So here’s the thing with this game. This was one of those games that I seriously wanted to play when it came out, but couldn’t justify spending $14.99 on the game when there were some other games that I wanted. The game went on sale a few months later and I totally forgot to buy it. The sale came and went and I just missed it. I was just about to break down and buy it when PS+ announced that it would be free. Finally! After waiting all that time to play it, I finally got the chance and here’s what I thought.
Never Alone revolves around an old Native American tale. In this tale, there is a horrible blizzard that goes on for days and days and it’s making the little village in the tale suffer. No one can go out and hunt and unless someone does something about it, everyone will starve. So, being a brave and skilled hunter, Nuna goes out to see what’s causing the blizzard and it becomes her mission to put a stop to it in order to save her village.
I really liked the premise of the game, which was why I was so eager to play it in the first place, and even though I thought the story was very interesting, I had a really hard time becoming immersed in the game. While it had nothing to do at all with the story, it did have a lot to do with the playability, I found the game frustrating and just couldn’t wait for it to end basically ruining the whole experience for me. While a lot of the time the gameplay and playability don’t go hand in hand, this time they did and when one suffered, they both suffered.
This game was plagued, just absolutely plagued, with extremely glitchy controls. Actions that should have been simple became overly complicated which then complicated the whole game and at times made it feel unplayable to me. Time after time, buttons were unresponsive or just didn’t respond how they should have and in do or die areas of the game, most of the time I ended up dying. While the rest of the game was glitch free and is a basic side scrolling game that is just trying to tell a story, the controls just ruin the game.
The graphics for this game were just stunning. Simple in nature, they fit the story that was being told and were beautiful. I kind of went in expecting really great graphics and was happy when they lived up to my expectations. Each and every part of the game was fully detailed only bringing out the story being told more.
There are a total of 15 trophies to get for this game, but this is one of those games where you just want to play in order to see the story being told. I will say that the trophies are easy and really only requiring one playthrough of the game. You might have to go back to use chapter select to find some collectibles, but it shouldn’t be much. If you’re not one for collectibles and usually skip those trophies, I will say that you should go back and get all the collectibles because they’re worth it. If you collect all of them you get access to some video’s that give you the background on the Alaskan Native American culture that is not typically heard of.
While there is no multiplayer for this game, there is co-op. While I’m not sure if you could play co-op via Share Play, you can always find an actual person to sit next to you and play this game if you wanted. Although I didn’t do this, I think it would complicate things a little bit more, but feel free to give it a try.
Overall I give this game a 3 out of 5
What’s Great:
+ New and interesting story that really hasn’t been done before.
+ Stunning graphics that add to the game be infusing a beautiful landscape and a lot of detail.
+ You can really learn a lot from this game, and learning is always fun.
What’s Not So Great:
– Horrible and glitchy controls that kind of ruin the game.
I really wish I could have given this game a higher score because it’s an original game that tells a folklore story that has been passed down from generation to generation and is something that isn’t done all that often. I just feel that this game was more hassle then to play then it was worth though. While I wouldn’t say to completely pass this game up because it opens up a whole world of things you probably didn’t know before, I would say to play it with caution knowing that you were going to get annoyed with the controls not working properly.
1 Broke Gamer Girl 