What little story there is in Europa isn’t a large and epic one, but one that is short and sweet. The story is that you play as an android named Zee. Zee is tasked with exploring the moon of Europa to determine what’s happened to the previous human inhabitants.
Europa is an adventure game that contains no combat and solely focuses on exploration. You are given a notebook that can be used to store clues about the world around you and sketches of the animals and fauna that you encounter on your journey. Aside from the notebook, you have a jet-pack that you keep on your back which acts as your primary mode of transportation.
The way that you explore the world around you is that you climb up cliffs, scale structures, and use your jet-pack to soar high up into the air to get to those hard to reach places. As you explore the world and solve some unique, yet rather simple environmental puzzles, you can obtain upgrades for your jet-pack that will allow you to upgrade our abilities. The upgraded abilities could be to glide through the air for longer periods, fly higher into the air; eventually allowing you to fly freely through the sky.
Europa is best described as an interactive Studio-Ghibli film. I am sure that other games have gotten this same comparison but this game I think is one of the ones that looks and feels the most like the types of films it’s being compared with in regards to this specific comparison. The way your characters clothes and hair blow in the wind, the subtle flapping of the clothes as your running down a hill or traveling through the air, the bending of the grass as you walk through the fields, and the rippling of the water as you walk through it, all come together to make a beautiful experience.
Because of the cell-shaded graphics and the lack of combat, the game performs very well on the Switch. I don’t think it quite hits 60 frames per second, but given how stunning the game is, it is easy to over-look and be more than ok with the performance you’re getting. There aren’t any performance issues, no slow down, and surprisingly no load times.
Yeah, there aren’t any load times aside from the initial load into the game. Unless it’s an animated scene that the game is going into or coming out of. The fact that there are no load times for this game, with as good as it looks, on the Switch is easily one of the most impressive aspects of this game.
Music in Europa is just as amazing as the graphics. Music is orchestrated or if it’s not, it sure fakes it really well. The developer really took the time and effort to make the player feel like they are taking part in a grand animated feature film. The ambient sounds of the world around you, the music ramping up for an epic scene and then coming back down and allowing for the ambient sounds to take center stage is just spectacular. Occasionally Zee will grunt or make other noises if surprised or coming down hard from a flight in the sky, but it’s not constant and feels just right. It’s not annoying, it’s not too little, it’s just right…as if you’re watching an animated film and not actually playing a video game.
There aren’t enough words to express how it feels to play Europa. The game does a great job of being thought provoking, and allows the player to feel an array of emotions simultaneously that is extremely difficult to do with a game like this; at least in my opinion. One more impressive aspect of this game is that it’s only $14.99 (or the equivalent in your region) on Nintendo Switch. This could have easily be sold at $30 and really should be. But I think the reason for the price is because they were going for accessibility when it comes to the price over the product itself.
This game is easily one of the most surprising game I have ever played on the Switch. If you own a Switch or own a PC, then you need to pick up this game.
Disclaimer: A review code was provided by the publisher for review purposes.
You can check out the game here.
In addition to writing articles, Ryan Byers also creates content for his YouTube channel called "Obscure Games and Consoles", collects video games, and dabbles in video game development.