Never Alone Reviews
A journey of purpose and consequence is sidelined by glitches, but is ultimately too powerful to ignore.
A fascinating insight into an interesting culture held back from greatness by average platforming mechanics.
What E-Line Media and Upper One Games are doing is admirable. It's awesome to see the Iñupiaq people author their story in a video game like this, an opportunity that few cultures and minorities have. Their involvement is felt everywhere in Never Alone, and I just want to play more games that explore that mythology.
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.
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.
Never Alone is a beautiful game, full of fairy tale delight and educational knowledge. It isn't as patronising as that might sound as it keeps the two well-separated enabling you to take or leave as much of the cultural content as you like. It struggles though with being a compelling video game with its slow start, short running time and AI issues. It comes away respectful of its inspiration and educational as well, but won't last long in the memory as a gaming experience.
Never Alone isn't without its merits. Telling an interesting story of a dying culture, it's a hugely flawed game that manages to conjure warmth in the icy cold.
A laudable attempt to make a video game that is both entertaining and educational, but despite the interest it builds up for its subject matter the weak gameplay is hard to ignore.
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.
Never Alone is a major disappointment. It masters aesthetic design and cultural storytelling, but simply cannot succeed on that alone.
I'd never heard of the Iñupiat people before this year, and I'm still not an expert, but through playing Never Alone, I've gained quite the appreciation for them. Playing and interacting with this story taught me about their culture better than any Wikipedia page could. It's a fascinating example of games as learning tools and cultural documents. But equally as importantly, it's a delightful, painterly, moving gameplay experience unlike any other.
A beautiful, fascinating exploration of a world that may soon be nothing more than fantasy.
It's rare to pick up a game now and actually learn from the experience. All too often we're gunning down hundreds of people in the name of some cause or another, but seldom are we asked to actually think about what we are doing, why we are doing it, and where we are. In Never Alone I felt like I'd been given a real grasp of Iñupiat culture and enough of a peek behind the curtain to understand a certain way of life. For that reason Never Alone is a wholly worthwhile tale, a chance to learn something new, but the occasionally frustrating gameplay jars slightly with the usually ethereal and dreamlike experience.
Never Alone is short, and will run you at two hours, assuming you don't get stuck. The puzzles are usually straightforward, and don't take a lot of difficulty to solve, so a player approaching this game looking for challenge will be disappointed.
Anyone who is transported by this timeless tale will undoubtedly forgive the various worries of youth from which the game suffers and will live an experience if not rare, in any case sufficiently striking to remember it in several months, even years, with a touch of nostalgia.
Review in French | Read full review
Even though Never Alone is a brief journey with little incentive to play through more than once, it's still a journey worth taking.
Upper One Games succeeds at bringing Native Alaskan cultural heritage to the fore, but fails at making a good platformer.
Never Alone carries the sensibilities of its inspirations, and it feels and looks just as it should.
Overall Never Alone is a really good mix of ideas, and could be the start of a kind of docu-game trend, with the inclusion of the Cultural Insights. While there are a few tweaks to the gameplay that should be made, Never Alone is certainly worth your time, and manages to tell so much within the four or so hours it takes to complete. Nuna & Fox's story is wonderfully told through the native tongue of the Iñupiat, accompanied by artwork inspired by the tribe's drawings and etchings, and brought to life by the beautiful designed of the environments and characters.
Never Alone is, nevertheless, an important game offering a fascinating window into a rich and ongoing culture among native Alaskans. And if you are open to accepting that cultural exchange then the barriers dividing the people of the world get a little bit smaller, and we all grow closer to never really being alone in the world again.