Never Alone Reviews
My main experience with the game came from co-op and it is definitely the better way to play the game, which ties in nicely to the overall theme. Due to the puzzles not being too difficult it is the perfect game to play with anyone, as long as they have a basic grasp of gaming, plus they can jump into the game with the touch of a button.
It offers a perfectly executed story, underpinned by fantastic background research, and just happens to use the interactivity of gaming to push its narrative of the Iñupait community to a wider audience.
While the game has its negatives, I have enjoyed it, and I hope others will too. My experience was mostly positive, and it was definitively easier with a second person on the controls.
Never Alone is a welcome addition to the Nintendo Switch library. A casual platformer that I highly recommend playing through in co-op with a loved one. You’ll laugh at the odd glitch, possibly cry at the emotional moments but also learn a lot about Alaskan native culture. If somehow you have yet to play this game, this is a great time to jump on. It’s a cold adventure but the warm fuzzy feelings will leave an impact for years to come.
Never Alone, or Kisima Innitchuna, is a game that is genius in almost every way. The Indie game offers you graphical splendor, insight into a different culture, a nice quiet atmosphere and very good gameplay. The unfortunate thing about the game is that there is not much challenge in the puzzles, although it is a bit tough sometimes.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Never Alone tells an impactful tale of native culture, delivering an experience that is both unique and influential. Though a lack of stark puzzles and technical bugs does hinder the experience as a game, the alluring narrative is well worth the price of admission alone.
Even though Never Alone is a brief journey with little incentive to play through more than once, it's still a journey worth taking.
It makes me truly happy to see game developers creating high quality products such as Never Alone that push entertainment boundaries and demonstrate that games can be culturally important. We need to see more of this game, and I hope this is a roaring success so that other native culture organisations look at it and realise the sheer power of games to tell their own stories.
Never Alone manages to overcome its technical hiccups with an enchanting setting supported with a pair of adorable characters and some interesting cultural insights into the Iñupiat community. The basic puzzle/platforming gameplay is family-friendly and works even better when played in co-op.
This is far from your average puzzle platformer, as its main audience is not the die-hard old-school fanbase of the genre. Never Alone is first and foremost an educational experience, and this is the standard to which you have to judge it in order to fully appreciate it.
You are not the greatest force in the world, one video tells us. And you feel it—through wind, through ice, through snow. Through the spirits bigger than you, and your dependency on the fox that keeps you alive and moving with its magic—on the backs of fish that dance across the waves, or breathing in the belly of a whale. Yet the humble hero, as fragile as a little girl, can still stop a blizzard.
Documentaries aren't known for being the most exciting experiences in the world, and, therefore, it should come as no surprise that a documentary-esque "game" is only mildly engaging. That being said, compared to the mental illness emulation of Depression Quest, or the political surrealism of The Cat and the Coup, Never Alone is a highly accessible version of the form.
'Never Alone' is a beautiful experience. Its somber story is masterfully expressed, but not by its gameplay. As a platformer it is subpar, and yet I am still telling people to play it. Despite its tiny length and substantial flaws, it has a soul, something that is sorely lacking in many of the games we play.
Never Alone is close to being an OK game. It has a lot going for it with its gorgeous aesthetics and authentic presentation. It even has a couch co-op mode, and the few times the game does have things to do in it, there is some legitimate involvement. Too bad these moments are too far apart, and the more vulgar qualities of Never Alone are the most apparent, such as the buggy AI, barren level design and lacking gameplay.
This may look like a harsh score, but it is hard to justify Never Alone's price tag when it is plagued with buggy gameplay and the story is shorter than Halo 4. The game is commendable for its goal and what it achieves in terms of raising awareness on the Iñupiaq culture and stories. In conclusion, Never Alone is a wonderful story and concept that is unfortunately wrapped in a slightly off, but still fun, gameplay experience.
The lack of dialogue and narration is a good connotation of how words simply do not do feelings justice. It allows us to be swallowed up by the emotions of what we are seeing without having to process words
Never Alone is a game that has gone from hardly being on the radar, to something that could quite possibly be a Game of the Year (2014) contender. Those who take a chance on this game will come away knowing they have been part of a unique experience that shows that games can be used as a serious vehicle for story telling. When we said as a community we wanted to show games can be mature… This is exactly what we meant.
A warm and nourishing tale, set in the realms of folklore and imagination combined with an interesting, well made documentary. Finicky controls and poor AI, however, let down what could have been.
A journey of purpose and consequence is sidelined by glitches, but is ultimately too powerful to ignore.
Though brief and beset with occasional frustrations, at its best, Never Alone a simply spellbinding experience and a true reminder of the power of games to transport us to another place.