Never Back Down by Axelfan

Join the heroes/anti-heroes into a very dark game of survival hosted by a mysterious and anonymous benefactor, who has set up the whole city against them. Will they survive? They have no choice but never back down!

Features:

• 8 stages filled with exotic urban and suburban environments, designed by Axelfan and Don Vecta.
  
• Multiple paths that lead into different endings... or deadly traps!
  
• Beautifully customized palettes, to add depth to the atmosphere.
  
• A completely unique soundtrack created for this mod by Axelfan himself. Including character select, stage clear and game over sound schemes.
  
• A dark, intriguing story line that keeps the mood tense.
  

Screenshots:







Download links:
Never Back Down Complete Mod
https://www.mediafire.com/?r3d99r9r41iokfl
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lt8omaeiqu0qeem/SOR%20Never%20Back%20Down.rar

Palletes
https://www.mediafire.com/?yvkcjx6iaqev106
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hpyo4usav2ms23v/Never%20Back%20Down%20palettes.zip

Character Select, Stage Clear, Game Over themes
http://www.mediafire.com/download/4jr1w9839y2t9bl/stage_clear_game_over_character_select_theme.rar
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6tpp8zbx63ak5fa/Never%20Back%20Down%20stage%20clear%20game%20over%20character%20select%20theme.rar

Looks tasty! Downloading this right now!

Okay, these are my personal notes.

Fair warning for everyone, this mod is pretty much like Ron Jeremy's dick: LONG and HARD. It's more likely you'd end up using Dark Thief's Progress Recovery Mod in many areas, for many reasons. But if you plan to finish it in a row, fasten your seat belt and don't make any appointments for around 2 hours and half.

Not to mention the replay value of this bad boy is huge, as the alternate routes are all worth playing (around 70 scenes, more or less).

Be VERY careful about certain alternate routes, especially some that don't make too much sense... you guys gonna regret badly.

Before you play, please need you to find these elevator stages: 2-4, 5-4 and 8-13 and make them 2 more speeds faster. Trust me, you'll thank me later.

Enjoy this mod.

2.5 hours on mania or on normal/hard? Sounds crazy long!

I hope everyone enjoys this one; take your best character for the ULTIMATE ride with this deeply-rooted storyline!

As Vecta said, think about those routes before you make a choice...it could mean the very END of you.

Indeed, it's super long, it took me like 3 hours to beat the first playthrough and made me exhausted, I think I'll need a few more days before doing another playthrough.
I understand the point of this mod is to be hardcore but...yeah, 2+ hours of gameplay can be discouraging.

And yeah, the paths that don't make sense, I of course had to check the first one I got and swore I would never do stupid choices again   
I'll do a review when I'll do more playthrough.

For now, you've got one thing to fix, a Time Over is forced on the elevator of the military base if you don't lose a life, because it takes just too long to get to the top... The elevator will have to move faster.

iceweb38 wrote:
For now, you've got one thing to fix, a Time Over is forced on the elevator of the military base if you don't lose a life, because it takes just too long to get to the top... The elevator will have to move faster.

And that's the reason I suggested this:

Don Vecta wrote:Before you play, please need you to find these elevator stages: 2-4, 5-4 and 8-13 and make them 2 more speeds faster. Trust me, you'll thank me later.

  

Don Vecta wrote:Before you play, please need you to find these elevator stages: 2-4, 5-4 and 8-13 and make them 2 more speeds faster. Trust me, you'll thank me later.

How do you do this, can't seem to find elevator properties. (only the option to set it)

DarkThief wrote:

Don Vecta wrote:Before you play, please need you to find these elevator stages: 2-4, 5-4 and 8-13 and make them 2 more speeds faster. Trust me, you'll thank me later.

How do you do this, can't seem to find elevator properties. (only the option to set it)

In the upper tab, go to the layer 1 (which will have the scroll set at auto-down), make it faster two notches, save and carry on.

Cool, that fixed it, although I then chose the route that went into the trap house...think I'll restore to the beginning of the stage and do the other route as well (since I didn't drop a life at all, want to see how far I could've got)

One of those routes got ya, huh Iceweb?

My apologies about those elevators being too slow, but that's because I play without the time....
Am I the only one who plays without the time???

Don Vecta wrote:

iceweb38 wrote:
For now, you've got one thing to fix, a Time Over is forced on the elevator of the military base if you don't lose a life, because it takes just too long to get to the top... The elevator will have to move faster.

And that's the reason I suggested this:

Don Vecta wrote:Before you play, please need you to find these elevator stages: 2-4, 5-4 and 8-13 and make them 2 more speeds faster. Trust me, you'll thank me later.

  

Oops didn't notice but I was certainly playing when you posted that anyway ^^'

Yeah Axelfan, the very first one got me, took me by surprise which is why I made sure never take another alternate path, except for the disco at stage 2 and the boat at stage 7
At first I used to play without time limit but I always enable it now. I thought you didn't play with time on, was the most logical explanation for this problem.

So yeah...I took the advice (LONG and HARD), pulled out Skate 2 and cleared it without taking any alternative routes.  It almost felt like one of those crazy OTT mods but without being stupid (although after the first stage I was expecting multiple boss waves every time ).

I didn't find it that hard tbh (cleared it without dropping a life in fact) - the fights are of the hardcore/insane type, but the huge amount of food covers it up...in fact I had quite a lot of fun just trashing huge amounts of mobs with my favourite toon

The music is also among the best I've heard in SoRR, so yeah I enjoyed the mod quite a bit.

It's more likely you'd end up using Dark Thief's Progress Recovery Mod in many areas, for many reasons.

