Never Forgotten

About

Never Forgotten is a single player survival role playing game with a horror theme. It was developed by Objectively Big and was released on August 21, 2024. It received positive reviews from players.

You are a lone soul who awakes in a hostile and sorrowful world. As you explore, you will discover landmarks enveloped in flesh, abominable creatures who will seek you out, and fragments of your past. Your journey will be wrought with conflict, but it is up to you to overcome and unravel the mysteries of this world. If you're interested in playing the final game, wishlist the game on Steam: ht…

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89%

Audience ScoreBased on 46 reviews

story15 positive mentions

grinding1 negative mentions

The game features stunning and unique pixel art combined with detailed and atmospheric monster and environment designs that create a haunting and immersive world.
The soundtrack is exceptional, highly praised for its variety and emotional impact, effectively complementing the game's mood and enhancing the overall experience.
Narrative and storytelling are emotionally powerful and thought-provoking, using subtlety, symbolism, and atmosphere to evoke feelings of grief, regret, and healing.

The story can be extremely vague and cryptic, leaving many players confused about plot specifics and character relationships, sometimes feeling too personal or obscure to fully grasp.
Gameplay, including puzzles and combat, is often described as simplistic and repetitive, with some difficulty spikes and underutilized mechanics; the ending section drags and can feel tedious.
Technical and design issues such as unclear collision boundaries (invisible walls), unbalanced sound levels, repetitive dialogues with stammering, and lack of polish with spelling errors detract from the experience.

