Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield takes place in a neon-slashed future where drones hover ominously and fuel tanks explode when you get too close to them. It’s a furious, action-packed exploration of fleeing in style, and this mobile version is well worth checking out.
You’re playing a young man on the run, darting over obstacles using almost supernatural parkour skills. Time slows when you get close to a barrier – depending on the difficulty setting you’re on – giving you a chance to choose the right move to get over, under or through it.
Those moves are accessed by tapping one of four quadrants on the screen. You can mantle, leap, slide and sprint. It’s a bit cumbersome to begin with, but once it clicks it works pretty well. There are shades of plenty of other auto-runners here, and the game definitely pays homage to future-rooftop escape simulator Canabalt.
But Never Yield’s swagger is all its own. It’s a cocky upstart, thumbing its nose at authority, bounding along with the excess glee of youth and the carefree abandon of immortality that brings. It jumps off buildings, slides under flipping cars and does it all with an almost impeccable style.
There are other currents here, as well. This is a game about a young black man pursued by the authorities. It’s a passion project about never giving up in the face of adversity. There are conversations and ideas that Never Yield alludes to that are even more important than avoiding smashing your face into a wire fence.
It isn’t perfect, though. There’s a repetitive nature to the experience, and it never quite captures the flow that marks out the best auto-runners. Each obstacle feels like an individual danger, slightly disconnected from the next, a collection of thrilling moments instead of a sustained, truly breath-taking chase.
There are different difficult settings to explore, special levels and an endless mode, and you’re going to enjoy all of them. Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield is by no means sloppy or slap-dash, and it can be wonderfully thrilling. While you’ll leave the game smiling, you’ll also be thinking about ways it could have been even better.
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