The closest we're getting to Pokémon Legends: Arceus on Xbox Game Pass pleasantly surprised me

The world is filled with Pokémon-like video games that attempt to capitalize on the creature capturing formula millions know and love, to varying success. One of the best additions to the genre I've played recently, though, is far closer to the Pokémon Legends: Arceus spin-off than any mainline game thanks to its distinct lack of combat and focus on research and exploration.

Creatures of Ava has joined Xbox Game Pass as an Xbox and Windows PC exclusive title, and it's one of the more relaxing games I've played so far this year. It's beautiful and approachable, with an entrancing gameplay loop that also includes being able to pet every creature you come across. It's not a perfect game, but most of its issues are honestly technical in nature. As a whole, Creatures of Ava is a great adventure game that tells a surprisingly emotional story, which is bound to wring a few tears out of you in its final act.

What is Creatures of Ava?

Creatures of Ava is a narrative-driven action-adventure game from developer Inverge Studios and publisher 11 bit studios, following the exploits of 22-year-old Victoria Hamilton on a mission to save as many creatures as possible from their dying planet. Your adventure begins as you crash-land on Ava, and search for a way to reunite with your fellow researcher, Tabatha. You'll first meet one of the Naam, though, the dominant sentient life on Ava, who helps you on your way.

Vic's reason for being here is simple: Ava is collapsing under the Withering, a crippling disease spreading across the planet and killing its life. You have to explore the gorgeous (but dying) regions of this world, discovering its secrets, cataloging and photographing its wildlife and inhabitants, and saving as many creatures as you can by teleporting them off the planet. Matters quickly become more complicated, though, as Vic learns more about the history of Ava.

Creatures of Ava is a relaxing and casual creature-saving game with mild platforming and action elements, and it's now available across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, Xbox and PC Game Pass, and Xbox Cloud Gaming.

Creatures of Ava — $24.99 at Microsoft Store (Xbox, PC) | Steam (PC)

Pet the planet while you save the planet. That's the overall goal in Creatures of Ava, although matters don't remain that straightforward for long. This is a relaxing, casual narrative-adventure game that, while imperfect, is certainly worth the time.

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Creatures of Ava review: The good

The pros highlights

• Creatures of Ava has a lovely and vibrant visual style that pairs well with its world and character designs.
• The gameplay loop of exploring new regions, saving creatures, and unlocking new abilities is also fun and relaxing.
• The overarching narrative explores some interesting topics and really comes together in the final act.

Creatures of Ava may be compared at first glance to Pokémon, but it is ultimately very different. You're saving creatures, not collecting them. You're taking photographs with these creatures, not battling with them. The story is about the planet itself, not about the creatures that live on it. Those differences matter, and it's  part of what makes this game good. The first thing you'll really notice, though, is how good it looks.

Inverge Studios has crafted a uniquely colorful and vivid art style that compliments the design of both the world (including the architecture of the Naam and the ancient race that came before them) and its inhabitants. Those visuals are paired with a beautiful and moving soundtrack that subtly underlines the gameplay and narrative beats. It's the exact kind of presentation I expect from a creative studio that wants its game to stand out without investing in demanding and costly photorealistic graphics.

There's diversity here, too. The game is split into four unique regions, each with its own color palette and ecosystems. Your progression through Creatures of Ava is tracked through these regions, as you'll gain one new ability for each one you pass through and lose access to previous regions as you go (so be sure to explore everything you can before moving on).

It's a simple and straightforward semi-open world game with simple platforming and plenty of map shortcuts. Light Metroidvania elements block your progress in some areas until you unlock the corresponding abilities, too.

Creatures of Ava really nails the world, and I honestly adore the creatures, too. The designs are just as interesting and colorful as the world they live in, and there's a ton of variety in the size, behaviors, and appearances of these creatures. It all sets a great foundation for the gameplay, which is relatively simple and straightforward but nonetheless engaging and fun.

You play as Vic, equipped with an ancient artifact that has a number of magical abilities. As you explore new regions, you'll learn new songs to play on your flute, which can be used to communicate with the creatures of Ava. As you discover these creatures, you'll either befriend them using that music or save them from the infection known as the Withering. You never fight these creatures or have them fight each other; while some creatures are aggressive and will attack you, especially while infected, you'll use various non-combat techniques to dodge and defend while healing them.

During all of this, you'll slowly research and learn more about each creature by photographing them, saving them, and using their unique abilities to unlock new parts of the world or obtain various rewards. You'll also meet a wide and diverse cast of Naam, spread all over Ava, who will both aid and obstruct you, depending on their temperament. Your goal is to save as many creatures as you can by healing them of the infection and transporting them to the BioArk, a massive conservatory in Ava's orbit, but you'll also investigate Ava in search of a potential, permanent cure for the Withering.

