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I had a feeling that I was in for a real treat when I got offered to play the alpha demo for Wannabe Studios adventure/platform/storyteller/dungeon crawler “NOOZh” (the game is in development for Windows, MAC, Linux, PSV and PS4). As I really liked the idea of playing a game that focuses a lot on nightmares, darkness and adventure (your only source of light is your mobile phone). Well, I wouldn´t be disappointed. Because right of the bat, once I booted up “NOOZh” the game made me think about two games which I really like. And those games were “Heart of Darkness” (an old-school action/adventure platformer) and “Maniac Mansion” (LucasArts old point-and-click adventure game). However, “NOOZh” offers a very different kind of gameplay experience. As the game is a storyteller and a dungeon crawler. And even though I just played the alpha version of “NOOZh”, there were still quite a lot of different gameplay mechanics to be found within the game (adventure, platforming, storytelling, dungeon crawling and horror).

“Noozh” made me think about an old action/adventure/platformer called “Heart of Darkness”.

I´m going to admit that I wasn´t quite sure what to do at the very beginning of the demo though. You see. In the demo, you start off in one of the main character’s nightmare worlds. And even though I knew that I was supposed to look for some keys (you also have to look for scrolls, since they will tell you the story behind Noozh and how he/she came about). Even so, I was not 100% sure how I was supposed to find myself some keys (you need keys to open up some locked doors within the nightmare world, because you need to do that in-order for your character to wake up without having a heart attack in the process). Nevertheless, it didn´t take me all that long to figure out that I needed to stay away from the monster called “Noozh” (it´s an evil creature who hunts our protagonist dreams. Noozh is actually based on a real nightmare creature that lurks around in the mind of one of the developer’s daughters).

I don´t know about you, but I find the retro graphics to be really charming in “Noozh”.

That´s of course easier said than done, since Noozh will hunt you down no matter where you hide. However, you can avoid him (it) by paying close attention to what you see and hear. As Noozh tends to make a lot of noise wherever he or she goes, and that works as a pre-warning alarm kind of thing for you. Be quick on your feet though, because Noozh will come after you with the speed of light (it seems like he/she can teleport him/herself all over the place as well?). And as far as I know, there are no weapons in the alpha demo of “Noozh”, so you have no way to defend yourself against Noozh. In other words, all you can do is run, avoid or hide from Noozh.

And the whole point behind the nightmare dream phase would be to wake up without screaming like a bleeding pig (no trauma = a very happy little girl), so avoid Noozh at all costs! I messed that part up though, since I couldn´t find those darn keys (or avoid Noozh for that matter). So I had to watch the little girl (the hero of the game) scream like crazy repeatedly throughout my gameplay section (my poor ears and conscience). Any ways, once you wake up your laying in the bed of the main character’s home. And this is the part that made me think about “Maniac Mansion”, because I literally went through everything in the apartment for clues (trail and error baby!). Nevertheless, Wannabe Studios still managed to showcase their plans and visions really well I have to say. Because pretty much everything that you can click on in the girls, home has a developer note to it (what the feature will offer in the full version of “Noozh”). Some of those things would be the girl’s wardrobe, her computer or the world that´s outside of her apartment.

If you ever run into this “thing”, then just keep on running!

And the whole idea behind that would be that Wannabe Studios aims to mix story telling, dungeon crawling, adventure (point-and-click), the little girls every day life and the nightmare world that awaits her when she falls asleep (Noozh will be there waiting for her, trust me on that one). And the alpha demo gave me (us) a pleasant taste of what´s to come. Especially since “Noozh” is said to offer hundreds of puzzles, tons of randomly generated levels, a big world to explore and plenty of horrors on top of that (traps and nightmares, for example). You will also get the chance to watch the main character develop over time (depending on the choices that you make throughout the game), and those events could be of either happy or sad nature (like losing someone whom you like, or being happy about a getting a new job).

And all of this sounds really promising for sure. So I wasn´t all that surprised to hear that “Noozh” reached it´s £10,000 Kickstarter goal yesterday, nor that”Noozh got greenlit on Steam greenlight just recently. Don´t get me wrong now, I´m very happy for Wannabe Studios success and everything. However, I did find some things which I think “Noozh” is lacking off. So this would be my cons and pros list (keep in mind that it´s based on the alpha demo of “Noozh”):

Pros:
+ I really like the main character of the game (she´s as cute as one could be)
+ The retro graphics made me smile
+ NOOZh is a neat mix of adventure, platforming, puzzles and dungeon crawling
+ Nightmares, nightmares everywhere!
– The music is freaking awesome

Cons:
– At the very beginning of the game. You have no clue what to do
– A map, and a compass would be nice?
– No weapons?
– The controls are somewhat stiff when you try to jump
– It would be great if you could get some more hints or clues about what you should do