The Neverhood is one of the most challenging single player games I have ever played, and it hurts me to admit that I never did manage to finish it by myself. Perhaps this is because it is so different to any kind of game I have ever played and it takes a great deal of logic to unlock its many puzzles and mysteries if you expect to get anywhere in the game. Nevertheless, this is a fantastic wacky achievement by Dreamworks Studios, featuring childlike claymation and interface but adult-level difficulties in game-play, all interwoven with quirky elements.
No one can successfully capture the mood or style of The Neverhood in a few sentences, but think Wallace and Gromit claymation meets Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with a touch of Salvador Dali surrealism. In other words, this is a wacky, colourfully creative mess. We follow Klaymen as our first-person player on his quest to explore Neverhood (a neighbourhood) and the more puzzles and tasks he completes, the more we get to know about the plot of the game in the form of his mission. Klaymen collects stone-chips which he can insert in TVs which will then play for a bit to give more history of Neverhood. Very soon it is evident that the world of Neverhood is an unusual one and the people (creatures) he encounters may not be what they appear to be.
Aside from featuring an involving and puzzling plot, The Neverhood is the funniest game ever to hit PC platform. A game sequence that has stuck with me is when Klayman finds and rewinds a musical box and it shifts to cinematic mode. A happy jingle starts playing, and Klaymen continues to wind it and suddenly it awakens this huge spider-like monster who comes barging through the wall OUT OF NOWHERE and starts chasing Klay and it is just the ugliest creature I have ever seen in a video game. This cinematic is absolutely hysterical. No description will ever do it justice. You need to play this game now.
Although it may appear to be, I don't think that this game is for children. I say this because it genuinely freaked the hell out of me at several points and there is just an eerie, almost horror-like feeling shadowing the mood of the game-play. To emphasize this, there is also a weird out-of-place musical score by Terry Scott Taylor that sounds like it either belongs in a fun-house at a carnival, or it simply sounds like nothing you've ever heard. Sure, you can laugh at most of the sequences -- but this is best enjoyed by adults or teens, especially since it is so damn difficult.
The Neverhood is a gloriously entertaining, freaky PC platform game that I highly recommend.
9/10