REVIEW / Nivalis Nights (PC)

I’ve had my eye on Nivalis Nights ever since the neon-soaked teasers of this cyberpunk slice-of-life universe first started trickling out. The promise of dropping anchor in a vertical, rainy, voxel-crafted cyberpunk metropolis, opening up a modest little business, and rubbing shoulders with all the weird and tragic residents sounded like the ultimate digital getaway. Now that it’s finally out on PC, I’ve spent plenty of hours diving into the neon haze, and while it’s a trip well worth taking for the atmosphere alone, it comes with a few structural hiccups that prevent it from hitting absolute masterpiece status.

For the uninitiated, here is the skinny. Nivalis Nights is a blend of a cyberpunk life simulator and a business management game. You are tasked with running various venues, like bars and restaurants, managing your inventory, chatting up eccentric locals, and soaking in everything the city has to offer through fishing, side quests, and slow-paced exploration.

Visually, Nivalis Nights is an absolute treat for the eyes. The voxel and 3D pixel-art aesthetic captures the gritty, neon-lit, rain-slicked beauty of a futuristic metropolis in a way that few games manage. Walking through the multi-layered vertical districts feels genuinely atmospheric.

It’s not just the look, either; the audio design and synth-wave soundtrack do heavy lifting to pull you right into the world. Add in a quirky cast of NPCs, and you have a setting that you genuinely want to spend time in. You will find yourself talking to every character just to see what kind of bizarre slice of cyberpunk life they’re dealing with today. That said, it can be pretty quirky (and a bit immersion-breaking) to stand there having a deep conversation with an NPC while other citizens phase right through you both because of a complete lack of character collision detection.

While a lot of the draw is the chill, cozy vibe, Nivalis Nights hooks you early with a surprisingly intriguing narrative premise. Right off the bat, you inherit the cozy Meridian Market noodle bar, Ramen Noir, but it comes straddled with a mountain of debt. To make matters worse, a ruthless menace known as the Aseptic serial killer is stalking the rain-slicked streets, and those carrying high amounts of debt appear to be high on their target list. Without getting into spoilers, the constant looming threat of the killer adds a great layer of tension to your financial goals, giving you a very real pressure to succeed and pay off what you owe.

Luckily, when you want a break from grinding out noodle bowls or dodging killer intrigue, there is a wonderfully diverse set of side quests to tackle. What makes these quests so enjoyable is that the game never forces a strict timer on you. You never feel like you’re going out of your way to complete objectives, allowing you to naturally pick up and resolve tasks as you wander around Nivalis going about your normal routine.

When you aren’t out exploring, you’ll be managing your business footprint. The day-to-day operations, decorating your venue, setting up menus, keeping customers happy, and watching the cash flow in, have an undeniably addictive loop early on. Eventually, you can expand beyond your starting noodle bar to own and run multiple restaurants and nightlife venues across the city.

To keep those venues stocked, you can actually grow your own fresh produce in greenhouses or spend time taking advantage of a fun, surprisingly relaxing fishing mechanic to harvest fish for your recipes. Supplying your own kitchens cuts down on restocking costs and gives your daily routine a satisfying rhythm. However, there can still be a bit of a learning curve to figure out how to maximize certain elements of the game effectively, and I would highly recommend hitting up YouTube for a couple “things I wish I knew before starting” videos to get your bearings.

Nivalis Nights starts to show some cracks once you settle past the honeymoon phase. The biggest drawback here is the lack of deep management mechanics. As you progress, the business operations and venue upgrades begin to feel a bit shallow and repetitive. Once you figure out the optimal setup, the economy completely breaks down, and earning money loses all its tension.

A noticeable lack of unique character models for NPCs and hired staff doesn’t help either. It’s pretty common to look over at your restaurant floor and realize you have a bizarre clone army of identical people running the place. Throw in some navigation and UI clutter issues that make getting around the vertical districts confusing, and it becomes clear the game struggles to balance its life sim and business management halves.

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Review based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.