Thursday Impressions: NyxQuest

NyxQuest: Kindred Spirit is a 2D side-scrolling platformer that takes place in a post-apocalyptic Ancient Greece, if that makes sense. The story focuses on Nyx, who in Greek mythology was the goddess of the night.

A man named Icarus had been crafted wax wings and had taken to the sky to explore, and thus found the wonderful land in the sky in which the gods and goddesses reside—including Nyx, whom he becomes quite fond of; and she becomes quite fond of him. One day on one of Icarus's flights, the sun decides to send out terrible beams of light and melt his wax wings, sending him plunging to the Earth below. Disobeying the laws set in place by the gods and goddesses, Nyx travels to the world below in search of her friend. Unfortunately, she finds that the entire world is now in ruins because of what the sun did. The only living creatures to be found are strange, flying shadow beasts.

Thus, you are entered into the game to control the goddess of the night, though I'm not certain that she actually is a goddess in this interpretation of the story. I originally played NyxQuest years ago, but it ran terribly on my old computer, and I pretty much forgot about it until now. I can safely say that I'm kind of glad I did, because now I can appreciate it a lot more. I'm familiar with more names, places, etc., and that makes the game a lot more intriguing.

NyxQuest somewhat reminds me in gameplay and setting of another game I've played and beaten, Prince of Persia: The Fallen King. While that game wasn't bad, it wasn't really good either. Similarly, I feel that NyxQuest really has its flaws. The developers worked hard to make the world beautiful, but at the same time the environments could use a little bit more variety. It's decently fun to play through the game, but at the same time it's ever-so-slightly... boring. The soundtrack partially makes up for that, though.

Verdict: Indifferent.
It's a pretty fun game and it has potential, but there's nothing in it that has drawn me in or really made me want to continue playing. I both love and hate Greek mythology, so I'll probably end up beating the game someday, but that might not be for a very long time.