P.A.M.E.L.A. – Early Access Review

Name: P.A.M.E.L.A.
Developer: NVYVE Studios
Publisher: NVYVE Studios
Platforms: PC
Reviewed on: PC
Early Access Released: 09.03.2017
Initial Release Date: TBA
Acquired: A copy of this game was provided from publisher for review purpose

I have a very ambiguous relationship with scary games. On one hand I love being scared, and constantly fearing what will happen next. On the other hand I absolutely hate it when games have jumpscares and/or a fearful mood in their worlds. P.A.M.E.L.A. looked really promising though, so I was eager to give the early access a go, but how well did it stack up?

Uncover the tragic events that lead to the downfall of a civilization, and fight for your life as the broken citizens of Eden defends their home against your intrusion. With a personality-driven AI system, no encounter will be the same as the Afflicted react in unpredictable ways, driven by their excruciating pain and disfiguring disease. Interact with various factions, including the Afflicted citizens, security droids, robotic custodians, and more. Each faction has its own unique behaviors and alliances, and will react dynamically to the player’s behavior to become allies, or enemies. P.A.M.E.L.A. is made by NVYVE Studios, a six person indie team that branched out in late 2014 from NVYVE Inc.

The Good

Allow me first to express to you how amazing this game looks! It’s drop-dead gorgeous. The textures are great, the sound design is awesome, but more importantly the game really sets the mood for its world. The dystopian future in P.A.M.E.L.A. is truly horrifying. I’ve yet to experience any proper jumpscares, but the mood is enough to keep my heart pumping. In addition, the world’s design allows for the player to get scared, simply because of an android’s placement. The constant fear I played with, made me jump sky-high (To my coworkers pleasure through Discord…).

The Bad

There are in fact very few bad things about P.A.M.E.L.A., especially when you consider that the game is still in early access. One thing I need to point out however is the absolutely terrible tutorial.:Tyes there’s a tutorial, but it doesn’t really learn you anything that you need to know about the game’s mechanics.

Another issue I had was the sheer lack of directions of what to do. I mainly played P.A.M.E.L.A. as an exploration game, since I’ve yet to uncover any proper story to be played. There has been a few notes and records about the world, but it has yet to make sense. There are in addition some bugs in the game, but honestly that’s to be expected since it’s still far from finished, and never made the game unplayable.

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