The 2D platformer is a tried and true genre, with many variants on it releasing over generations. In both the mobile space and on console, the runner game is a fun spin on the platformer that icons like Rayman and CaptainVideo mastered years ago.
Aerial_Knight made his mark in this space with 2021’s Never Yield to great success through killer beats and a stylish approach. Three years later, he returns with We Never Yield on PC and Xbox Series X/S. Does this new set list evolve the genre? After playing through four of the game’s five chapters, this setlist has some ups and downs.
Read more: Uneven Beats – We Never Yield Impressions (Xbox Series X/S)Narrative
Taking place after the events of Never Yield, twin brothers Wally and Lone team up to return home after waking up in a strange new land linked to their past. Unlike the original game, We Never Yield is completely voice acted so Wally and Lone have amusing back-and-forth as they venture through the game’s five chapters.
In between chapters, the brothers can relax in intermission areas where they have full conversations with one another. While not all that engaging, they do enough to flesh out the twins and give them additional character.
Gameplay
The core gameplay of We Never Yield involves the twin brothers running through levels jumping, sliding, and charging their way through anything in their way. Being in the runner genre, both characters always run right.
Unlike other runners in the genre, the player controls both characters, with them being in the foreground and the background. Initially, the level design isn’t all that challenging with this setup, slowly teaching the player to pay attention and react to obstacles in the way.
But in the later half of the game, the level design expects the player to jump with one character and then slide with another at the same time, for example. When the game functions as intended, the player can easily find themselves in a great flow state.
Controls
To control both characters, the player uses both the D-Pad and the face buttons. For most actions, everything works as intended and thanks to the flexible difficulty options, the player can make the game as easy or as difficult as they want it to be.
However, one action is simply unresponsive. Pressing Left on the D-Pad and the X button has one of the twins interact with pullies and flip switches. Pressing the button simply does not work sometimes, resulting in unfair deaths.
The player could button mash the button to ensure the input works but when the other actions work as intended, this unfortunate issue.
Presentation
Going for a cell-shaded art style, We Never Yield has a striking look that can be quite appealing. Wally and Lone feature great character designs, demonstrated across the game’s stylish menus and the more cinematic moments.
They accomplish this with dynamic camera angles across the game’s core fifteen levels, specifically in chapters two and four.
Performance & Animation
However, this presentation is betrayed by lackluster performance on Xbox Series X/S. The game runs at a very unstable frame rate, ranging from a stable 60FPS to dropping to as low as 20FPS. A key aspect of runners, and platformers in general, is a stable frame rate target.
And We Never Yield not hitting its performance target results in the positive aspects of the presentation looking choppy and unfinished. Not helped is the overall animation being stiff and characters clipping through objects in the environment, getting in the way of gameplay.
Hopefully, in the distant future, these performance problems on Xbox platforms will be resolved.
Music
A major highlight of We Never Yield is the music, offering a varied score covering multiple genres. From orchestral melodies in the early levels to hard rock tracks that would not feel out of place in a Sonic title, the music kept me engaged throughout the four chapters I played so far.
For those who want to enjoy the game’s soundtrack outside of the game, one could find it on the game’s Bandcamp page.
Closing Thoughts
It is a genuine shame seeing the Xbox version have major performance woes and a general lack of polish. When everything comes together, We Never Yield can become a great almost zen-like experience that is a good evolution in the runner genre.
But in its current state on Xbox platforms, it is hard to recommend it. Stay tuned for our full review on We Never Yield in the future.
