Nidana

About Nidana

Nidana is a single player simulation game with a horror theme. It was developed by lvl374 and was released on July 27, 2025. It received positive reviews from players.

She continues to dream. A first-person dream simulator where you explore a corner of a dream.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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Reviews

88%Audience ScoreBased on 104 reviews

graphics13 positive mentions

gameplay4 negative mentions

The game offers stunning and unique abstract visuals with striking minimalist black and white geometric designs that create a surreal and hypnotic atmosphere.
The ambient and eerie soundtrack effectively enhances the immersive and emotional experience, reinforcing feelings of isolation and unease.
NIDANA provides a deeply artistic, meditative exploration experience that invites personal interpretation and reflection on its dreamlike environments.

Limited gameplay depth with mostly linear progression and minimal puzzle elements, resulting in a repetitive experience that may bore or disengage players seeking more interactivity.
The intense visual effects such as flashing, moire patterns, and high contrast lines can cause eye strain, dizziness, and discomfort, making it unsuitable for sensitive players.
Technical issues including inconsistent performance and lack of graphical polish like anti-aliasing can lead to significant frame drops and degraded visual quality during motion.

graphics
48 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27% positive mentions, 67% neutral mentions, 6% negative mentions
The game's graphics are highly distinctive, featuring minimalist black-and-white, abstract designs with geometric shapes and hypnotic, mind-bending visuals that create a strong, immersive atmosphere. While praised for their aesthetic creativity and uniqueness, the visuals can become dizzying, repetitive, and exhausting over time, limiting engagement for some players. Overall, the graphics serve as the main draw and defining feature, though they may feel like an indie art project that prioritizes style over gameplay depth or polish.
- “The aesthetic is the selling point of this game, predominantly featuring black and white primitives (mainly cubes and rectangles), extensive use of moire patterns and mirror effects to create a sense of infinity.”
- “Super clean and awe-inducing visuals that are utterly gorgeous.”
- “Very unique and had some very cool geometry and mathematical artwork.”
- “The game will try to present you with creative visuals to keep you engaged (and equally disoriented), but there comes a point where it starts to get exhausting and repetitive.”
- “While I can stomach complex and glitchy visuals on the screen (e.g., Lilith mapset for Doom; Strawberry Cubes game, just to name a few), there is something about the visuals in this game that left me feeling dizzy, if not nauseated, after about an hour into the playthrough.”
- “It doesn't really try to tell a story, and the graphics and environment, its only real selling point, are interesting at first, but grow old quickly.”
atmosphere
20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40% positive mentions, 45% neutral mentions, 15% negative mentions
The atmosphere is widely praised for its surreal, dreamlike quality achieved through minimalist visuals, abstract design, and subtle, eerie audio that together create a haunting and emotionally immersive experience. While some find the atmosphere hypnotic and meditative, others note its simplicity may lead to fatigue due to limited gameplay progression and a somewhat repetitive soundtrack. Overall, the game's strength lies in its ability to evoke mood and psychological tension rather than traditional narrative or mechanical depth.
- “Nidana is a surreal first-person exploration experience that abandons traditional storytelling and gameplay conventions in favor of atmosphere, visual abstraction, and dreamlike immersion.”
- “Ambient noises, distant echoes, distorted audio textures, and subtle atmospheric music create a constant sense of emotional discomfort without relying on traditional horror mechanics.”
- “Play it if you're interested in the visuals and atmosphere, but know that the most you'll get out of its themes will be whatever you can interpret from the experience and achievement names.”
- “Its impossible architecture, oppressive atmosphere, and fragmented dreamscapes create an experience that lingers because of emotion and imagery rather than narrative resolution or gameplay complexity.”
- “Even though the game is pretty abstract, I was able to read most scenery or at least its atmosphere and mood.”
gameplay
19 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
16% positive mentions, 63% neutral mentions, 21% negative mentions
The gameplay in Nidana is minimalistic and heavily focused on atmosphere and exploration rather than traditional mechanics, puzzles, or progression, which may feel repetitive or passive to some players. While its surreal environments and emotional immersion appeal to fans of experimental walking sims, those seeking deeper interactivity or varied gameplay may find it lacking and at times frustrating due to unclear objectives and slow pacing. Overall, the gameplay prioritizes mood and abstract experience over challenge or mechanical depth.
- “Nidana is a surreal first-person exploration experience that abandons traditional storytelling and gameplay conventions in favor of atmosphere, visual abstraction, and dreamlike immersion.”
- “The puzzles themselves are generally straightforward and serve more as transitions between dream spaces than complex gameplay systems.”
- “This simplicity allows players to focus entirely on atmosphere and interpretation rather than mechanical difficulty.”
- “Players expecting traditional gameplay depth, combat systems, or heavily interactive mechanics may find the experience too passive.”
- “Although the environments remain visually impressive throughout the game, the core gameplay loop changes very little from beginning to end.”
- “Soundtrack is very repetitive, not much gameplay or interactivity, too long for its own good, especially with all the walking around and frustratingly not understanding half of the objectives.”
