January Assassination #4

My Steam Review - Consider leaving a thumbs up, it means a lot to me :)

Hmmmm, I was really over the fence about giving it a thumbs up or down, but then the last stretch of the game cemented the thumbs down for me.

Overall, Nairi is a game that is not terrible, but it'so so lackluster. A cross between a visual novel and a point-and-click adventure games, it has all the elements that makes a point-and-click game bad (tedious and unclear navigation, pixel hunting, slow dialogue) and none of what makes it good (charming animations, creative puzzles, witty lines). It's artstyle is not bad, but it's so static that it never rises beyond mediocre. It tries to pack a lot of lore, but the pacing is so off that you just don't care about the characters, and you can barely follow the plot. The puzzles are laughably easy for 90% of the game, and then in the last stretch, go completely off the difficulty rails and become arcane and obscure to solve.

I guess Nairi is a game that was made by clearly passionate people, but that lacked enough playtesting and polish on its systems. You can feel the passion and the drive from the creators, but they just missed the mark and made a game that is, at the best times, boring, and at the worst times, grating. The difficulty spike and the sudden ending (which killed the pacing) are the factors that ultimately made it from a weak recommendation to a soft "avoid-it" instead.

Also, what is the deal with the furries? I didn't detract points because of that, but man, that stuff is so weird and unnecessary on the grand scheme of things.

You have limited time in your life and there are many games that do everything that Nairi does, but much better. Go play one of them instead.