Europa

Europa was provided by Future Friends Games for review. Thank you!

I hadn't heard much of Europa leading up to its release, but when it was brought to my attention, I was stunned by what I saw. The visuals captivated me, reminding me of some of the beautiful art and scenery I would see in Studio Ghibli's films. The vibrant, lush fields filled with different colors of flowers, flying through the air to travel, and even the weird-looking animals all worked together to create a setting I wish there was more time to spend in. But even with the short game time, this was an experience worth having and one I wholly recommend others try for themselves.

In Europa, you play as Zee, an android who is journeying in search of answers as to why there are no humans around and what happened on this terraformed moon. The story is told through the journals of an engineer who dreamed of making Europa into a place better than Earth ever was. It starts off relatively predictable, but as the story continues, you learn of the Gardeners and the issues that started to creep up. I don't want to spoil any of it, but there were definitely some darker turns I didn't expect, and I enjoyed where the story ended up.

I went into this not knowing a thing about the story and barely reading the store page, which made the turns a bit more impactful. Europa is on the short side, with me having completed the game within 3 hours, and it isn't something the developer hides (it says it on the store page as a feature). This is a bit too short for me, not because it isn't worth the money, but because I love the world and genuinely want to see more. The story they told fits perfectly within the time frame, with no unnecessary filler that felt out of place. Generally, I would rather have a quality of 3 hours over a filler of 30 hours, and that's the case here. I would have just loved more time to spend in the beautiful world.

Speaking of which, the world really is just phenomenal. It's clear the devs had a very distinct art design for Europa, and I think they captured it perfectly. It feels like a Hayao Miyazaki film from far away, but as you get close, you can see some of the changes that were made with slightly more detail, unique character, and monster designs, and some of the lighting was just spot on. It creates such a relaxing and gorgeous world, with an atmosphere that feels more chill thanks to the ambient soundtrack. There were so many points in the game where I felt I could stop, take a photo, and use it as a wallpaper for my phone or computer. And thankfully, there is a photo mode to do just that, so I am very pleased.

The game is a 3D platformer at its core, and you will find yourself running around the world, floating around, and solving puzzles. The gameplay itself is pretty basic, and you can really only walk around, jump, and fly around the world. There is no fighting, and you will find upgrades for your floating so you can fly and glide around for longer, but that's really the extent of moving around.

You can go out and find 40 different emeralds to collect, and sketch every single creature out there, but for the most part, the only other engaging part of gameplay is the puzzles. There are minor puzzles you will have to solve to progress that include lighting torches, moving balls into specific spots, and moving cubes around to unlock doors. It's very basic and doesn't take a lot to figure them out, but I felt like they were there to break up the exploring. Knowing how short this is in general, I would have preferred for the devs to just stick to storytelling, but it wasn't terrible either.

Europa is meant to be a short, exploration game, so the gameplay is pretty basic. It is still fun, and I enjoyed my time, but for the short time span, it makes sense why this is pretty basic overall. I had my expectations in check once I realized the type of game it is, so I still enjoyed it, but don't expect gameplay to get more complicated or have more layers. Just sit back and enjoy the ride!

And this is a great ride to enjoy on the Steam Deck.

Europa - Steam Deck Performance

Europa is a joy to play on the Steam Deck, and the OLED screen can really help the game's colors pop out. It is very playable, and with it being such a short game, I ended up completing it within three hours. I have two different ways I recommend playing the game, both of which are great:

Recommended Settings

With visuals being so prominent, I wanted to focus more on how great the game could look and try to run at the highest visual quality. Luckily, we can! You can easily play Europa at the highest quality settings, but you do need to set a 50 FPS/Hz limit and not use any TDP limit. In my game time, I only found 3 spots that dropped to 45 at the lowest, and it was temporary spots that showed a larger area around you. As soon as you move and the camera goes back to normal, the framerate goes right back to 50.

This is the default settings for the game, which makes it even better! There is some slight grass pop-in that can be noticed if you really focus on it, but it won't harm the overall experience.

60 FPS Settings

If you really want that extra smoothness, you can play at 60 FPS. All you have to do is bring the Foliage quality to Medium, and you should be set. You will still drop at those three moments I mentioned above, but it should return to 60 really quickly afterward. It drains the battery more, which is a shame, but it feels as smooth as it could get. I did try to get the game to 90, and while it is possible, there are more sacrifices to visual quality to keep it stable, and with how beautiful the game looks, I didn't want to do it.

The grass pop-in is a little more noticeable with these settings, but it overall isn't that bad and I still enjoyed the scenery.

Accessibility

In the settings, you can change language, toggle subtitles and change their size, turn on/off tutorials, change audio settings, invert the camera, and change sensitivity.

The game does support 16:10 resolutions, so no black bars, and it does have cloud saves and controller support. There are no HDR settings.

Conclusion

Europa is a short but sweet adventure through a beautiful world that really shines on the Steam Deck. The game is phenomenal looking, and in almost every scene, I found areas that I could take a screenshot of that would be a perfect wallpaper for my phone or desktop. The gameplay is simple, but for the length of the game, it works really well, especially with the interesting story attached. The game itself runs great at the highest settings and can hit 60 FPS with some minor tweaks, all while keeping the great-looking visuals. As long as you go into this expecting a 3-4 hour adventure, you will not be disappointed playing this one on the go.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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