And, should you die a few times in that stage, this oversoul ability can often be consumed for free, even if its cost, to begin with, is very small. You can also use that currency to respawn that stage in a boosted state, making you more powerful and having additional health. You are rarely poor and can often purchase nearly everything you encounter. These accessories and special attacks are earned with a currency you gain upon completing each level. Your special attack has a limit on how much it can be used, but other upgrades can see you earn back that special attack meter in no time. You have quite a healthy selection that can be enhanced as you unlock the more powerful versions. First, are your special attacks, which range from singular blasts, and protective shields, to my personal favorite, a circular field that damages everything in its wake. Progress regardless of success or failure will unlock additional upgrades in a few different categories. I was surprised at how many bosses the game threw at me, with the game’s final encounter having a very cool 3D appeal of flying across a field that really gave the game an interesting depth for how 2D the actual experience is.Īs you progress through her memories, Rem can be upgraded. From a mass of mutated vegetables to a loud monstrous dog, these fights are stunning in their design and often have unique mechanics exclusive to that encounter. These range all over the place in regard to their design and function. However, levels loop until you collect that required amount, getting harder as you scramble to add to your total, boosted in difficulty as you continue to play.Įach world, which is linked to your hands, legs, and the girl’s fractured body, each feature three unique boss encounters within them. Levels don’t generally have an end, but rather conclude when you collect 100% of the number of souls needed, something that can be manipulated with various upgrades as you play. You’ll maneuver a hooded protagonist named Rem around the bullet lines and enemies, blasting them away to absorb their souls, collecting enough to finish the encounter. NeverAwake’s core gameplay is that of a shoot’em-up. Its story isn’t substantial in how events play out, but through those little bite-size moments of her life. It’s not anywhere near one-to-one, but a few of the stories really hit close to home, and honestly, it made NeverAwake stand out in ways that I’ve never seen a shoot’em-up do. A great deal of what this young girl has gone through feels ripped from some aspects of my own life. Shoot’em-ups rarely offer up a story, or at the very least, one that has you deep in thought and one that can trigger an emotional response from its player. Some are touching and memorable, and as someone who had their fair share of high school bullies and whispers down the hallway, some of these memories are all too relatable. These bite-sized stories contain more than just a simple message, they contain her thoughts and feelings in the moment. We get bits and pieces of it at a time, from hating a rainy day to being ecstatic about buying her grandma a matching set of gloves. Like its disturbing horrors, filling the screen with their size and presence, NeverAwake wants to be known, to tell its story amongst the bullet-hell hellscapes of the young girl's psyche.Įach of the game’s 80 stages places you inside the mind of this young girl, giving us a glimpse of the troubled life she has lived. Each stage offers us glimpses into her life, or at the very least, the ways in which she remembers it. Its stages are filled with nightmarish monsters that plague the dreams and memories of a young girl, shown to us in a hospital bed. NeverAwake blends its stylish visuals and twin-stick shooting in a world of distorted and hurtful memories.
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