Olija follows a man named Faraday who is shipwrecked in a mysterious country named Terraphage. Armed with his harpoon, Faraday explores the world of Terraphage and discovers strange people/creatures and overcomes various obstacles and puzzles. During his time in Terraphage, he also encounters a woman woman named Olija, who seems to be connected with Faraday in some way. Beyond that, the story is meant to be experienced, and I think that those of you who dive in, will be pulled into the narrative and you’ll enjoy it. 

The gameplay is also quite simple but as effective as anything you’ll play this week. Olija is a side-scrolling title that has the same sort of feel in level design as you may have found with early generation NES games like Castlevania. When Faraday gets his hands on a legendary harpoon, this is when the game really takes flight. The harpoon will allow Faraday to teleport to where he throws it, use it for grapple points and even avoiding enemies/hazardous areas. Further tools for our fearless hero is the ability to swing a sword (which comes early), a shotgun and even a special sword that can be used as a lever giving him the ability to open up new areas in the never ending search for collectibles. It all just worked really well together and further adds to the enjoyment of the game. Well done.

The levels are well paced and never stick around for too long nor do I think you’ll waste much time finding your way around. The placement of the various enemies and hazards were well thought out and feels challenging but never too difficult. As mentioned above, you’ll also be on the lookout for collectibles such as boxes with treasure or material and lost people. From there you’ll want to go to your hub on the water called Oaktide. Here you can purchase new hats from a special vendor. The different hats will give you special abilities such as adding lighting based attacks, health bonuses or resistance to damages.

I won’t lie to you, I didn’t think much of what I saw when first confronted with screen caps and video footage. And I don’t think the developers expected to win awards for their graphical prowess of Olija but somehow, after a little time with the game, I just forgot about that and got lost in the game and looking back, there’s a real beauty in the simplicity of the graphics. The character animation was also incredibly fluid and looked great in action.

I love it when a game seeming comes out of nowhere to surprise me. Devolver Digital continues to impress me with the games they pick to publish that end up being these big surprises. I really thought that Olija was a fantastic game from top to bottom. The graphics while not the prettiest you’ll ever see are really impactful once you dive in, it feels well balanced and the RPG elements were enjoyable. I think the development team at Skeleton Crew are on to something pretty special with Olija.

Pros:
Balanced gameplay and the perfect runtime (took me about 7.5 hours to complete)
Fluid animation
Well thought out levels

Cons:
Graphically, while completely adequate, there are prettier games in the genre – You just forget about them once you get going.

Olija is out now on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One