the distance. I’m hoping that by the time Nowhere releases officially, they give these creatures a more intimidating and scary presence because it lost its edge when I saw it come towards me. It grabbed me, then started to ask questions about Nordic Gods that required an answer or else I would be killed. I answered correctly, then reappeared next to a mythological monument, completely unsure at what had just happened.
Nowhere has a lot going for it. The pacing took a lot to get used to, but I still liked exploring and coming to my own conclusions. It’s not terrifying in the slightest, but it does fill you with anxiety at what you may find. The preview offered a small chunk of what to expect whenever it releases, and while I liked what I played, I hope the monsters I encountered feel a touch more terrifying than they do at the moment. The environment is beautiful yet haunting, and some of the strange places I found like ‘The Circle’ certainly made me feel uneasy.
