NUTS is a fairly chill first person perspective game with an odd coloration design. In it you play as a hiree doing basic research on squirrels for a profession who was paid to do it to see if a company can build in the area since the squirrels are rare. While doing it you’re also looking for anything the company may have illegally done in the area as they aren’t allowed to build in the area until the research into the squirrels habitat is done and is okayed for them to build. It does kind of remind me of Firewatch but not quite as in depth.

The entire game is based on you placing cameras up to track squirrels throughout the day and then watch the videos at night to follow them to the place they stop at the end of the video time. This can take numerous in-game days. You start with one camera, but get two almost immediately afterwards and eventually get a third camera. You use these cameras to follow the squirrel to locate where it ends up. Each night you follow it until it runs off the camera, then the following day you move any camera you want in order to keep tracking the squirrel.

Every level takes you to a new place to deal with new squirrels and alongside that you get a new visual coloration for the world. Sometimes it’s red and yellow, other times it’s bright blue and bright teal, etc. These colors can be very conflicting in the RV you start in every day, and it can be seriously garish and hard on the eyes, especially if you’re trying to read things. The visual design is both it’s blessing and it’s curse. I think the coloration makes it look really interesting and stylized and might be why a lot of people want to buy it, but at the same time it often gets really hard on the eyes.

There’s a very small amount of voice acting in the game as you have to send stuff to the professor and she calls you to monologue to you, and there’s also recordings of her in the game world of hers as well. She’s the only voice in the game, but she has a lovely voice. You do get notes from both her at the start and from a mysterious Sam that drives your research trailer around on his suped up four wheeler, he leaves notes on your gear when you get new gear and the like and that’s it. Otherwise it’s just squirrels.

All and all, there’s not a lot of gameplay to the game or story to it, I’ve already fully explained both. Which makes it super chill, but also means there’s not much there. I liked it when the colors didn’t kill my eyes but there’s not a lot to the game. I mean I liked that it was chill and fast, but I’m not sure if I actually LIKED the game, and if I’m not sure of that then chances are I didn’t.

NUTS was developed by Noodlecake Games.

Point of Sale: Humble, Steam, itch.io, Switch.

Price: $20

A review copy of the game was provided by the devs.

darkmikasonfire does not award NUTS the Indie Gamer Team Seal of Approval.