Picked this up gratis via PS+ and just completed it in coop with my young son. Basically it's another well-received indie darling, "made by Upper One Games in conjunction with the Cook Inlet Tribal Council,a non-profit organization that works with indigenous groups living in Alaska's urban areas, and the video game education company E-Line Media". That quote, pinched from Wikipedia. tells you everything: it's worthy/ethical info-tainment with a native Alaskan/sustainability theme.
The game itself sees the girl character and her companion fox journeying to find the source of a deadly blizzard. It's a very attractive 2D affair but with awful controls so soft and floaty they make Sackboy feel like he has the pixel-perfect precision of Megaman. The girl has some bolas which are a pain to aim, and the fox can distract enemies and summon native spirits to create platforms, and you run right from polars bears and a nasty man and then you engage a giant in a sub-Shadow of the Colossus battle, and then you run left back home, and that's it. It's manageable in coop although never really fun to play. Frozen water and polar bear deaths are frequent and I dread to think how it plays as a singleplayer, which has you relying on AI and switching between characters. Reminds me most, in atmosphere and gameplay feel, of the LostWinds games on the Wii, although it's inferior to those.
The main draw of this is not the gameplay - which is well below average - but the cultural insights that are given throughout in the form of mini-films (about 2 minutes apiece) about native Alaskan life, survival skills, environmental awareness and spiritual beliefs, and these always tie cleverly into the action that's happening on screen. The people interviewed are really charming and knowledgeable and the films are beautifully produced and a pleasure to watch.
So, if you're interested in these people, their lifestyle and the environment, it's worth playing through - especially with a kiddie (Eurogamer review, by someone of Alaskan descent, gave it 10/10 on that basis alone: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...20-never-alone). If you're not interested, the derivative and floaty gameplay is probably not worth putting up with.
Ps: for trophy addicts, you don't get anything for doing coop if you play as the fox.
The game itself sees the girl character and her companion fox journeying to find the source of a deadly blizzard. It's a very attractive 2D affair but with awful controls so soft and floaty they make Sackboy feel like he has the pixel-perfect precision of Megaman. The girl has some bolas which are a pain to aim, and the fox can distract enemies and summon native spirits to create platforms, and you run right from polars bears and a nasty man and then you engage a giant in a sub-Shadow of the Colossus battle, and then you run left back home, and that's it. It's manageable in coop although never really fun to play. Frozen water and polar bear deaths are frequent and I dread to think how it plays as a singleplayer, which has you relying on AI and switching between characters. Reminds me most, in atmosphere and gameplay feel, of the LostWinds games on the Wii, although it's inferior to those.
The main draw of this is not the gameplay - which is well below average - but the cultural insights that are given throughout in the form of mini-films (about 2 minutes apiece) about native Alaskan life, survival skills, environmental awareness and spiritual beliefs, and these always tie cleverly into the action that's happening on screen. The people interviewed are really charming and knowledgeable and the films are beautifully produced and a pleasure to watch.
So, if you're interested in these people, their lifestyle and the environment, it's worth playing through - especially with a kiddie (Eurogamer review, by someone of Alaskan descent, gave it 10/10 on that basis alone: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...20-never-alone). If you're not interested, the derivative and floaty gameplay is probably not worth putting up with.
Ps: for trophy addicts, you don't get anything for doing coop if you play as the fox.
. Then i noticed that my xbox one page had jumped to the USA site (it does that sometimes for some reason). Had a look at the sale kids games section & saw Never Alone for a mere $7.49!!!. Went to snap it up by using my PayPal account but kept getting an error msg, so haven't been able to get for much cheapness 
.
with US address to verify that the $ gift card could go thru
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