They Always Run. They always run. They run away, to be precise. Aidan repeats it several times, the protagonist of the game we are about to tell you about, referring to those who after seeing him run away as if they had the devil on their trail.
He is not a devil but we are close to him. He is a mutant and is a bounty hunter, a job that he does particularly well for three reasons: he is shrewd and unscrupulous, he is skilled with any type of weapon … but above all he has three arms. This last feature makes it particularly effective and transforms the fights of this game into a real pleasure. But it is the whole game that is surprisingly enjoyable.
Maybe some of you remember the first time They Always Run was shown. It was about four months ago, during the PC Gaming Show of E3 2021, but it’s easy that its gorgeous pixel-art and its atmosphere suspended between sci-fi and western was lost in the midst of the myriad of announcements of that event.
Fortunately we have not lost sight of it and as soon as the opportunity presented itself we grabbed the Steam code on the fly and we cleaned it to the bone. Delicious, truly one of the most pleasant surprises of this last portion of the year.
We’ve seen a lot of 2D action-platformers, especially in the last two years. All promise evocative scenarios, an engaging storyline, and an innovative, intuitive and fun-filled gameplay system. Very few keep their promises. They Always Run hasn’t made any promises, if you go to its official website the guys who made it obviously speak well but without making bombastic claims. This is why we started it without too many expectations … and we were sucked into it right away.
To work this genre of games must have mainly three things: non-trivial platform phases, a suitably challenging and if possible original combat system and a responsive control system, which can be assimilated within the first half hour.
The three targets in this case were hit as not even the best Hawkeye could have done. Let’s start with the first. They Always Run has an almost metroidvania structure, and we say “almost” because despite being quite intricate, it is linear and does not include who knows how much backtraking.
The “navigation” of the levels is fluid, like that joyfully experienced in the recent Metroid Dread. Aidan runs, jumps, climbs and whirls naturally and overcomes obstacles as if he were a parkour champion. This ability is useful not only in the exploration phase but also and above all during the fights, on which we will return shortly.
We come to the second point, the control system. It doesn’t seem so intuitive at first, especially in using Aidan’s third arm. It is used by holding down the right bump button on the controller (RB on Xbox and R1 on PlayStation) and directing the shot with the right analog stick. It seems strange but it works, also because the limb in question can be directed practically anywhere by rotating the stick and becomes an unexpectedly valuable ally to open new paths and deliver decisive blows to enemies.
Everything else works like in any other game of this type: jumps, slides, dodges and so on, alternate and give the whole extreme dynamism, but it is the third arm that makes They Always Run different from the others.
The above gives us the hook to talk about the funniest element of this game: the fights. While it is possible to use occasional silent kills it is precisely when it throws us into the fray that They Always Run raises the bar of entertainment.
A rightly rigid level of difficulty forces you to learn the use of all the techniques available and, after some initial uncertainty, the fireworks are not long in coming. Aidan’s third arm is a precious resource, which in addition to being able to break through walls and open locks, often guarantees precious one-hit-kills, at least with standard enemies.
Being able to exploit it “ad libitum” would have actually broken the balance of the game, which is why its use is limited by a certain number of bars positioned at the top left of the screen. Initially there are only three and you will consume one every time you land a decisive blow, but you can reload them with standard attacks.
The game world is littered with bonus bounties and treasures to collect, but also with upgrades that once recovered in sufficient numbers (read “the canonical three”) will permanently increase the level of health, the use of the third arm and also slots for healing items.
The bounty hunter thing obviously has implications for the gameplay of They Always Run. As he goes around the galaxy, Aidan can in fact activate a radar / sonar that warns him of the presence of a potential bounty in the surroundings. Often these targets are stronger than average, but killing them yields a much heavier nest egg to invest in inventory upgrades, health upgrades, and so on.
The largest packs, however, are difficult to identify and almost always their capture coincides with fights of much higher difficulty than the others in which you will have to decide whether to be satisfied with collecting the bounty dead, killing the target in question, or alive.
The latter option is particularly difficult because it will force you to fight in a non-lethal way, trying only to empty the enemy’s resistance bar. Succeeding in doing so you will obviously get greater rewards, but we assure you that from the first it will not be an easy thing.
At this point you may be wondering if They Always Run is just a game where you jump from one level to another without any motivation or with a storyline that travels harmlessly under the radar. The answer is no! Without wishing to go into particular, we tell you that the Alawar boys have proved skilled in characterizing the game both from an artistic and playful point of view, but also in inserting a deeper subtext that emerges from time to time providing some narrative clue that foreshadows. a larger picture of the simple clash between good and bad.
Really a surprise from all points of view this The Always Run, to which we can rightly attribute some drop in rhythm, a very low replayability factor (in the face, however, of a sufficient basic longevity) and an artificial intelligence with sudden “mood” swings.
We hope that the PC release will be successful enough to convince developers to bring it to other platforms as well.
8
/ 10
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