ddickinson: Hello, again! I could not sleep and so I figured I would come share my first impressions on Never Alone while I wait for my mind to slow down a little more so I can get some sleep as I have a lot going on in this skull of mine at the moment. Not all nice stuff, sadly. It is funny how life loves to keep kicking you while you are down, then doing a few more kicks just for fun. Oh well, that is life, as the old saying goes. All we can do it make the best of what we have and the time we have. Anyway, sorry about that, I am not in the best of moods at the moment.
Anyway, on to something else. So me and my partner played a little
Never Alone this evening, mainly as Soccorro wanted my option on it and as he was kind enough to gift me the game the lease I could do was give it a quick play. I do like the mix of game and documentary the game has. I love documentaries and learning new things in general, be they via video documentaries or books, so this insight into the Iñupiat people is very interesting for me. Granted the videos so far are not the most in-depth (I have seen only about a dozen or so of the 24 so far on the base game, I am not sure if there is more to read/see as the game goes on apart from these 24 videos), but then this is a game after all, not some high budget BBC documentary.
You can play the game with more than one control input, but we just played the game single player with the XBox controller, well, my partner did and I watched for the most part, as I still can't play a game and stare at a monitor for too long without it making my migraines worse. The game itself is a nice little platformer, sadly not as polished as other games, and quite simple with a few annoying elements, nothing too bad, but something that I think will put a lot of people off. Perhaps this is due to this game's focus on teaching you about the Iñupiat, rather than being just a game. It is 3D but has a 2D platform style to it. The opening has you chased by a Polar bear, and soon demonstrated the game's co-op options by allowing a second player to control a white fox. In single player you switch between controlling the girl and the fox (which you will need to do now and then for the simple puzzles and obstacles).
I like the aesthetics of the game, the unique animation style of the opening cut scenes (which I think is called Scrimshaw style?), for example. It seems to be narrated in the native Iñupiat tongue, or at least a non-English language, which is really nice, as it immerses you more into that culture. We only played for a short time, but we will see about playing some more this week, and given the apparent short length maybe finish the base game in the next sitting, so I can't really give a full review, but overall the game is very nice, although apparently it is very short, so maybe given that the game is nothing special in terms of mechanics and the looks (the game backgrounds and setting so far are very basic), the asking price may be a little high for many people, so maybe wait for a sale. You do get a DLC and the soundtrack, so that will add some time to the overall play time.
The only negative aspect I have seen so far is that when playing single player, the AI controlled character can get killed quite easily and if one dies, you die as well. I was at a part where you had to dodge rocks, and the AI character just sat there and kept dying when the rocks hit.
The game is very charming and something a little different, with a nice little story that seems quite dark at times so far. The feel of the game reminded me a little of the game Year Walk, which was another game that was built to teach you about something, in the case of Year Walk it was Swedish folklore. Just be sure you go into it for the whole package, as an indie educational game teaching you about the Iñupiat people, rather than just a game. If you want just a platform game then there are many better ones out there with better looks, mechanics, and storyline, but if you want an interesting educational, albeit basic (from the little I played), game with some interesting videos, good aesthetics, and some nice information about the Iñupiat, then this is a good game to get. Oh, and the music is nice as well, although the sound effects could be a little better, like having crunching of snow sounds as you walk, little things like that. So far I am enjoying it, I like the game and what it was trying to do (educate people about a relatively little known culture), but it is definitely nothing special in the gameplay department, an interesting idea, but perhaps it should be longer and with more videos and other resources on the Iñupiat (maybe adding textual elements as well as video would allow them to teach a lot more about the Iñupiat culture). If you don't mind spending the money, don't expect too much from the game, and the topic interests you, then I am sure you will like the game. Just don't hate me if you get it based on my little review and dislike the game. :-(
So thank you Soccorro for the lovely gift. *big thank you hug*
Okay, that is enough for my rambling. I hope someone at least found the review helpful. If not, tough! I suck at reviewing things. :-)
(P.S. I did not proof-read what I wrote, so if there are any mistakes just ignore it and blame it on my dyslexia and me being tired, unless it was a funny error, then it was obviously done deliberately. :-))
