Text-based exploration game
Nightbloom is a text adventure, seeing you explore an abandoned colony attempt located on a faraway planet.
Text-based gameplay
You play the entire game of Nightbloom through text-based interactions. The displayed text slowly reveals more information about the planet and the colony you wander through. The Parse system the console follows uses commands of only two words in length. To progress the game, you have to put in the correct words.
To engage with characters, you have to speak with them and choose the ideal two words in the right order. With the wrong command, you'll only receive a generic error message, with no hints for progression.
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Creative interface
The game consists solely of an old fashioned monitor. This display is your interface for the whole story, showing you bits of information, character dialogue, and low-rendered images. The interface is a series of buttons, a nearly off-screen radar, and a turn-dial. Some pictures you'll likely see are of flowers and other native plants.
Retro-style
Due to the text-based gameplay style and the old-fashioned monitor, the game design is hugely retro-styled. This adds to the charm of the game, immersing you in the exploration of this strange world. Additionally, the title plays similarly to many old games that were created with limited features and lacked the quality-of-life upgrades available from many modern pieces.
Lightweight
Nightbloom is exceptionally lightweight requiring low system resources while you play the game. There are no massive 3D dragons to render in or advance combat calculations for the application to work out.
Lack of depth
Overall, when compared to other titles such as A Short Hike or Terraria, Nightbloom suffers from a lack of depth. The story is enough to keep you motivated until the game finishes, but there's no hidden lore to discover on future replays. This makes sense as the game is light on system resources due to the text-based gameplay design and lack of 3D models.
