NUTS Review: The Joy In Patience
Starting the year overwhelmed with fear that 2021 will just be a 2020 v2, I wasn’t the most excited to start reviewing games with the little free time I have to myself with such a weight on my shoulders. I saw NUTS and saw it involved squirrel watching, and with such a funky concept, I just had to play it. I revved up my PC, and before I knew it, I fell completely in love with this colorful, short game, giving me the much-needed lesson that taking things slow is good, actually.
The team who brought NUTS to life is a global one consists of Joon Van Hove, Pol Clarissou, Almut Schwacke, Charlene Putney, Torfi Ásgeirsson, in collaboration with Noodlecake Games. Each person involved has their own unique past working with indies, and through that combined experience you are dropped in their world of surveillance and surprise. In NUTS, you’ve packed up your bags, and are getting ready to live in a small but cozy caravan in the middle of the woods, as you’ve just been hired as a researcher to keep track of what the local squirrels are doing. You’re following in the footsteps of your new boss, who calls you regularly to give you new tasks in different areas of this forest. Your job consists of unraveling the puzzles of placing cameras around the forest to track and record what your subjects, quick and scurrying squirrels, are doing after hours, and fax your interesting finds to hear what your boss might have to say.
While the plot takes a turn, and twists are always fun to experience in real-time, my favorite part was sitting in front of TV’s, watching and hoping you got the perfect angle to see where each squirrel could be running off to. I was not the biggest fan at first, because I have a lack of patience and tend to like burning through tasks. But after a couple of hours, and a few tries on my third task where you inevitably find a group of squirrels banding together to discuss important business, I found the creative freedom of angling my shots and the satisfaction of seeing a little creature in front of my screens. It became something soothing for my brain. Sitting in front of my surveillance system and feeling proud of how everything looks went such a long way during a month of constant mess and stress in the U.S. I began to find joy in slower and longer squirrel finds, and to explore what the devs were able to cook up in each new setting while being limited by space, but not capped to creativity. NUTS gave me the opportunity to learn that patience is my best friend and greatest tool.
While your tasks might feel mundane at first, and you’re eager to hurry to find out what mysteries lie behind the squirrels you deal with, it’s important to remember that patience is key. You might be hit with a familiar feeling like I was, that NUTS has big Firewatch vibes. It’s slow in tasks, strong in visuals, and has an undertone of eerie. However, don’t let that fool you into being too comfortable with that idea while playing!
Absolutely loving everything NUTS had to offer to players, I kept wishing for just one more feature: being able to change the color palettes in-game. Do not get me wrong, the color choices in each level, looking as if they inverted the palettes when the times in the game switched from night and day, are absolutely beautiful. However, I would have to take mini breaks as it caused a strain on my eyes, and that is the last thing I wanted to do, I just wanted to have buddy time with my squirrels and cameras. I think a feature that could help me stay playing, as well as avoid mishaps with color blindness, would be amazing, But again, this is a wish and not a need, and I still was able to fall in love with NUTS regardless.
With 2021 already on a crazy and wild start, find a quiet escape and play this game. You can find NUTS right now on IOS devices and Apple Arcade. And mark your calendars, it’ll also be coming to Steam, Nintendo Switch, Itch.io, and Humble on February 4th.