story
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17% positive mentions, 66% neutral mentions, 17% negative mentions
The story in this game is largely abstract and non-traditional, focusing on atmosphere and visual immersion rather than concrete narrative or character development. While its surreal, dreamlike exploration and artistic ambition appeal to some, many players find the lack of explicit plot and emotional connection disappointing or hollow. Overall, the experience is best appreciated as an aesthetic and environmental piece rather than a conventional story-driven game.
- “Nidana is a surreal first-person exploration experience that abandons traditional storytelling and gameplay conventions in favor of atmosphere, visual abstraction, and dreamlike immersion.”
- “The lack of explicit narrative forces players to interpret the experience personally, turning exploration itself into the primary form of storytelling.”
- “Despite these flaws, Nidana succeeds because of its artistic ambition and complete commitment to surreal environmental storytelling.”
- “Amazing visuals for this style and great atmosphere, but there might be too much implication of a plot for how much there actually is.”
- “If this game wants you to feel like you're just stuck in this world going around aimlessly conveying a story with every achievement system... I would say it falls flat.”
- “There also isn't really an attempt to tell any sort of story with the main character that you have to endlessly chase until the end of the playthrough - arguably it does resemble a dream where very little makes sense, but it also feels a bit hollow and overall comes across more like a tech-demo disguised as a game.”
music
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38% positive mentions, 39% neutral mentions, 23% negative mentions
The music and sound design create a consistently eerie and atmospheric experience through ambient noises and subtle textures, effectively enhancing the game's emotional discomfort without relying on traditional horror cues. However, many find the soundtrack repetitive, minimalistic, and sometimes akin to white noise, lacking variety and musical evolution. Despite mixed opinions, the ambiance and occasional moments of rhythmic audio contribute meaningfully to the game's unsettling mood.
- “Ambient noises, distant echoes, distorted audio textures, and subtle atmospheric music create a constant sense of emotional discomfort without relying on traditional horror mechanics.”
- “Silence is often more powerful than music, making every small environmental sound feel important and unsettling.”
- “The game itself shows that off extremely well, not to mention its ambient soundtrack which fits it perfectly.”
- “The soundtrack is very repetitive, lacks gameplay interactivity, and feels too long, especially with all the walking around and the frustratingly unclear objectives.”
- “The soundtrack itself is very one-note and acts more like white noise, failing to contribute meaningfully to the atmosphere of the environment.”
- “The music is backed by a nauseatingly mediocre soundtrack that never evolves, featuring repetitive synth bleeps with reverb and white noise.”
optimization
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33% positive mentions, 34% neutral mentions, 33% negative mentions
Optimization for the game is generally criticized as poor and inconsistent, with some users experiencing performance issues despite decent hardware. While certain features like ultrawide support are appreciated, lack of anti-aliasing and subpar rendering quality highlight a need for better technical refinement compared to similar titles.
- “Although my rig is not outstanding by modern standards, I can run Death Stranding on my end without even a hint of performance drops.”
- “Also, I'm running it through Proton (9.0.4) on Linux, so there might be more overhead, or maybe there are GPU optimizations and driver improvements that make it a very smooth experience.”
- “Performance is great, ultrawide support is good though I wish there was an FOV slider.”
- “The optimization is disastrously bad.”
- “Poor optimization and lack of anti-aliasing.”
- “The performance is surprisingly inconsistent.”
emotional
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The game's emotional impact stems from its oppressive atmosphere, ambiguous storytelling, and immersive sound design, creating a meditative yet unsettling experience. It prioritizes emotional sensation and interpretation over traditional narrative or gameplay, which may deeply engage some players while leaving others emotionally detached.
- “Even simple movement through empty spaces feels emotionally charged due to the oppressive stillness surrounding everything.”
- “Ambient noises, distant echoes, distorted audio textures, and subtle atmospheric music create a constant sense of emotional discomfort without relying on traditional horror mechanics.”
- “For players willing to immerse themselves completely in the atmosphere, this creates a meditative and emotionally absorbing experience.”
character development
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 50% negative mentions
The character design is praised for being simple and visually expressive, effectively conveying personality through appearance. However, some users find the emotional connection limited due to minimal storytelling and direct character development.
- “Great character design - very simple and clean. I feel like I got a lot of her personality just from her looks.”
- “Others may struggle to connect emotionally due to the lack of concrete storytelling and direct character development.”
replayability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions
The game's replayability is limited, with players generally not feeling motivated to play it more than once.
- “Replayability value is impacted as a result, so I personally don't find myself playing this game more than once.”
grinding
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions
Grinding in the game is described as tedious and uninspired, resulting in an overall underwhelming experience.