The Neverhood

by Dreamworks Interactive

Product Features

• Adventure video game created by animator Doug TenNapel and released by Dreamworks Studios
• It features claymation graphics and music by composer Terry Scott Taylor.
• The Neverhood received positive reviews, but was not a commercial hit, its release coinciding with the mid-1990s decline of adventure games that also caused the failure of other critically acclaimed games such as Grim Fandango
• A sequel to The Neverhood was released in 1997-98 for Sony's PlayStation video game console entitled Skullmonkeys
• The Neverhood was selected by Microsoft as an "underrated game". The game sold about 42,000 copies before being discontinued.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004RKER
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: September 29, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,615 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

You are Klaymen. Klaymen wakes up in a building in the strangely empty world of Neverhood. Initially, he does not know where he is or what he has to do, but as he explores the area, he finds mysterious disks. Each disk contains a fragment of a recording; gradually, the back story is revealed as Klaymen finds more and more disks. It would spoil too much to reveal the exact plot, as finding it out is part of the game. The Neverhood is a point-and-click adventure game, notable for its claymation graphics. It uses a simple interface: you move and interact with the world by clicking on the screen. There is no inventory screen, though Klaymen can find a few items he can pick up. There are few inventory-based puzzles; most of the puzzles involve solving riddles and interacting with the environment. Generally, the game is seen from a 3rd person perspective, but when moving between locales, you see the world through Klaymen's eyes (but you have a limited freedom of movement).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "The Neverhood" is good, but "Neverhood 2000" never came out, November 3, 2003

By 

Alec Dinwoodie (SF, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Neverhood (CD-ROM)

When I was first shopping for a used copy of The Neverhood, I was confused by the page you're reading now; it says "Neverhood 2000 by SouthPeak Interactive," and I knew that the original game was released in 1996 by DreamWorks. Was this a sequel that I should also be looking for? I did some research, and found out that in 2000 SouthPeak was going to release a newly polished version of the old game, using higher-resolution photography that wouldn't look so grainy. Unfortunately, they never released it. The reviewers here, including me, have all played the original game, The Neverhood.

Now that that's cleared up...The Neverhood is a unique point-and-click adventure game done entirely in claymation. You guide a placid clay person named Klaymen around a brightly-colored world with very few other creatures in it, solving puzzles and slowly unraveling the story of how this world was created, what happened afterward, and what Klaymen must do to save it. While you're in a puzzle room, you have a third-person view of Klaymen and the objects around him. While you're moving Klaymen between rooms across the clay landscape or having him operate a machine, you have a first-person view through his eyes.

All the while this crazy music is playing --- lots of weird twanging noises and mumbly nonsense lyrics, but really catchy songs. The soundtrack by Terry Taylor --- who apparently is a "Christian music" artist most of the time --- was actually released as a separate CD, and I intend to pick it up one of these days...

Most of the puzzles in this game are pretty strange, relying on abstract visual and other associations; I had to take notes on a few of them in order to keep everything straight. There are several places where you do something that only affects an area far away, so you have no idea what you've done until you happen to walk by and notice it. There's one seriously complicated puzzle that I solved by thinking about a long story that you get to read at one point in the game. When I was done I looked up some solutions online to see if they took the same approach --- they didn't, not at all, but hey, my solution worked...See what your results are!

Hardcore adventure gamers may dislike this game for being so illogical and quirky...but it's full of charm and highly original style, and almost anyone can play it. For me, it was definitely worth the high prices that used copies now go for.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The only game I ever finished, January 27, 2003

By 

Helen Lomax "Hel" (Perth, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Neverhood (CD-ROM)

I loved this game. I must admit, I couldn't finish it without help from the website, but it's the only one that I really wanted to play whenever I had the time. I've tried Myst (took too long) and other games (Lost in Time, etc). And I also played Carmen Sandiego when it first came out, but The Neverhood had sly humour, problems easy enough to solve but not too easy, and funky music. I'm 55 by the way, so I think it's a game anyone can enjoy.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clay + Funky, jazzy music + Clever puzzles = Excellent, February 15, 2003

By 

Steve Wolfman (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Neverhood (CD-ROM)

You know how some experiences --- be they movie, television or, God forbid, real life --- enter your vocabulary? Some phrase from Monty Python transformed into a code that tells just the right story for a moment. A snatch of music from the Empire Strikes Back that plays in your head each time your boss (teacher?) comes in. Camp as it is, the Neverhood is full of these spectacular moments. Humorous, catchy, absurdist, and beatifully rendered in clay. The puzzles are solid although rarely great, but the visuals, music, interface, and FEEL of the game are superb.

Two warnings: (1) Be patient in the opening scenes; the interface really is excellent although sparsely documented. (2) Not to spoil anything, but when you see the writing on the wall, you might check how long it is before you decide to read it.

Now, how am I going to get this music out of my head?

(Doo, doo, doo-doo, doo... doo, doo, doo-doo, doo, ditty-doo...)