Never Alone

The game is a cute little plattform game. Not very hard but still interesting and you can play it with a friend or maybe your kid. It looks good and has a great atmosphere. The best part for me though is that during the game you can unlock short little videoclips. They are about the every day life, mythology that they have, the clothing they drar and culture of the inuits etc, and I found them really interesting. Those alone definetly makes the game worth playing. I just wish there were more of them lol.

To be honest though, I was not a fan of the DLC, but the main game is quite fun, altough pretty short and easy.

A solid indie game, in terms of its narrative premise and overall art direction. But a flawed game, in terms of the "game" aspect.

Never Alone is an atmospheric, visually appealing and creatively charming 2D puzzle-platformer, that represents and tells the story of an ancient Alaskan culture that doesn't nearly get enough spotlight in the gaming or even cinematic medium.

Because of this, the story and especially the historical documentations found throughout the game are filled with intriguing folklore and some fascinating human history. The narrative direction follows a structure akin to short stories, meaning that the story focuses more on a scenario than coherent characterization or fully fledged narrative arcs. But it all ties in very well with the mythical folklore and the cultural representation.

The same cohesion can't be said for how the game actually plays, however. The platforming concepts that are integral and unique in the game are very interesting on paper, but very frustrating and janky in execution. The secondary character should've added a unique second layer to the platforming, but ends up being a slightly tedious and janky platforming tool, for the most part. The level design is fine, but the gameplay does get in the way a lot.

In conclusion, Never Alone is a short and enjoyable narrative experience, but a very flawed gameplay experience that is tough to replay through. It's documentation of Alaskan culture and history, as well as the beautiful implementation of Alaskan folklore, makes for a charming short story. But the gameplay gets in the way more than it should for an indie adventure game, unfortunately.

I watched the trailer for this game many times, and each time, it looked like an intense, emotional, yet cute platforming game.

When I finally got to play the game, I was honestly blown away. Sure the gameplay has a few flaws, but the story is just awesome in many ways. I liked the relationship between Nuna and Fox, it reminded me of a Fumito Ueda game, in that there's not a lot of talking, but the chemistry between them is just so apparent. And the story had a lot of unexpected twists and turns and some pretty intense or otherwise emotional moments. And it wasn't just straightforward either, the main character had a few problems to deal with in her journey, not just one or two, and that added so much depth to it.

Going back to the gameplay, by it having a few flaws, I mean a few problems with the detection system, but those are only very minimal. I liked the platforming style of it, but I also liked that you had to alternate between the main characters in order to progress. I liked the puzzle solving gameplay in it. The graphics also set the tone for the game just perfectly, and I liked how it would often take a break from intensity and gameplay to set the tone for a scene and let it breathe.

On top of all that, all of it, there was just so much passion to put into this project. The developers always loved making this game and treated it like a passion and not just like a job. And their goal was to teach people lessons about perseverance and inner strength, and they were using inupiaq themes and mythology to make it all the more interesting.

I don't know why it hasn't been getting very good reviews as of late, because I still like it, it's really good. I still like to play it to this day.

I got this for free a long time ago on my PS4 when it was free for PS Plus Subscribers. Just a few days ago me and my cousin decided to play it through and it was pretty fun.

The gameplay is decent enough, ran into some bugs however these were pretty funny bugs I might add. We had a good chuckle whenever I ran into one.

The story is kind of okay since I never really got it. Seems that it changes however do not want to spoil much. Let's just say the adventure starts from some conflict usually however along with another conflict that makes the previous conflict go out the window. However the adventure goes as if the previous conflict was still happening. You'll get it if you buy it or get it for free like me.

Overall not much to say. There are unlockables that feature the Inupiat people telling stories that relate to what's gonna happen or what is during the game. It's very fun to watch since I'm Native myself learning about another culture than my own that I was brought up on. There was an insight about The Northern Lights which is a little different from us Cree Natives. A little spoiler here; basically those are children who have passed on. They play in the sky as Northern Lights from the Inupiat people. What my grandpa had said those who people who have passed and they come out to dance. There are dangers of them both for you cannot point at them or smell the Northern Lights. In the Inupiat people's dangers they are kids who want to play football with your head! So don't draw them near.

But like I said this was a fun game. That's all I have to say. If you want to know their culture and enjoy a good story? Go ahead I believe it's a great purchase when it's on sale.