Never Alone

100% positive review for the cultural insights and story sequences. Thank you to the Alaskan Iñupiaq community for the opportunity to listen to your experiences! The format is informal, personal and entertaining, with lots of individual stories and perspectives.
The animated story sequences throughout the game are done in a nice style that evokes the legends well. The overall idea of working with others to survive and not being self centred tie the insights, story and game together.
As for the game itself, mixed review. The visuals are quite attractive, if bleak at times. I really liked the design of the helper spirits, otherworldly yet comforting. The characters of Nuna and the Fox are both very cute, making it kind of sad when they fall off a ledge, unfortunately (Especially since the surviving character will begin crying for a few seconds before the sequence restarts.). The puzzle platformer element is sometimes fun, other times a bit tedious and sometimes just frustrating. I did encounter a bug where a boss fight that should have been easy became impossible. When I redid the sequence, including the chase that led up to the fight, which I really didn't want to re-do, the fight was over in a few tries. To be fair I don't really like platformers anymore except metroidvanias, but this one did seem quite clunky. The controls don't matter so much in the first half of the game as not much precision is required. In the second half the difficulty is increased but the controls still aren't responsive enough to allow you to make precise moves. As others have mentioned, the AI controlling the second character in 1 player mode will sometimes jump the second character off a ledge, forcing you to redo a sequence. So it's hard to recommend the game itself without caveat. I mainly bought this for the cultural elements, which are totally worth it. Just don't expect the fun platforming experience of the year.

I'm Horrified of bears. There are so messed up. A big NO-NO.
A bear will chase you. If it catches you or the fox (Which is my fav animal), it makes the most pitiful sound.
I'm going to have nightmares this month.
Good game tho!

Never Alone is a puzzle platformer game with an Alaskan setting focusing on the Alaskan natives and their way of life. After playing it, I don’t know if I can consider this as a game or even an interactive story. In fact, it feels more like an interactive documentary and I will explain why.
I came into the game expecting similar gameplay to Limbo but instead there are hardly any puzzles. The puzzles are extremely straightforward with the answer staring right at you. As a platformer, it isn’t a very good one too unfortunately. I didn’t like how the characters controlled personally, especially the fox as it felt too floaty for my liking. The platforming segments are really straightforward until the final act where its just plain annoying with that endgame sequence. I won’t spoil it but you can expect many deaths and retries unless you are used to MOBA or RTS games and are able to effortlessly switch and coordinate actions between your two playable characters with a time limit. In short, if you are thinking of getting this game for its gameplay: I think you will end up disappointed.
Where this game is unique however is that there is a short documentary featuring multiple short interview clips with real life Alaskan natives and their culture, folk tales and way of life within the game. In the game you will encounter owls. Each time you encounter an owl or progress the plot to a certain extent, an ‘insight’ or a mini documentary/clip is unlocked. I find these very interesting to watch and is the feature that made me ultimately decide to recommend others to play this game.
Having said that, the story is kind of a mess and doesn’t feel cohesive. It feels as though they are trying to make a plot based on the documentary clips. For example, one clip talked about how a woman’s brother raised a bear cup after killing its mother. The next segment features a polar bear. And when there is a clip of northern lights who are children who died early and will pull off your head to play football with it. The next segment features these playful but harmful spirits. Therefore, I feel as though I am playing through a series of scenes rather than an actual story. That’s why I was surprised when the credits rolled and the story was actually adapted from a source material.

Approximate amount of time to 100%: 3-5 hours
Estimated achievement difficulty: 1/10
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1.
Multiplayer achievements: No
Missable achievements: No, Chapter select available
Grinding Achievements: No
DLC-Only achievements: Yes (4 of them)
Time-gated achievements: No
RNG-achievements:No
Does difficulty affect achievements: No
Unobtainable/glitched achievements: No
Getting to 100% was relaxing in this cute little game. Playing it felt like a documentary into Inupiat culture and lives. It's only held back a little bit by the controls that are unresponsive at times and the downright suicidal AI companion. Still a clear recommend.

As an Indigenous Australian , this video game was very important to me. I got to connect with the stories and history and futures of Indigenous people on the other side of the world. I feel honoured to have had the opportunity to play this game and listen to the voices of this culture's elders. Thank you, and I 100% recommend this game.

This wholesome gem, while an average platformer, is a touching guided tour through the culture of the Alaskan Iñupiat people. The artwork itself is exquisite, but it is the concept behind the game that makes it stand out in a sea of sameish platformers. As niche as it sounds, there is something universally human about it that games today are sorely lacking if they want to be considered serious contenders in the "art" category.
This is probably not a gamers' game, but an interactive experience that brings together several diverse disciplines and it does so very successfully.

This game is amazing. The story is compelling, the gameplay is smooth and fun, the characters are extremely lovable, and the video clips of culture and myth are super informative and interesting. I absolutely ADORED this game. Please buy this game and play it, it's incredible. I love everything about it.