NeverAwake

Genre: 2-Stick Shooter

Players: 1

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Review:

NeverAwake is a 2-Stick Shooter released on PC in 2022 and ported to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in 2023. In this game, players take the role of Rem, a hooded character who seems to be an avatar of sorts for a girl stuck in a coma, who must fend off monsters based on the girl’s unconscious fears and dislikes.

This makes for some fairly original level design and enemy design. The entire first series of levels, for example, is based on the girl’s hatred for vegetables, and you find yourself fighting monstrous wasabi mustard and eggplant enemies. This is all done with detailed hand-drawn 2D artwork, with your own character rendered in 3D. This is all backed by an energetic synthesized soundtrack that’s not especially memorable, but works well enough for the game.

It’s not just the theming that’s creative and original here. NeverAwake works off of an interesting gameplay gimmick – players are not trying to survive to the end of a level or defeat enemies. Rather, they must collect “souls” of defeated enemies, and will contend with an infinitely-looping level until they reach a specific threshold. Making things more interesting, each new loop of a level adds additional elements to ramp up the difficulty, so you’re trying to complete levels as quickly as possible not only to get a good time, but also for your own survival.

In addition, the game also has equippable upgrades, though these only unlock after completing corresponding levels, meaning you won’t be grinding to power up your character by repeating levels. Beyond this, the core gameplay has pretty standard 2-stick attack, dodge, and bomb/crash moves.

While I found the looping level element to be inspired, I felt that otherwise the gameplay here was pretty typical for the genre. Not bad, not outstanding, but overall good. NeverAwake is, after all is said and done, a solid 2-Stick Shooter with an interesting presentation and a creative goal structure. If you’re a fan of the genre, this one will be well worth picking up, but I don’t think this is a game that is truly transformative for the genre.

tl;dr – NeverAwake is a 2-Stick Shooter where players fight the imagined enemies within a girl’s subconscious. The theming here is really inspired, as is the game’s goal structures that sees levels repeat until you can collect enough “souls”. However, beyond these creative elements, NeverAwake is just a solid 2-Stick Shooter, and not a must-play one. If you enjoy this genre, this is one to get.

Grade: B

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2023 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Most Overrated

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