The first thing I noticed about this game (because it was an option available from the main menu) is that you can unlock and watch videos about the Inupiat culture. For me, these have been a mixed bag. As an ardent materialist, I find the descriptions of survival techniques, the arctic environment, traditional crafts, and personal experiences to be fascinating, but the earnest spirituality makes me somewhat uncomfortable. Still, what would this world be like if we were all the same?
As for the game itself, it's good, but inconsistent. It has a beautiful look about it, and the character designs are adorable. You play as a chubby little girl and her ridiculously cute arctic fox companion, and it's a lot of fun just watching them move through the levels. Though the appealing characters have a downside as well - watching either of them die is absolutely heartbreaking.
But the biggest inconsistency is in the difficulty. So far (though I've only completed four levels) the actual platforming is middle-to-easy, but whenever an enemy shows up, the difficulty jumps to the unforgiving. I'd say that 90% of my reloads came when I was being chased by the mysterious stranger or a polar bear. Most of the rest came from events that I could neither explain nor control, like the fox falling off a platform while I was controlling Nuna, or one character or the other clipping through apparently solid terrain.
Those issues aside, I'm going to give Never Alone a tentative thumbs up. Mechanically, it's a solid, conservative platformer (though the two character mechanic does offer some twists on the basic formula), but its unique style and point of view elevate it to something special.
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