Do you know those survival games where you feel doomed from the start? Nova Antartica isn’t such a game, though it is survival-based (think about it), and it dripfeeds a hefty dose of doom while you’re perpetually walking towards the South Pole circa 2900 A.D.
Any intelligent person will surmise that a trek to the South Pole will be hard going, and it is. Fortunately, this is a tech-savvy adventure where you’re travelling relatively light, but a portable 3D printer allows you to make stuff on the fly to ensure you live.
Nova Antartica is a tricky one, but as mentioned, like continually putting out small manageable fires, but if you take your eyes off one, you’ll become engulfed in flame. If only there were flames – it’s chilly in this part of the world, don’t you know?
Instead of putting out literal fires, you will be monitoring the weather – both the temperature and icy blasts of wind that will thwart your progress, or your levels of stamina when running through snow or chipping away at materials. Or how about that lightweight backpack and designated energy supply? Once that’s up, everything will go black. Literally.
So, the experience is a linear one (albeit a good one). Exploration is possible, but discouraged, as going off the track can have dire consequences. However, taking early risks is recommended because the number of materials available on your path will slowly drop, making this become just as much about resource management as well as your physical strength.
Items scattered around included wood, electrical components, and minerals. Using a radial menu, you can construct items, then once you have enough materials, the 3D printer will let you create crates to reach higher ledges, or develop invaluable power capsules as energy depletes at an alarming rate, and will not pause if you do. Bear in mind, there are plenty of moments to pause due to the blizzards, so this will mean catching your breath, crafting more gear, and then heading on your way.
There is a narrative path on Nova Antartica’s trails, with numerous archives and holograms depicting a promising tale. Aside from the early tutorials that show up every couple of minutes to begin with, the controls and style of play are intuitive, but on the Steam Deck, there weren’t any tooltips when hovering over craftable items – meaning I was making things blindly, only to find out that it wasn’t the item I needed and was not out of the materials.
Yes, the game is quite harsh, but fair. Parco Games (The Berlin Apartment) currently has a demo up on the Steam store page, so I would encourage you to wrap up and give this a go.
