In the wake of survival games like Lego Fortnite and Palworld, Nightingale stands out as a fantasy-driven adventure that pits a grounded Victorian aesthetic against fairy realms and magical creatures. Despite serious attempts at innovation, Nightingale’s bland gameplay and poor technical functionality left me wondering what might have been.

The main draw of Nightingale is the portals, which allow you to explore new realms and biomes. The card system used to form these realms is a highlight, allowing you to strengthen yourself or your gear, control the environment, and even spawn stronger enemies. Realms contain new creatures, structures, and characters, encouraging you to try all sorts of card combinations.

For all the mystique and wonder of Nightingale, however, exploring itself is a chore that I quickly grew tired of. You’re presented with dozens of the same procedurally generated structures, making exploring them feel unsatisfying. Most are small and easy to navigate, offering meager loot that mostly just takes up inventory space. Climbing hooks can help you scale steep surfaces, but early versions of this tool are all but useless. Good luck trying to swim to an interesting-looking island; the player character can and will drown in just a few inches of water.

There are some unique structures in Nightingale that promise more loot if you can solve puzzles. However, every puzzle I encountered was blindingly easy, including basic obstacle courses and button presses in a specific order. The lack of any real challenge makes any reward feel unearned, which should sour the experience in the game.