NEYYAH | REVIEW | PC/STEAM

''YOU CANT ESCAPE''

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Developed: Defy Reality

Published: MicroProse

Genre: Puzzle

Release Date: Sept 2nd, 2025

Platforms: PC

*Game provided to me by Defy Reality

Neyyah is the newest craze to hit the market for the genre of point and click exploration titles and it is developed by Defy Reality and published by MicroProse. With Riven being remade last year, fans like myself have been waiting for the next big thing for this genre of point and click and now Defy Reality aims to scratch that itch. However, is this the adventure we have been waiting for? or are we stuck still waiting in the wind for something worthy to come? Only one way to find out, so lets go!

''YOU WILL NEVER LEAVE THIS PLACE''

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GAMEPLAY:

Its been a long while that I've waited for a true spiritual successor to some of my favorite point and click adventure games like Myst and Riven, both of which are why my love for the genre not only started with but grew with as the years went on and continued my affection for these style of games over the last 10 years on my youtube channel and website as I've covered and reviewed countless point and click games to fill the hole that I feel has been open for too long. Taking my nostalgia and flash forwarding to 2025, I stumbled across the game were talking about now, Neyyah and luckily enough, the developers behind the game, Defy Reality, gave me the chance to check out a dem of the game early and to get my thoughts on it. Needless to say in the 1 hour or so of my playthrough of the demo, I was extremely impressed, immersed and engaged in the world and its puzzles in just a short amount of time and thought to myself ''this is it, this is the one'' that could finally take up the mantle for Myst and Riven, but I needed more and I needed to play the entire game itself before I can accurately make that claim because too many times games start off with promise and them fumble at the finish line... I'm looking at you God Of War Raganarok, YOU AND BOY... you both disappoint me. Taking seven years to build while also being Defy Reality's debut game as a studio, there's definitely a lot on the line and a great deal to live up to, but if you've followed Gwynaire's youtube channel over the course of the titles development cycle, you can clearly see the game is a result of passion from this genre. Ironically enough, his youtube channel in the first place is where I came across Neyyah, which then lead me to Defy Reality's X account and the rest is history, and we are at where we are now. Home... with the AC on, being a glutton eating mozarella sticks, pizza, 2 liter of Dr Pepper and attempting not to fall into a food coma while writing this. Wish me luck people, I'm doing my best. Right from the start of the game, literally immediately, you immediately feel like the game is both brand new and at the same time it feels like a return home to 1990's era days of Myst and Riven as you learn about your setting, your environment and start getting involved into all the intricate riddle solving, with each new area connecting to what feels like different realms as you adventure through all the different isles in the game that house all their own secrets to unfold and discover, feel like both a paradise and a nightmare at the same time. Similar to me trying to read a ''History Of'' book or text explain the full story to Kingdom Hearts.

What I love about Neyyah from the very start is that it embraces its classic 90's feel, such as things I remember from Myst and Riven are the FMV style of story telling with the full motion video sequences of characters, and sure, does it come off a bit cornball and cheesy? absolutely, but that's exactly to me what gives it its charge, its embracing the roots of what was grown before it and modernizing it. On top of the nostalgia fueled FMV, exploration has never been more fun or rather, overwhelming as well, as you must pay close attention to what each character dialogue says to you, take your own notes, watch for clues in the environments itself, find random logs left behind by people to get further clues on how to solve a puzzle or where to go next, listen to recordings, it just makes you use your brain so much that you sometimes forget that you're playing an actual game and get immersed to the point where you get to know the land and isles and places so much that you visit and revisit that you start to feel like YOU are the one trapped in this paradise hell and not the in game character itself. Difficulty wise it strikes a balance between ''oh this might be to too easy'' and ''too confusing'', somewhere in the middle of those two choices lies the difficulty setting for this game, no matter your skill or veteran knowledge of games like Myst or Riven and offers you just enough rope to grab onto with your brain to the point where you do not get discouraged on where to go next, get frustrated being on one puzzle for 2 hours and then quit out of frustration. Thankfully this isnt the case at all and its not overly easy like a Yoshi or Kirby game and not headache of a chore like game that focuses on rouge like trial and error that has become quite the craze in the Indie scene the last few years. Frigging jerks! STOP MAKING ME RIP OUT MY HAIR. But if you're a masochist and like that type of thing, you can also use the setting of Master of your own adventure which is basically all hands off, no help, no clues, absolutely no hints of any kind at all or guidance, you go in completely blind and have to figure it out yourself, making you literally have to pull out a notebook either on your PC or physically and note down everything you come across or ideas you will have because with this setting, you have NO way to keep track of what you've done, seen or heard. Does it sound a bit fun? absolutely, but lord knows I'm not trying it, I already have high blood pressure and I don't need to blow a gasket like I'm an old pervy sage from an anime with blood shooting out of their nose, no thank you. Puzzles as stated early at the core focus of this game and all of them blend uniquely and smoothly along with the characters movement, sound cues, fidelity of the environment and music, all letting you know if you're on the right track, if youve pulled the right lever, entered the right code, everything blends together where it feels like all of them combined are the games mechanic its self and its seamless to the very definition of the word.

However if you're like me then its best to keep your focus on your auto-updates which is chart called whisper in the wind, no.. not like Jeff Hardy's top rope move Whisper In The Wind... you certainly dont have someone constantly flying at you and kicking you in the face every time your chart updates, although that would be pretty hilarious if it didnt happen. But nope instead you have that alongside travelers guide which helps you keep track of everything in your journal should you forget a detail or fact and need to back and re-check and read about it once more if ''Guided by the Ancients'' doesnt help you enough with hints that tell you where to go next. You will not even begin to fathom the amount of times I used all of these options in conjunction with each other because man is my memory terrible, think about a brain that has eyes but that eye sight is about as good as Mr Magoo's is. Yes I know, 2025 and were making a Mr Magoo reference, didn't see that one coming right? see that, double pun, I'm on a roll. Pushing and solving your way through various challenges that involve spotting differences of patterns, spinning a dome just enough via levers that it allows you to gain access to new pathways leading to your next objective, entering labs to find clues to your next whereabouts, underground caverns where you must learn the difference between colored payeetas that can change the room you're in, riddles that boggle your mind to the point of you scratching your head in a ''WTF'' manner before finally realizing, just like me, that for the millionth time in a video game, that I completely overthought my objective and it was WAY harder in my head thinking about it than it actually was completing it, etc, it has everything you look for in an adventure game, a mystery game, an exploration game and a puzzle game all wrapped into one and there's always something to discover.

''NEW REALMS AWAIT''

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OVERALL:

At the end of the day Neyyah ended up the Myst and Riven spiritual successor that I have wanted for over 20 years. Obviously there's been games to scratch that itch with smaller indie titles that specialized in point and click or even the remake of Riven itself, thats true, but nothing felt like a TRUE extension and definition of the genre like Neyyah has for me. With gorgeous visuals, dynamic effects with lighting, classic FMV like video format, amazing animations for puzzles and the environment, mythical beasts throughout the isles to gawk at, audio that keeps you immersed in your atmosphere as if you were there yourself - Neyyah grabs the baton and torch that Cyan dropped many years ago and ran with it. Taking homage, notes and emulating the classic 1990 style of Myst and Riven and using that essence to make a brand new experience that gives a sense of familiarity and at the same time, a fresh take on the format that gives Neyyah its own individual identity as well. If you're a fan of Myst, Riven or even Firmament or even point and click adventure games in general, then you OWE it to yourself to check this one out, its not an adventure game that should be Myst. Get it? Myst instead of missed?.. no? ok fine. So with all that having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick says BUY NOW

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