Xbox Series X Critic Reviews

N.E.R.D. is a short adventure, but the story is familiar and engaging, while the puzzles are consistently excellent.

N.E.R.D does deliver a thick creepy atmosphere. You’ve been captured and punished into play a survival game in a style of the Saw movies with impending doom. You get locked in to the drama and want to solve the puzzles. But clunky repetitive FMV clips begin to chip away at the atmosphere and overly tricky puzzles with little logic and more trial and error may leave you feeling that death by gas is happy ending after all.

If you’re a hardcore escape room fan or just like a good puzzle, you’ll probably find something to enjoy with N.E.R.D – it’s far from terrible, and there are glimmers of what could have been a really good game here. Unfortunately, it’s dragged down by comical narrative choices and puzzles that work until you realise you’re either completing chores or banging your head against a wall hoping the next key you need will fall out as a reward.