Apple Arcade review #118: Neversong
You can’t tell from a still image, but the game has frozen on me. For the fourth time.
Neversong froze on me three times. The first time was early on, just after a save point, and the only thing I lost was the minute it took to quit the app and restart. The second time was after I’d explored the village, taking in the beautiful scenery. This time, I probably lost around five minutes of progress. Both times I was playing on the iPad. The third time was after I tried playing on the iPhone instead, picking up from the last save point: as soon as it had finished loading, the game froze. Another forced quit and reboot, and I was able to progress…but for how long?
(Update: a couple of minutes later, it “froze” again. Whatever you do, don’t pull down the control centre or multitask while playing this game. When you return, the game appears to still be running, but the controls don’t work and you have to force quit.)
I’m a game developer. I know that bugs happen. But this seems excessive, especially after playing 117 Apple Arcade games that, for the most part, have been very well-behaved. And, after all, Apple is the publisher, they must have the resources to do proper QA! I don’t have time to troubleshoot or replay games to write a three-paragraph review.
From the little I’ve seen, Neversong looks beautiful and sounds great. The controls work well — it’s another puzzle-platformer, with movement on the left and jumping on the right. You tap on things to interact with them, which sounds good in theory, but on the large iPad it means you constantly have to move your hand, and you obscure whatever it is you’re supposed to tap on. So far, there’s been a couple of easy puzzles, some elevators, and a couple of characters to talk to. The voice-acting is good, but the writing’s a bit of a mixed bag, especially the rhyming in the opening cinematic. (Writers: unless you’re really good at it, avoid writing in rhymes. It’s harder than you think.) I don’t really know what the story is yet, but your character’s in a coma, or he just woke up from a coma, and there’s an asylum and a missing girl. And all the parents are gone? I was confused, but then I didn’t get very far.
This is my final Apple Arcade review, and it’s a bit of a downer. The game froze consistently on two different devices, which doesn’t bode well. I can only hope the developers can get a fix out soon: unfortunately, I probably won’t be going back to it.