Creatures of Ava Review — Saving the World

Creatures of Ava is a game about exploration, conservation, and adventure. Taking place on the alien world of Ava, you are tasked with ridding the planet of vile corruption and invited to take pictures, explore, and create new friends along the way. Though I was initially skeptical of this title, I can say it turned out to be a pleasant surprise and one that I highly recommend.

Creatures of Ava makes a fantastic first impression by opening with a beautifully animated hand-drawn cutscene.

I find it refreshing and commendable when games like Creatures of Ava use traditional art created by humans, given my strong opposition to AI-generated art in games, as I always have doubts about its authenticity. What a cutscene it is, too. The animation is gorgeous, showing amazing forests and spacescapes, as well as heart-wrenching sadness, showing the tragic background of our main character and instantly setting up the stakes and gravity of the story.

Creatures of Ava follows Vic, a young nature explorer on the galactic scale who lost her parents at a young age. Vic is sent to the planet Ava, a beautiful and untamed planet suffering from what the local Naam calls the Withering, a rapidly growing infestation that corrupts and kills BioLife. Vic’s mission is to help the people and animals of Ava flee, though the local Naam sees this as an ignorant mission and is less than fully cooperative.

Thankfully, after crash landing on Ava, Vic stumbles upon an artifact from the ancient Antari race, who were able to fight and contain the Withering. This staff, an advanced piece of technology called the Nafitar, allows Vic to cleanse clusters of the Withering and undo its corrupting effects on plants and animals. With this new weapon of peace in hand, Vic is able to change her mission from simply evacuating Ava to saving the planet from its doom outright.

Much of Creatures of Ava is a platforming puzzle game designed around collapsed ruins and rot-covered passages. You use the staff’s powers to navigate paths that aren’t immediately obvious, using powers such as levitation to manipulate the environment and tear down Witchering roots to clear paths forward. While I think Creatures of Ava is a game that feels really unique, if I had to compare it to something else, I would say it feels the most like Breath of the Wild, just without the smacking pig people with swords.

I am all for violence in video games. I’m rarely the kind of person who will complain over an excessively gory game (I once played all of the Doom remake in one sixteen-hour playthrough and began hearing the soundtrack every time I entered a room afterward.) While I usually don’t care much for games that choose a non-violent route, I will say that I often find myself a little peeved when games have an anti-violence message they try to throw in your face.

Not only does Creatures of Ava reel back on the violence, but it makes perfect sense for the setting and doesn’t feel preachy at all. In fact, I liked Creatures of Ava all the more for this choice and felt like it made our protagonist, Vic, seem all the stronger for it.

The Withering corrupts not only plant life but all BioLife on Ava, including animals. When it does so, the animals become violent, act against their better nature, and attack everything in sight, turning the cutest of rabbit-like things or blue deer horses into vicious killing machines.

When Vic has to encounter these corrupted animals, the game does not give you a gun to shoot or a sword to bash them with. Instead, you make use of the Nafitar, which slowly drains the creatures of corruption. The game then became about maintaining the beam for the duration it takes to cleanse the creature of said corruption by dodging, jumping, and using clever tricks like chaining the beam to multiple enemies to return the animals to their peaceful selves before they can kick you to death in the process.

Creatures of Ava is a game about conservation. Vic does not simply want to run from the infection destroying Ava; she wants to save it. Choosing not only to rescue each animal on Ava from the corruption of the Withering but also doing so when it puts her life in direct danger makes Ava feel like a genuine hero. Choosing to stand her ground and save these animals instead of running or fighting back in what would be very justified self-defense makes her feel incredibly brave.

There is a trope I don’t totally love in sci-fi games: alien races who are less modern than us are designed around tribal Native American or African cultures. Creatures of Ava sidesteps this issue tastefully, making the structures and culture of the native Naam feel unique and alien—inspired by some human culture, perhaps, but not a direct copy of anything.

The writing, in general, surprised me, with Creatures of Ava featuring lovely characters and a great story. I really enjoyed the variety of characteristics in the game’s characters, especially in the Naam. Also, while I didn’t finish the story and could be wrong about this, and without spoiling anything, the game seems to set up a very well-written LGBTQ+ romance that I was really invested in.

Creatures of Ava’s story had much more depth than I originally anticipated. Without spoiling anything, I will quote the store page: “Once you come to understand the true meaning of the infection, you will be challenged to step out of the human-centric point of view.”

This is a statement that I think sums up the game’s story pretty well and makes for a unique narrative. It is a narrative of such quality that, frankly, I wasn’t expecting from Creatures of Ava; I’m happy to say that I was surprised.

Try Hard Guides received a PC review code for this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Creatures of Ava is available on Steam and Xbox.