Developer Primary Games has released the port of its popular PC game, Never Again, on the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Nintendo Switch. This mix of first-person puzzle solving with a well-executed atmosphere of dread and horror provide an outstanding experience, and players can look forward to a quality port here that is w⛦orth looking into.
All Alone, In A Dark, Dark House
One of the strongest aspects of Never Again is its powerful story. Players t💫ake control of young Sasha Anders, a thirteen-year-old girl who finds her home empty. Her mother, father, and younger brother are nowhere to be found, and you need to find them by combing through the mysteriously dark house and solving puzzles.
Although the game is labelled as horror, that term is a bit of a stretch as both exploration and puzzle solving take the f𒁏orefront of action in order to reach the end. There are certainly some excellent moments that are genu🌊inely terrifying, but they seemed sparse throughout the game, or better said, well-utilized. This was a pleasant departure from the overuse of jump scares of other games slotted into the “horror” genre.
In fact, even though Never Again is a horror game, i𝔉t has to be said that if most elements of that genre were removed from this game, the story would still be great.
Intriguing Puzzles That Make You Think
Put simply, the puzzles are a pleasure to solve. Virtually everything in the game can be picked up and moved, so players need to examine carefully to find the truly essential pieces of each puzzle. Luckily, the game makes it easier by placing key items into the player's inventory for use later.
As it turns out, Sasha is not alone in the house. Something else stalks the rooms, and at first glance, appears rather horrifying with its pale skin and jaws that open impossibly wide. However, there is little to fear from any creature in the entire game. If players cannot evade their pursuers, they are caught, black out, and sent to a sort of “penalty box.” There, players wiꦜll quickly learn how to navigate their way back to where they were before “dying” and continue exploring and solving puzzles.
To be frank, it would be better if these encounters were toned downed or removed entirely outside of key events, because since there is no real “death,” being captured amounts to little more than an annoyance in having to navigate back to where one was before. The first time it 🗹happened, it was terrifying, but beyond that, it felt like a🥀 chore to run back and forth, with any sense of immersion completely lost in that time.
What’s Scarier Than Creepy Crawlers? Not Being Able To Breathe
Soon after beginning the game, Sasha finds herself in a dire situation, and players need to help find her inhaler to deal with an oncoming asthma attack. For those readers affected with asthma, the sensation is all too familiar. For everyone else, imagine lying on the floor,🐟 and someone much larger and heavier than yourself comes along and puts their full weight on your chest.
In the game, players eꦰxperience Sasha’s sensation of an asthma attack in an interesting way that somewhat captures that real feeling. The screen reveals cracks all around the edge, creeping inwards, making it hard to focus as though some massive creature were squeezing all the way around the screen. Finding an inhaler is not optional, but rather a necessary part of the game, lest you succumb to a lack of air. The manner in which asthma is represented is both accurate, or as accurate as one can make it in a video game, and adds another level of depth that many people deal with in their daily lives.
A Missed Opportunity To Improve The Port
The overall quality of the port is quite good compared to the PC release from May 2019, but it is curious when developers decide not to make quality of life improvements when porting a title. In this case, Never Again suffers from one issue that is more of an annoyance than anything else, which is the extremely🌸 unintuitive use of key items in the diary inventory space.
Even though I was familiar with how the system worked because I had already played on PC, I still found myself having to play around with the inventory system whenever I needed a key item before recalling how to properly remove it and interact with the diary. Given how annoying that little d𒈔etail was in the PC release, not addressing it in the Switch port is a missed opportunity.
Not all games can be expected to have infinite replay value, and as Never Again is more of a walking simulator than a full-on survival horror title, this is true here as well. In this reviewer’s opinion, the game is best played twice. The first play through should focus on experiencing the great story, and the second is to catch the details one might have missed in the first play through. There is also an ongoing checklist of items to find in game, along with one category simply named “Secrets,” of which there are six. It is easy to miss every single secret on the fi🌟rst play through, making the second the prime time to find them all.
A Great Game, And Not Necessarily Just For Horror Fans
Never Again is a great game to pick up for a broad range of players. It bears repeating that although there are elements that one might consider part of the Horror genre, Never Again could be argued as falling closer in line to other such classics as 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Firewatch, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:What Remains of Edith Finch, thanks to its great story and engaging puzzles. Despite the few shortcomings listed here, Never Again is not a title that players should miss.
A Switch copy of Never Again was purchased by TheGamer for this review. Never Again is available now for PC and Nintendo Switch.
Never Again
