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I was definitely ready to make a list of squirrel puns while writing this review. Completing the game, however, drained me of all desire to make that effort. This is the first game I’m putting into Tier Four without hating it.
NUTS is a game where you play an antisocial researcher, under the purview of your professor. You head into Melmoth Forest to do an environmental impact study on an endangered squirrel species to prevent a dam from being built. The dam-builders are stereotypically evil, the squirrels appear to be ecoterrorists, and the professor is either gaslighting you or incompetent. There are actually many similarities between NUTS and Firewatch. Like Firewatch, there are many hints at strange happenings and your only communication is with a person over the phone/radio. Unlike Firewatch, you do actually do the job you were hired for. There’s actual game beyond walking around – and believe it or not, I was prepared to sing the praises of NUTS and the many ways it was better than Firewatch. Then the game ended. But let’s back up a little.
For, you see, this game has six missions. The first two are tutorials and the last one has plot holes the size of the Enterprise (the other missions do as well, but I didn’t know that at the time). I was actually getting into the game when it suddenly and abruptly ended. Thinking back, not a single one of the mysteries is explained. Every plot thread is left hanging – and I do mean every single one (though I suppose you do get your journal back). I don’t think I can even spoil the game because there’s literally nothing to spoil.
Still, I don’t hate it. Unlike Old Gods Rising, NUTS isn’t insulting your intelligence or love of a genre. Unlike Firewatch, the plot doesn’t resolve in the most boring way possible (mostly because it doesn’t resolve at all, but still). It feels as if this is the first tenth of a game and they simply ran out of budget or time to finish. So I don’t hate it – but I also can’t recommend playing it or buying it.