Week 7 Gaming Blog

Gaming Blog Week 7

Never Alone

 

This week would could chose the game we wanted to play out of all the ones we had been given in week one, I decided to go back to Never Alone because I didn’t write about this game in week 2

 Unpack the first level of your chosen game (including cut scenes) – How does it tell its story, and how is the player involved in the telling (consider all of the narrative elements discussed so far in the course)?

 Never Alone was an interesting game for me to play because of the way in unfolded before you and the cultural aspects it includes inside of the game.
Never Alone is based around the story of Kunuuksaayuka (Unipchaanich imagluktugmiut – Stories of the black river people.)
The story is about Kunuuksaayuka who has to investigate the source of a sudden blizzard that is stopping him from hunting caribou to feed himself and his mother, he discovers a giant man cutting into the tundra and shovelling the loose snow away from his work, the loose snow is then picked up by the wind and becomes the source of the blizzard that is plaguing Kunuuksaayuka.

The quest for Nuna and her fox is practically the same as Kunuuksaayuka’s both searching for a way to stop this sudden blizzard that is stopping them from hunting.

Never Alone tells its story through narration and cut scenes, I think this was a good way for the game to tell its story because in the Inupiaq their stories are not written down in books they are passed down through generations by word of mouth so have the narration lead us through the story makes us feel as if it is being passed down to us in the same way with the visuals of the cut scenes to help aid the words.
Even though through this way of storytelling it does make it feel as if the player does not have an important role in the story, the player contributes by helping Nuna and the fox complete each puzzle they are faced with which in turn unlocks another part of the story line.

Never Alone is a very Linear game which means that the game creator has complete control over the story and the direction it is going in, this is good for Never Alone because by going from gameplay to a cut scene that is following the same path means you do not get lost between different stories.

Another thing about Never Alones story telling is that as you complete a part of the story you are given little factual videos, which tell you more about the culture that Nuna and this story is from which is great because you are given a chance to learn more if you choose too.