JAKE CURNOW PRESENTS
Never Alone
Playstation 4 Version
With Never Alone sitting idle in my Playstation 4 backlog for well over two months, I can say without a shadow of doubt that this was one of my most anticipated titles. Despite the fact that Never Alone has a pure heart at its core, and is a deviation from today’s overabundance of violent video games, I still found myself left with a feeling of boredom from its storyline, as well as its gameplay.
Never Alone has players take control of two lead characters: an Iñupiat girl named Nuna, and an Arctic Fox. Players can go through the game in two player co-op, or play through the game solo while periodically switching between each of the two characters. Since this is a puzzle themed platformer, it is required of a solo player to switch between characters for level progression, since each character has their own unique special abilities. Although both characters have their abilities develop throughout the game, Nuna still functions as the lead character, with the Fox operating as an assistant for Nuna, helping her out along the way.
Nuna’s abilities have approximately the same amount of depth as the Fox’s. She’s able to climb ropes, brace herself against an incoming blizzard, jump, or push and pull certain objects. As the game progresses, she gains access to a bola, which she can occasionally use as a weapon to destroy certain objects, or to activate spiritual creatures. The graphical quality and gameplay may seem interesting to newcomers at first, but Never Alone seems to lack the kick that other successful platforming titles have.
The opening scene tells the story of an Alaskan Native village, with once great hunters, now facing starvation because of an overwhelming blizzard pinning them in their camp. The hero of the story, Nuna, decides to single-handedly set out on a quest to discover the source of the blizzard. The first playable scene in the game finds Nuna lost among a blizzard in the Alaskan wilderness having failed her quest. Perhaps she would have failed her quest, and her people, if it wasn’t for the aggressive presence and roar of a hungry Alaskan polar bear (looking for lunch). Although the gameplay sequence is short, it turned out to be quite thrilling, with Nuna running for her life only to get cornered and nearly killed by the bear. Out of nowhere comes an Arctic White Fox, seriously over matched in terms of size. The Fox easily outsmarts the polar bear and saves Nuna’s life creating a comradery among this duo for the remainder of the game. Had she been alone, however, she would have probably been dead.
As the game progresses, Nuna and the Fox find themselves throughout a wide range of dangerous Alaskan territories in search of the blizzards true source. Along the way to their final destination, they end up crossing paths with Nuna’s village for a second time, only to discover that it had been raided by a terrible man known as the “Manslayer”, and pushing the natives from the village.
With Nuna’s continued determination, she ends up meeting a wide range of strange creatures during her quest, such as the ‘Little People’, and various spiritual creatures; with some of them both good and bad. The spirits themselves occupy the entirety of the game, mostly functioning as platforming objects for Nuna, whereas the Fox has the ability to summon these spirits and manipulate them into position. This is very unique platforming idea, but the novelty wears off quickly, since some of these spirits can be frustrating to manipulate into the proper position. Not so much that it ruins the games overall experience, but just enough to disqualify the game from operating as smoothly as it could have. Some of the more interesting characters, on the other hand, make such brief appearances in the game that they might as well have not even been there.
Outside of Never Alone’s lackluster gameplay and mediocre story presentation comes an option, from the games main menu under “Cultural Insights”, giving you the ability to view twenty-four short documentary style presentations about the Alaskan Native’s culture. These videos are unlockable in the story mode by finding a series of owls’ hidden on each level. Ironically enough, I found watching each of these twenty-four videos more interesting than playing through the game itself which, by the way, I was able to beat in just a few hours of play.
I’ve always found the stories of Native cultures to be mysterious and interesting. Although I’m well versed in the spiritual beliefs of different cultures, I still found the views of the Iñupiat to be intriguing. So I’d like to underscore the fact that my review of Never Alone is (objectively) based on the video game itself, as opposed to an opinion of the Iñupiat and/or their culture. With Never Alones boring, downhill slide gameplay, combined with its overly basic story presentation and lack of gameplay depth, I can’t help but feel the game is a hollowed out representation of a great Alaskan Native Tribe.
Overall Rating
6.5/10