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The gameplay isn't complicated, but it is relaxing. The final piece of the puzzle is the narrative, which at first seems as simple as the gameplay, but slowly evolves over time. Your adventures on Ava culminate in an impactful final act for the story that's emotional and thought-provoking, discussing the cycle of life, newfound friendships, and the power of simply accepting. It's a great blend of elements that makes Creatures of Ava refreshing to play... At least when it's not frustrating you.

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Creatures of Ava review: The bad

The cons highlights

• Creatures of Ava is excellent from a design perspective, but struggles on the technical side.
• I encountered a plethora of bugs and issues like performance drops, missing and flickering textures, poor interface design, and more.
• I also enjoyed the overall story, but found that parts of the narrative delivery like writing and voice acting weren't as good.

Honestly, Creatures of Ava feels a little underbaked. The design foundation is great and more than redeems the game, but you will be frustrated or exasperated at points. The framerate stability noticeably dipped in multiple areas, textures either flickered or outright disappeared (especially around water), creatures behaved abnormally or got stuck in bizarre places, button inputs weren't as responsive as they should have been.

Those are bugs, but there are also quality-of-life issues here, too. Accessibility support is okay, with various options to customize elements of the HUD for improved visibility, increase the field-of-view, and a handful of settings for controls, but you don't get any in-depth interface customization or a way to remap controls.

The in-game menus are also slow and awkward to navigate, with even simple tasks like glancing at the map becoming a chore. Your inventory and external storage will frequently shuffle itself, ruining your organization and even making it so you can't carry as much. The storage doesn't even show labels for anything placed inside, so you have to rely entirely on the icons or take the item out of storage, look at it in your inventory, and then go back to the storage.

These are undeniable problems, but they're admittedly all issues that can be resolved with future updates. Creatures of Ava six months from now will likely be a better game than it is right now because of that. There's one flaw that isn't going to be fixed, though.

That would be the delivery methods for the story. Yes, I did greatly enjoy the story and its messaging, but how Creatures of Ava gets those messages across isn't always the best. The game begins and ends with a gorgeous animated cutscene, but all other cinematics are in-game and lack the same unique feel. Voice acting is also limited to those cinematics, and it's awkward at times and lacks emotions at others. The writing in general sometimes feels stilted and forced, especially the text-based dialogue between characters.

It's not enough to make the game difficult to sit through by any means, but the average quality of writing and Creatures of Ava's overall hesitancy to really give its story depth prevents this game from delivering an incredible narrative. It's good, but not a masterpiece.

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Creatures of Ava review: Final thoughts

You should play this if ...

✅You want to play a beautiful, relaxing game less than 20 hours in length

Creatures of Ava is a happy medium for game length, with much more content than many other indie games, but far more digestible than the mountains of AAA games that shove everything and the kitchen sink inside. Relax and spend 12-15 hours exploring a lovely world.

✅You're a fan of the creature-collecting/saving genre

Pokémon this is not, but Creatures of Ava is still a great addition to the genre, offering a combat-free alternative more focused on saving the creatures you discover than fighting them. Photograph, heal, befriend, pet, save — that's the gameplay loop for this gorgeous creature-saving game.

You should not play this if ...

❌Minor bugs and issues easily annoy you

Everyone's tolerance for bugs and flaws is different, so if you're particularly frustrated by a myriad of minor issues or a general lack of polish in a game, Creatures of Ava is probably best avoided (for now). Everything works, but it doesn't always work well.

As I wrapped up Creatures of Ava, I had to take a moment to compose myself and gather my emotions. It wasn't the proper emotional devastation wrought upon me by several other games I could mention, but I still slowly fell in love with Creatures of Ava's world, characters, and story. In a sea of action-adventure games that are really just about the action, it was both calming and refreshing to play a game that deliberately shied away from combat.

Creatures of Ava was never going to be a masterpiece or one of the best Xbox games ever in my books because of some deep-rooted flaws with its narrative delivery and lack of depth, but it definitely started on a high note... That fell with each new bug I discovered. Creatures of Ava's biggest weakness is simply its lack of polish, and that's something that may be addressed in the future. I can't see the future, though, and have to evaluate games and products on how they are today. Creatures of Ava is a good, fun experience, but it's far from perfect.

I still recommend Creatures of Ava to fans of the creature-catching/saving genre, or those who want a casual adventure game of decent length and little combat. I had a good time, and it was a lot of fun exploring this beautiful world and petting all its creatures — and it was sad to watch that world decay around me. For only $25 (or an Xbox Game Pass subscription), that adventure is so worth experiencing.

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