Never Alone. An Xbox One Review.

A game by Upper One Games
Price: £11.99

Never Alone, also known as Kisima Ingitchuna is a stylish looking puzzle platformer with a unique premise.  Developed by Upper One games in partnership with the Native Alaskan Iñupiat people, this is just the first of a proposed series of games that aims to educate and entertain gamers by delivering cultural teachings to our consoles.
The Iñupiat people worried that the younger folks of their tribes were becoming more and more distracted by the outside world and all it’s modern trappings, and forgetting the history and traditions of their people. To this end, they decided to promote their culture to those youngsters and the rest of the world in the form of an Edu-tainment video game.



The story of Never Alone is based around an old Iñupiat legend of a never ending  blizzard. The main character is a young girl by the name of Nuna who sets off to find the source of the blizzard. She eventually finds herself accompanied by a friendly Arctic Fox, and the two of them combine their limited respective skillsets to overcome the treacherous and unforgiving Arctic terrain and reach their destination.  The player can either control the two characters themselves; a quick press of the Y button switches character, or you can play couch co-op , with one player controlling each of our intrepid explorers.  Along  the way you will encounter various characters and items that populate both Iñupiat life and myth. Proceedings are narrated in the traditional native tongue with English subtitles and are punctuated by a series of short documentary style clips featuring stories and accounts of real native people. You can skip the clips or watch them as soon as they unlock which I really recommend as it really adds to the authenticity and atmosphere, and really helps you warm to the characters and helps you understand the situations and legends at hand at the current point in the game. One example of this is the help you get throughout the game from the spirits of animals. Listening to the related clip offers a warming insight into reasons why this is included in the game mechanic.





To enjoy Never Alone to its fullest, you are going to have to embrace the culture and informative nature of the game as much as the game itself, because although charming and enjoyable, the actual gameplay is not perfect and is also a little short, clocking in at around 4-5 hours.  Visually, it is a beautiful, stylish title. The water and icy foreground are particularly stunning. The animations of the two main characters are very endearing and will really help you warm to them and take them into your hearts. The audio and weather effects are super.  Comparisons will be made with games like Limbo with its excellent stylings and puzzle platforming but sadly Never Alone really isn’t a patch on that classic and it’s truly excellent puzzles. The puzzling of Never Alone is fairly rudimentary and apart from a couple of occasions, you will always know what to do next pretty much straight away.  There are times when the controls can be a little frustrating too, but this can be alleviated somewhat by playing co-operatively as it’s usually only when you are controlling both characters in fairly urgent situations that it rears.



For all it's brevity, I can personally forgive most of the misgivings of Never Alone as this is a very important title in the History of video games. Call me an old fuddy duddy, but I personally think it is absolutely fantastic that the traditions of the Iñupiat people can be promoted in this way, and this kind of thing can only help the human race to become better and more learned, not to mention the fact that it really enriches the world of video games.  I implore gamers worldwide to support initiatives like this and buy the game. I really wish it had been a longer experience both for my sake and the sake of all involved in it’s creation, but I had a lovely time with this experience and I am very pleased that I didn’t miss out. Hopefully the proposed future titles of this ilk will enhance and improve on the premise started here.

I score Never Alone a respectable 7 Caribou skins out of 10.