The first impression that a player would get from this game is that it is bizarre, from the box art and the menu screen right to the end credits. But it's bizarre in a good way!
It would dawn on the player almost right away from the first scene in the game that the game world, The Neverhood, and its inhabitants had been entirely fashioned from clay and strategically placed/attached silly putty. Every bit of animation and shadowing had been painstakingly rendered by real handiwork and there is hardly any CG techniques in use.
Details on objects in the game world also appear as what one would expect when carving details into clay and plasticine - furrows that form text and layers of different colored material would bring smiles to the faces of anyone who had the chance to play with such stuff during childhood.
The story is also quite endearing, with bits and pieces scattered around in the game world that provides some insight into the backstory. It's not unique of course, but the special charm of the game and the narration of an odd character that is clearly not getting the hang of the gift of speech adds worth to the knowing of the tale of The Neverhood.
Unfortunately, rich story and theme aside, the game doesn't really function well as an adventure game.
Pixel hunts have always been a bane of adventure games - and it's also present here, somewhat. Items that the protagonist - an oddly proportioned dude called Klaymen - can retrieve are often laid out in plain sight (to the credit of the developers, who explicitly hate pixel hunts), but many of them are oriented in such a way that it's difficult to make out what they are. Only by having the protagonist pick them up can the nature of the items be made a bit clearer - if at all.
That said, many items are so bizarre that their intended use is not immediately discernible, at least until the player clicks on something and Klaymen does something that the player does not expect. However, to the credit of the developers, they have at least made many interact-able objects distinct from the rest of the landscape.
The inventory system - or lack of it - is also a serious issue. It is a must for adventure games to have features that allow players to keep track of what their player character has collected. The game clearly flouts this critical requirement here. As stated, the only way to know what something does is by clicking on an in-world object that can utilize said item. Many of these objects are bizarre as well. Inevitably, most puzzles devolve into click-fest routines.
However, some saving grace can be found in the "Making of..." video available in the CD for the game - something that one doesn't see often in adventure games before the turn of the millennium. The commentaries and videos about the game's model designs, animation and concept arts explained in this video more than suggests that Neverhood's creators like what they had been working with - though they also exposed the reason for their shortfall in actual game development.
Sound-wise, The Neverhood has audio that does its job well. On the other hand, one of the main themes of the game, desolation, is all too apparent here, no thanks to the more-than-effective audio. Many of the environments in the game has the player being able to stare into the deep dark void of nothingness in which The Neverhood is suspended. Murmuring rumbles and soft whistles in the distance further add to the loneliness - something that is difficult to weave into an adventure game if it does not have the caliber of the Zork IP (and even this IP had a mysterious monster to give the player character some "company"). Klaymen is not entirely alone, of course, but with so little text and dialogue in the game, players can almost end up morose.
Fortunately, the music in the game is rather amusing, whenever it is present. Nonsensical garbling by Terry Scott Taylor is the highlight here, and some tunes can be unreasonably catchy.
If you haven't been warned already, this game can be rather enticingly bizarre, through and through.
It is unfortunate that Neverhood is saddled with many flaws that are unacceptable in adventure games - a factor that may have affected its sales and further added to the decline of once-non-EA Dreamworks Interactive. Still, the game has so much unique charm, it would be easy for anyone with a heart to overlook its faults.