NODE: The Last Favor of the Antarii

Ever since Braid (2008) and Fez (2012) made such huge splashes, puzzle-platformers have been a staple of the indie scene. We’ve all pushed innumerable boxes and pulled countless levers on our way from left to right over many a screen in the years since. New iterations and innovations in the genre are like gold dust. 

This brings us to NODE: The Last Favour of the Antarii, in which you control a very cute little robot in a mysterious, dark and dangerous 2.5D world. Nothing new here. However, the twist in NODE is that player inputs are not in real time. Instead, you must sequence your moves on a bar at the bottom of the screen – for instance, forward 2 seconds, jump, forward 3 seconds, hit the execute button, and nervously watch your little robot friend (NODE), armed only with your instructions, attempt to navigate their way across increasingly complex rooms. 

It’s very much trial-and-error gameplay, but the game makes a virtue out of this perhaps rather divisive mode of puzzle-platforming. You are given all the time you need to plan and adjust the inputs for each attempt to plot NODE’s course to the next checkpoint. Each attempt, and you’ll often need many, entails incorporating what you’ve learnt from past failures – perhaps adding a few tenths of a second to a forward movement here, slamming on the brakes there – to traverse the world. 

This fresh take on puzzle platforming is deeply rewarding, especially when NODE makes it safely to the next checkpoint, thanks to all your meticulous planning. It’s also an input system that will especially appeal to players who perhaps don’t have the reflexes for real-time platforming, who’ll be able to feel the thrill of pinpoint platforming (precision is certainly required; it’s an exacting game) without the time pressure.

Extra variety is added to the moveset by the 2.5D format, which allows you to move NODE from foreground to background and back again in order to avoid gaping holes or navigate zigzagging corridors. It’s refreshing to see a 2.5D perspective incorporated into the gameplay in such an integral way.

 Unfortunately, this innovative control system is not always as reliable as it could be. On a few of the more complex screens, NODE’s movements didn’t always exactly correspond to my inputs. I noticed, to my frustration, that slight variations sometimes occurred when the exact same set of commands were being played out. For a game in which minuscule adjustments can make all the difference, the outcomes need to be consistently reliable in order to make accurate adjustments based on the previous failure. This discrepancy between inputs and outcomes didn’t happen all that often, and it certainly didn’t spoil my overall enjoyment of the game, but it was an annoying hindrance at times.

The 2.5D world looks good, if a little too dark (I had to drastically adjust the brightness settings), and ill-defined at times. This is partly explained by the setting. The year is 2034, and there’s been some sort of nuclear disaster at a long-abandoned Soviet facility in Siberia. NODE’s mission is to find out what caused the radiation leak and discover the fate of a team of scientists who were sent in to investigate. The dusty, hazy atmosphere is understandable, and yet I still thought the visuals weren’t as crisp as they could have been. The capacious, crumbling Soviet architecture forms a stark, eerie backdrop, although some areas felt a little too empty and lacking in detail. There’s also noticeable jerkiness in some of the screen scrolling, although this doesn’t directly affect the gameplay. As with the controls, the visuals just feel a little rough around the edges at times.  

The overall level design of the nuclear facility is impressive. However, I found the visual signposting to be a little misleading at one point, finding myself stuck in an area I evidently wasn’t supposed to be in. Another time I accidentally took a more difficult route – there are alternate paths and secrets to discover – with no apparent way to return to the easier path. None of this would have been as much of a problem if I’d been able to refer to the map. Unfortunately, in the build I played, the game did not allow me to call up the map manually (although there’s a button listed in the controls for it). The map did pop up each time I reached a checkpoint, so I quickly took a photo to help me navigate to the next one. This was unfortunate, as the map is an essential tool when planning your next set of inputs. (The development team is aware of this map issue, so it should hopefully be fixed for the game’s full release). I also experienced four crashes during my roughly 11-hour playthrough but without losing much progress.  

On a more positive note, NODE is a delightfully designed protagonist, looking like a cross between Wall-E and a mini Number Five from Short Circuit. Lovely little animations add so much, with so little, to their character. For instance, the way they lean forward as they move across the screen is most pleasing. Aside from this visual form of characterisation, there is plenty of dialogue, and dialogue choices, in the game. NODE is not alone on their mission. Interactions between them and various AI systems throughout the facility generate conversations that are stilted, quite technical and functional but add considerably to one’s immersion in the world. 

CONTROL, an unnamed person/computer/AI, is NODE’s connection to the outside world, guiding them through the hauntingly vacant buildings. It is unclear if you are playing as CONTROL, which would make sense since NODE is being remotely controlled, as there are times when all contact is lost between them. Also, when making dialogue choices, you are clearly NODE. It’s all a little bit confusing. NODE also meets the facility’s initially hostile AI, PRIZMA, with whom they form a fascinating robotic relationship, which develops differently depending on your dialogue choices. The story itself – which flits in and out of focus amid all the puzzling over inputs – is mysterious, twisty and engaging enough to help drive you through to its denouement, which is pleasingly open to interpretation, depending on how much of the story content you discovered along the way.

NODE is an ambitious game. The striking red font used on its title screen is reminiscent of the genre’s gold standard, Inside (2016), with which it shares some similarly dark vibes. This little nod perhaps hints at the heights the first-time developer team were aiming for. While it doesn’t quite fulfil its obvious potential in its current state, there is a masterpiece of the genre lurking somewhere in its murky depths, waiting to break out into the light.