Aerial_Knight’s We Never Yield

• DEVELOPER: Aerial_Knight, BetaJester
• PUBLISHER: Headup
• PLATFORMS: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
• GENRE: Runner / Action
• RELEASE DATE: July 16, 2024
• STARTING PRICE: 14,99 €
• REVIEWED VERSION: PC

I really tried to enjoy We Never Yield by Aerial_Knight, but it was difficult. The game isn’t well-optimized, has a lot of bugs, and the gameplay could use more variety. I didn’t play the first game, Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield, so I can’t compare the two. Overall, We Never Yield is a runner, parkour, and action game where two brothers go on an adventure to reclaim their kingdom.

When you start the game, you choose from three modes. The first mode lets you control both brothers at the same time, but I don’t recommend this because it can be very difficult to manage both of them as the levels get harder. This mode is best if you want a real challenge and want to test your skills. The second one is Co-Op, where one person controls one brother and a friend, for example, can control the other.

The third mode is Chill, where you control one brother and the AI controls the other. I finished the game using Chill mode. After selecting the mode you want to play on, you get to choose a difficulty level: normal, hard, or impossible. In my opinion, you can skip normal mode because it’s too easy, while hard difficulty offers a good challenge without ruining the overall experience.

Once you’ve set everything up, you start with a tutorial to learn how the game works. You mostly use just four buttons: one to jump, one to attack, one to slide, and one to glide. The game has five episodes, each with three different levels set in the same environment. There’s also a safe zone where you can talk to your brother, save your progress, and buy outfits. The game includes a story that unfolds bit by bit after each episode, gradually introducing you to more details and extras. I wouldn’t say it’s an unforgettable story, but it does have its own meaning and depth.

Although I enjoy runner games and appreciate the added challenge of not being able to see what’s ahead, I was honestly disappointed. It’s not that the game is difficult to play, but it lacks variety. While there are some interesting elements like riding horses, motorbikes, and even playing as dogs, but most of the time you’ll be pressing the same two buttons; jump and slide. Occasionally, there are special levels where you need to, for example, escape from a cage, but these features are introduced rather clumsily.

Most levels felt excessively long, as you just keep running and running through the same environment until a hint tells you what to do next. There’s also a super ability that didn’t work well for me. It’s supposed to make you faster when you press Q and E, but often my character would just glow, and the bar showing the remaining time would deplete quickly, meaning it wasn’t working as intended. However, when it did work, speeding up the game was enjoyable and added a fun challenge with less time to react.

I genuinely don’t see much replay value in this game. While there are high scores to beat and outfits to unlock, it didn’t motivate me to come back and play more after completing all the episodes. There are also competitive challenge levels that I unfortunately didn’t get to try. Overall, there is some replayability if you enjoy this type of games, but don’t expect significant rewards or new content after finishing everything. In fact, I was never sure how the score was calculated. Was it better to take more time when pressing a button, or to instantly press it when you see a hint?

Unfortunately, Aerial_Knight’s We Never Yield is poorly optimized. There were frequent FPS drops whenever the camera changed angles. Additionally, the camera positioning was sometimes awkward; at times, you’d see your character from the front, other times from the side, or even have them pass by while the camera was positioned next to them. I didn’t like this and often found it confusing how randomly it was changing.

Graphically, the game features an interesting Afro-futurist style, but it isn’t very visually appealing. There are frequent issues with objects and characters clipping through obstacles, and everything often feels too dark in color. While there is a lot of detail and effort put into the animations, they sometimes appear clunky (especially with the evil aunt) and the repeated use of the same animation during super ability became quite annoying.

On the other hand, the music was good, and the voice acting was strong, featuring BIPOC actors and artists like Blessing Adeoye Jr., Belsheber Rusape Jr., and Black Krystel, who all did a great job. However, there were several bugs as well. The most frustrating issue was levels being consistently locked despite completing the previous one.

It was particularly annoying to have to replay the prior level to unlock the one you wanted to play. This problem mostly occurred when reloading the game, leading to random levels being unlocked in, for example, episode 3, while none were unlocked in episode 2, which was quite odd. Another strange bug involved animations getting stuck and the level not progressing properly when reaching certain points, especially when replaying from the last checkpoint after dying.

Another frustrating aspect was the camera position in the safe zones. When you approached a person or object to interact with, the camera would zoom in, but the controls often became inverted. This sometimes caused you to walk away from the object or character because the perspective shifted, making it difficult to interact accurately.

In conclusion, the game is somewhat of a mess due to its optimization issues and occasional bugs, but it remains a solid choice. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite resonate with me. Since I haven’t played the first game, I can’t compare the two. However, if you’re a fan of this genre, supporting an indie title that has potential for improvement is definitely worthwhile.

Review copy provided by the publisher

3.0