We enter a hospital room, where a young girl with short black hair is attached to numerous different machines. Her name is Rem, and she lays there, dormant and unconscious, and hasn’t woken up in some time. However, nightmares continuously threaten her brain and her ability to come back to the land of the living by exiting this coma. Such is the story behind NeverAwake; a new-to-Xbox shoot ’em-up from developer Neotro Inc. and publisher Phoenixx Inc.
Through limited cutscenes, this story is told over the course of what is a few to several hour-long game. After every designated set of levels, or in-game world if you prefer that term, we wait and see if she wakes up. We hope she does but know it won’t be easy, and may never happen. Such is the way of comas.
Once NeverAwake has introduced itself, it doesn’t take long to get right into the action, which involves a mixture of SHMUP and twin-stick shooter mechanics. You must move a dark and deadly version of this girl through her nightmares using the left trigger, which allows her to float anywhere. Then, you use the right stick to shoot her weapon, which is a lot like an upgradeable machine gun. One trigger lets you dash, the other lets you use special and more powerful weapons, which are expectedly limited, and that’s pretty much all you need to know when it comes to controls. It’s a simplistic system, which many will know well, but it’s accessible for anyone who’s new to the fold.
You’ll venture through differently themed worlds, all of which tie into the girl’s fears and phobias. The first one is made up of vegetable monsters, another is set in a nightmarish school, a third takes place in a messed up hospital full of flying needles and a fourth is set within a warped version of a dog park, because she’s very afraid of dogs. Everyone involved in creating the art for this game deserves a round of applause, because it all looks amazing, thanks to a unique style that is both colourful and disturbing. Furthermore, NeverAwake has some of the best designed bosses I’ve ever seen. I’m talking vegetable monsters, demented dogs, an evil protractor and more. Their designs, alone, are incredible.
In fact, my favourite part of this experience was looking at the enemies and the world design as I flew around and shot many things. It was hard not to gawk at times, because the art design is simply phenomenal. A friend also commented on it when she stopped by, and wanted to watch me play.
NeverAwake is different from other SHMUPs, though, because it isn’t solely based on killing all enemies or surviving waves. Instead, your goal is to collect enough enemy souls to reach 100%. This can sometimes take two or more rounds of the same level. If you’re not at 100% by one’s end, it’ll just restart from the beginning again without any sort of loading screen or hiccup. It’s a neat system which works well, and often makes for pretty short stages. That said, collecting souls can be dangerous, unless you’ve equipped a special ability that makes them all come to you.
Souls are also worth money, which is used to purchase said items. However, although there are a lot of different ones to choose from, you can only equip a certain amount. Yes, it’s possible to increase this limit by buying more power-up slots, but it taps out at around 10. Some of these perks, if you will, also take up two slots, so it’s important to create a set-up that works for your play style while paying attention to what everything costs.
Some examples of these items/abilities/perks include:
- An unmbrella that protects Rem from danger, but doesn’t do a great job of it.
- Items that make souls become drawn to you, as well as one that makes them worth more currency. Trust me when I say you won’t need the latter one.
- A few that provide Rem with additional shields, meaning she can get hit more. One hit removes one shield.
- Something that makes Rem’s basic weapon more powerful
- Ones that provide Rem with special abilities
- A couple that replenish Rem’s health, or shields, after she reaches 33% and/or 66% souls collected
You can also spend your soul money on different special weapons, which upgrade over time from level one to level five. The thing is, though, that you need to purchase each upgrade separately when it becomes available. These special weapons can be very helpful, too, because they can fire special bullets, shoot the equivalent of shotgun shells, fire damaging circles, eject lasers that bounce around the stage and more. I tried a bunch, but never did find the perfect one for me.
Since this is a somewhat challenging, but fair, game I focused on the shield upgrades. They came in really handy because, without any of them equipped, Rem could only survive two hits. The perks that increased Rem’s health after I collected certain amounts of souls were also very helpful when things became difficult later on. There is, however, another aide that makes things a bit easier. They call it something like power souling, and it gives you both added health and a twice as powerful basic weapon. I used it on occasion, and it would either cost nothing (for whatever reason) or 60 in-game dollars, which was nothing.
I probably don’t need to say it now, but I haven’t played a lot of SHMUP games in my lifetime. It’s a genre I’ve generally passed over, outside of the odd few games. NeverAwake caught my attention, though, and reading that it had won awards made me even more interested. Now that I’ve played through it, I understand why it did and agree with those who gave said awards. What I wanted to note by bringing this up, though, is that I’m not particularly great at these titles. Thus, I’m glad that there were some ways to make it easier, as well as some accessibility options.
It was also nice to see that the developers created a story with which to base the frenetic gameplay on. This type of game doesn’t always have, or need, a story, but it’s nice that they made the effort to include one. Sure, it’s a bit basic, but I loved the idea of playing through a comatose young girl’s nightmares. You’ll also pick up notes along the way, which talk about how she hates school because she has no friends, and how her grandmother isn’t doing well. I appreciate and applaud the effort, because it adds to the experience and makes it better.
When you finish this incredibly cool game, you’ll have the ability to go back through it in a time trial mode, or complete challenges that open up in previously completed levels. These may ask you to complete a boss encounter without collecting souls, or to do something else. Completing them all will fill Rem’s scrapbook with pictures, unlocking achievements, so you’ll want to do so if you’re into collecting those.
All in all, this was a time where I was glad to be someone who reviews video games. If I didn’t have press releases coming into my inbox every day, I probably would’ve missed the Xbox Series release of NeverAwake, given that I’d never heard of it before and don’t often check the store for new releases. The good thing is that I didn’t miss it, because that would’ve been a shame. This is one of the better games I’ve played in some time, and it may be my favourite SHMUP of all-time. It looks great, it sounds good, and it’s an absolute must play.
This review is based on the Xbox Series S version of the game, which we were provided with.