Nightingale: The Final Preview

ign.com:

I learned so many intriguing things about Nightingale during my visit to Inflexion Games that it’d be impossible to unpack everything in one succinct article – so I won’t, but I will hopefully shed some light on its development process, setting, and gameplay loop. Nightingale isn’t necessarily the game you’d expect from seasoned ex-Bioware devs, but the years of experience behind its ideation is evident in what I saw in more than six hours of gameplay: a stylish take on a shared-world survival crafting game.

The world of Nightingale is similar to ours in the “best of Victorian times,” as Inflexion CEO Aaryn Flynn put it, in the late 1800s. However, in this alternate reality, the Fae appeared in the 1500s to share their knowledge of magic with humans, altering the path of history and spurring the birth of the home of magical studies, the city of Nightingale. Alongside magic, the Fae also introduce humanity to the existence of small Fae Realms and the portal system that connects them.

Nightingale features characters from history, literature, and folklore – from Puck, a Fae inspired by Shakespeare; to Ada Lovelace, an English woman considered the first computer programmer – they’re fun little easter eggs for history and literature buffs. This combination of Fae, magic, and Victorian influences cements Nightingale’s genre as a gaslamp fantasy – think the fantastical, magical side of the sci-fi-inclined steampunk genre.

Why this setting? Simply because Flynn and art director Neil Thompson have done medieval fantasy (Dragon Age) and sci-fi (Mass Effect) already, so they wanted to create something unique. And Nightingale certainly takes its style seriously.

Nightingale begins with a short prologue introducing the world and setting the stage for the opening moments. A mysterious phenomenon known only as “the Pale” has foggily swept over the entirety of Earth, putting everything it touches into a state of suspended animation. The only human city left is Nightingale, but the