Stunning vistas, free-form flight, and a touching story await in Europa, a short adventure with some of the most beautiful art you’ll see in gaming.

Inspired by the films of Studio Ghibli, this gorgeously realised story is from videogame artist Helder Pinto, whose credits include the Diablo and Overwatch series. We’ve been keen to dive into Europa’s vibrant world for some time – and it’s truly a visual feast.

In Europa, you play as Zee, a child-shaped android searching for answers. Setting out from their home on the moon Europa, Zee follows a trail of journal pages left by Adam for his son. Each journal entry Zee finds reveals a little more of what happened to Europa, and to the humans who once lived there. The moon is a tragically beautiful place – it’s bursting with natural beauty that intermingles with the remains of a once-thriving society. Now devoid of human life, the automaton “gardeners” who once terraformed the planet are all that’s left. They’re scattered across Europa in their many alien forms: Zee lives amongst winged colonies of mechanical bumblebees, burrowing robotic insects, and even a giant sky serpent.

Most of Europa’s gameplay involves exploring the moon’s different biomes, solving gentle environmental puzzles, and collecting pages of Adam’s journal. While Zee can’t move very quickly on the ground, they have access to a jetpack named the Zephyr that allows them to spend fuel to boost into the air and glide through the sky. The Zephyr initially has a limited capacity, but as you find upgrades throughout the world you’ll find yourself able to scale enormous ruined towers or traverse lengthy caverns easily. There are also different sources of fuel that instantly refill the Zephyr, leading to many segments where you’ll chain together refuels in order to stay in the air. As well as upgrades, you’ll find collectable emeralds hidden across Europa that encourage you to explore each biome top-to-bottom.

While the designs and worldbuilding behind each of Europa’s gardeners are compelling, some of the more hostile entities you’ll encounter can mechanically leave you more frustrated than challenged. Swarms of fly-like drones flock around the moon’s biomes drain your energy and knock you out of the sky mid-flight, cutting short your attempts to gain height and forcing you to find an energy source before starting your ascent again. Similarly, beetle-like soldiers can slug you with cannon fire and knock you down momentarily. This wouldn’t be an issue if these gardeners weren’t so often placed in clusters very close to each other, and if their attacks were less frequent. I found myself stun-locked more than once under a constant barrage, knocked down as soon as I recovered and giving Chumbawumba a run for their money. Moments like these that halt your momentum come up only occasionally, however, limiting their impact on the game’s overall zen-like flow.

I relished the four hours or so I spent in my playthrough of Europa. It tells a touching story in an absolutely gorgeous setting filled with intriguing lore and satisfying biomes to lose yourself in. It’s truly as close as you can get to exploring a Studio Ghibli film. Gamers craving a brief, gentle foray into a beautiful world need look no further.