When it comes to demos, special care is always needed to ensure that they're done well. The demos aren't mandatory, but they give players a first impression of the game to interact with as opposed to just watching. Everyone understands that the demo is a slice of an unfinished game and that there will be bugs, but there is still a threshold before bugs become the focal point of the conversation. Based on the demo, Nowhere needs some additional development time to ensure that the bugs don't overshadow the game's potential.

In Nowhere, four tourists have gone missing in the Nordic forest, and you've been hired to find them. Upon arriving at the scene, you get the feeling that something is amiss and that you're trapped in the woods. With no other course of action, you continue your investigation while also trying to see if you can leave the forest alive.

On the surface, the game plays out like a standard adventure title but modernized to pass as a more interactive walking simulator. You'll walk around, pick up items that go in a bottomless inventory, and obtain loads of notes and photos. A few other gameplay elements are introduced, such as the ability to take pictures and add notes to them. Another element is the investigation board, which you can pull up at any time to connect clues and pictures.

Unlike most walking simulators, there's a real sense of danger. At certain times, a horn will sound, and the sky will go red. Once it does, undead Vikings appear and shamble toward you. Should you get caught, you have an option to answer a question from a Norse god so you can escape death. It's an intriguing system that could prove worthwhile, depending on how the final game's save system works out.

All of this is tied together in a package that doesn't try to lead you down any sort of path, right or wrong. The gameplay elements can lead to an experience that is both intriguing and frustrating. There's no built-in hint system to call upon, so you're relying on the environment to let you know what you should be doing. There's no map in place or any sort of navigation to point out where you should go. Except for the on-screen notice that you're going beyond the boundaries of the demo, there's nothing stopping you from going anywhere before you should. It's a freeing experience, but it also leads to confusion if you're not especially observant.

While the game is presented from a first-person perspective, your hands and forearms are armor where skin would normally be. Look down, and you appear to be an android. Look closer at the glowing symbol on your chest, and it's the Unreal logo. It seems that  your current character is placeholder art. The same thing occurs when you look at the investigation board and notice that it has several images that have nothing to do with the current case.

There are also features that are either missing or don't work. That aforementioned investigation board only appears when you hold down a key. Not only does it disappear a few seconds after you see it, but you also never see it change, and you can't interact with it in another way. You can take as many photos as you want, but the only photos you'll see in the journal are the ones that you pick up off the ground. The trailer on the developer's site shows off an actual investigation system and the ability to make notes in your journal, but it's possible that this was intentionally left out of the demo. The game also tells you about a focus mode, but hitting the button assigned to it does nothing.

Then there are the bugs. To be fair, people expect some bugs to be in a demo but these are noteworthy. When the protagonist is running, the camera shaking is overly violent, and the options do nothing to minimize that. Items can't be picked up or interacted with unless you're directly on top of them, and the action indicator is obscured enough that you may not see it appear for a while. Pick up some items, and you'll never actually get to see them since they'll be hidden or blurred out by other objects in the camera's way. The demo is pretty messy right now, but the developer has been diligent about sending out daily updates during our preview timeframe.

The presence of these bugs and placeholder elements and lacking features makes you wonder how far along Nowhere is. There's no date set for the game, but that is common enough. However, if you look at the developer's website, almost all of the listed games have yet to come out. Only one title in the developer's portfolio was released in May 2024, and the good news is that the Steam reviews have been positive. There's still a sense that there's plenty of work to be done at this point.

The public demo of Nowhere is scheduled to arrive on Aug. 15, 2024, and while the file size of less than 7GB isn't large by today's standards, players should still be aware that it is in a really rough state. The demo feels rushed, given the handful of non-working features, mislabeled controls, a few physics issues, and the use of placeholder models. There are some interesting ideas, such as a lack of a map or a hint system to force you to discover everything on your own. However, when viewed through the current state of the demo, only players with loads of patience would be willing to trudge through and see how those elements can contribute to an intriguing experience. Again, we were playing with a demo before its official release, so the final copy that's available to the public could be better. From our experience, though, Nowhere needs a load of work before adventure game fans can see its potential.