story
54 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
28%
66%
6%
The story is described as cryptic and mostly implied, requiring players to piece together its meaning through atmosphere, symbolism, and gameplay. While some find it emotionally powerful and well-integrated with art and music, others feel it can be vague or difficult to fully grasp, especially near the end where pacing and boss encounters are seen as problematic. Overall, the narrative is praised for its emotional impact and unique delivery, though it may leave some players feeling puzzled or wanting clearer connections.
- “The story is masterfully told and will leave a strong impression on those who play it.”
- “Never Forgotten does what some of my favorite games do, bring me to tears through a heartfelt story while keeping me enthralled by fun gameplay, challenging bosses, stunning art, and a soundtrack that I will definitely be listening to a lot more.”
- “The story itself doesn't reveal itself too blatantly but instead uses the flesh-covered world to leave you enticed and reveals itself more and more in gameplay as you progress and explore, which I find to be a pretty ideal way of storytelling.”
- “I think the end drags on too much; I understand the reasoning behind it, but it's the only part that falls short for me story-wise.”
- “Even after beating the final boss, the story remains vague.”
- “My worry is that the story might be so closely linked to the creator that it's only decipherable to them, leaving the rest of us in awe of the graphics, impressed with the music, and frankly a bit lost on the story.”
music
44 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
48%
45%
7%
The music in the game is widely praised for its quality, emotional range, and strong synergy with the art and atmosphere, often enhancing key moments and boss fights. While some note it is underused or inconsistent in volume during exploration, the soundtrack is generally considered haunting, diverse, and memorable, contributing significantly to the game's overall impact.
- “Loved this game, the soundtrack is fantastic and the writing is just as good.”
- “The atmosphere was absolutely incredible, the music was on point, and the way everything looked was perfect.”
- “While exploring I couldn't help but admire the atmosphere, I really enjoyed the soundtrack and appreciated the variety; I listened to a majority of the soundtrack after playing and was astounded to see 60 different tracks with consistent quality.”
- “The frequent 'headache' stops, the long walks with not much to see or hear, all before a boss fight that, without what I wrote earlier, is disproportionately harder than the rest, with the first time that I feel the music doesn't fit the feelings and atmosphere it has built up until then, instead breaking that and trying to actually provide an RPG boss fight that feels a little forced with 3 stages, the last two of which flop both in consolidating the story's finale and from a design point of view.”
- “I'm thoroughly impressed with the soundtrack on Never Forgotten, and my only criticism is that we don't hear any of it for at least 20-30% of the game.”
- “In fact, the music will often abruptly cut off when you switch screens, or engage with key objects.”
gameplay
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
42%
45%
13%
The gameplay is engaging and well-integrated, featuring unique combat mechanics and progressively built puzzle elements that complement the narrative. While some hidden mechanics—such as damage strengthening the player—were initially unclear and led to frustration, overall combat and exploration, including boss fights and world navigation, are praised for their creativity and pacing. The gameplay balances simplicity with innovation, offering a satisfying experience that effectively ties mechanics to storytelling.
- “Gameplay is fun and engaging with some genuinely great puzzles.”
- “Just over 2 hours in length or so, Never Forgotten is an excellently told story, building gameplay elements up slowly over time, and growing an initially simple combat system by spinning it mechanically into the narrative of the game.”
- “Following up with that, the final boss battles were the highlight of gameplay—super fun and engaging with music syncing up with sections of the fight.”
- “The game at its core is a very basic adventure game with light puzzle mechanics and an inventory system that is so unremarkable I've already forgotten what it looks like.”
- “The mechanics of combat are explained fairly well, but intrinsically as players, we want to avoid damage in combat, so including a 'hidden' mechanic where damage actually makes you stronger was not only discovered in the much later stages of the game but seemingly completely missed through the first 3/4 of my playthrough.”
- “A simple pause and dialog box to explain this mechanic would have helped me juggle some truly frustrating boss fights through the first sections of the game.”
graphics
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
44%
37%
19%
The game’s graphics feature a unique, 1-bit pixel art style that effectively conveys dark, unsettling, and grotesque themes, creating a memorable and atmospheric experience. Despite its simplicity and limited color palette, the art is praised for being both beautiful and chilling, though some collision issues with the visuals have been noted. Overall, the striking visuals strongly enhance the game's intense narrative and mood, making the graphics a standout aspect.
- “The art style feels really unique and adds to the sometimes uncomfortable themes that the protagonist wrestles with.”
- “But goodness me, the narrative themes, visuals, and atmosphere are deeply interesting, dark, and challenging.”
- “Also, the art style is so beautiful, the pixel art is phenomenal and although it's restricted to just black and white, I think that the game does so much with just that; it's grotesque and stunning.”
- “The biggest criticism is that collision often does not jive well with the art style, where some secrets are hidden in gaps but later on there are more gaps that have invisible walls.”
- “My worry is that the story might be so closely linked to the creator that it's only decipherable to them, leaving the rest of us in awe of the graphics, impressed with the music, and frankly a bit lost on the story.”
- “In the case of Never Forgotten, you'll always remember the graphics, and you'll probably remember how bombastic the OST was.”
atmosphere
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
8%
25%
The game excels in creating a deeply immersive and haunting psychological horror atmosphere, enhanced by its dark visuals, eerie worldbuilding, and evocative soundtrack. While some pacing and boss fight design choices slightly disrupt the mood, the overall ambiance remains compelling and rich with symbolic and narrative depth. Fans of atmospheric, unsettling experiences will find its creepy, RPG Maker–style horror particularly engaging.
- “The atmosphere was absolutely incredible, the music was on point, and the way everything looked was perfect.”
- “It has a great atmosphere and nightmarish worldbuilding and enemy design: you traverse a fleshy and withering pitch-black limbo; a psychological manifestation of an elusive family drama.”
- “The atmosphere is on point, the puzzles are really fun to solve, and the music is just so haunting.”
- “The frequent "headache" stops, the long walks with not much to see or hear, all before a boss fight that, without what I wrote earlier, is disproportionately harder than the rest. For the first time, the music doesn't fit the feelings and atmosphere it had built up until then, instead breaking it by trying to provide an RPG boss fight that feels a little forced with three stages, the last two of which flop both in consolidating the story's finale and from a design point of view.”
- “Oscillations are expected to create atmosphere, but this is too much.”
- “It's more psychological horror than anything else, using survival horror elements to better convey its message and atmosphere.”
emotional
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional aspect of the game is a mix of heartfelt and harrowing moments, with some players finding it deeply moving and impactful, especially in its storytelling, art, and soundtrack. However, others feel the ending and certain emotional beats fall flat or drag on unnecessarily. Overall, it is praised for its sincere emotional intent and ability to resonate with players, particularly within the indie game space.
- “Both harrowing and heartfelt.”
- “Never Forgotten does what some of my favorite games do: bring me to tears through a heartfelt story while keeping me enthralled by fun gameplay, challenging bosses, stunning art, and a soundtrack that I will definitely be listening to a lot more.”
- “The puzzles tie into the emotional storytelling really well, and the themes of loss hit harder than expected.”
grinding
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game is considered tedious and repetitive by users, detracting from the overall experience.
- “A lot of the game felt very tedious.”
optimization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game demonstrates excellent optimization, delivering smooth performance without any bugs or glitches.
- “Performance was perfect throughout and I didn't encounter any bugs or glitches.”
stability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game demonstrates excellent stability, with smooth performance and no reported bugs or glitches.