During the game, I was thinking "why would I need to use it here?", and then I used it for the most unexpected reason of all during the final stage... (needless to say I played the other route and cleared that without dieing too, so all's well)

Before you play, please need you to find these elevator stages: 2-4, 5-4 and 8-13 and make them 2 more speeds faster. Trust me, you'll thank me later.

They still took forever even after I did that

The collision map on the harbour stage 7-4 also needs a bit of a look...blocking the mooring posts seems to block a lot more visually.

There's also a lot of cases where bat Galsia-1's and pipe Donovan-3's either start or pop up right next to you and hit before you can do anything...major no-no for gameplay but luckily the food bonanza helps cancel it out.

My apologies about those elevators being too slow, but that's because I play without the time....
Am I the only one who plays without the time???

I never play with the timer on, since I first switched to mania in fact (ninja tunnels and stuff). Feels more natural to me anyway, cos of SoR3. (btw you don't need to worry about the elevator reaching the top before all the mobs are dead, many mods are like that and it doesn't affect anything)

I'm glad you enjoyed it, DarkThief. I had fun making it, and music is actually one of my strengths.

I think I'll take a break from making mods after this one...

Is the shortcut to the end of stage 3 (after the bridge route in stage 2) intentional or accidental? (doesn't make sense at all)

Time to sink my teeth into this.

DarkThief wrote:Is the shortcut to the end of stage 3 (after the bridge route in stage 2) intentional or accidental? (doesn't make sense at all)

No, not at all! I knew there was something else I forgot to do...

Please remove the add intro, and change Nakamura from BOSS to NORMAL, and it should transition to SCENE 5, where you fight Abadede with the bikers rooting for him.

If you find anything else, please let me, or Vecta know.

Ah cool, sorted that. There's something odd about stage 7-1's collision map...you sometimes fall down from the top of the screen, seemingly at random. It also happens when you try to take the alternate route (meaning no amusing death screen), plus the bottom edge seems a touch higher up than the edge of the truck. (probably game-related, as I see the collision map is exactly on it)

(can't get enough of that Largo tune though, it's crying out for a full-length remix...maybe I should do one someday )

stage 8, scene 8

Now I actually beat this earlier today with Rudra (magic + blitz-3, cleared it in ~20 secs with the lift stopping at ~2.25 secs to go)...where's the amusing "damn, you how the fuck did you escape from that!!!???" ending screen

Edit: also beaten with Ash (same method), in a much quicker time too. (~4.45 secs left with a couple of fiery knockdowns, so could've been even quicker)
Came very close with Max/Elle (all mobs dead but the lift didn't stop in time), the rest nowhere near.

DarkThief wrote:Ah cool, sorted that. There's something odd about stage 7-1's collision map...you sometimes fall down from the top of the screen, seemingly at random. It also happens when you try to take the alternate route (meaning no amusing death screen), plus the bottom edge seems a touch higher up than the edge of the truck. (probably game-related, as I see the collision map is exactly on it)

(can't get enough of that Largo tune though, it's crying out for a full-length remix...maybe I should do one someday )

stage 8, scene 8

Now I actually beat this earlier today with Rudra (magic + blitz-3, cleared it in ~20 secs with the lift stopping at ~2.25 secs to go)...where's the amusing "damn, you how the fuck did you escape from that!!!???" ending screen

I've tried multiple times to fix 7-1, and I can't seem to find out what it is. I'm glad you like the OST, Largo reminds me of Tekken.My favorites would have to be Technique, Transit, Outnumbered, and Never Back Down.

and for stage 8, scene8 I thought it REALLY couldn't be done...what happened afterward?

It just goes to the next scene. (8-9, the jungle)

Collision map issues on stage 7-4 as well...taking the alternate path will sometimes result in death before the scene changes. I think it depends on character speed, as it won't do it to Max but it will to Shiva or Rudra.

Moving the exit down a bit (so that only a fraction of it is above the pier) stopped it happening to Skate, so it should be fine for all toons now.

Other (very) minor issues:

Stage 5-5 has a death screen/text but no exit on the map.
Stage 7-1 has an exit on the map but no death screen/text.
Stage 6-3 has intro text (for the music) but no intro event on the map.
Stage 5-2 has intro text (for the route choice) but no event on the map.

Still loving the mod though.

(btw let me know if you want me to compile a list of all these issues in case you want to update it in future)

Hello, I have also played your mod and I have to say that it is really well done.
I have some small signal to do:

- On the Stage 7 scene 11 enemies get stuck at the start screen and you can not deal with them, I have them corrected by making them fall from the top.
- On the Stage 8 scene 8 would be better to increase the time of the explosion from 25 to 50 seconds.
- The use of the police was not cured, it is practically impossible to call in the whole game!
You should enter at least the use of the helicopter in most screens, so as to balance the characters and put on the same level who plays with Axel, Blaze, ecc... with who uses Rudra or Elle for example.   

Ducobson wrote:Hello, I have also played your mod and I have to say that it is really well done.
I have some small signal to do:

- On the Stage 7 scene 11 enemies get stuck at the start screen and you can not deal with them, I have them corrected by making them fall from the top.
- On the Stage 8 scene 8 would be better to increase the time of the explosion from 25 to 50 seconds.
- The use of the police was not cured, it is practically impossible to call in the whole game!
You should enter at least the use of the helicopter in most screens, so as to balance the characters and put on the same level who plays with Axel, Blaze, ecc... with who uses Rudra or Elle for example.   

Thank you Ducobson.
-Glad you've taken care of the problem on 7-11.
-The use of Police were NOT intended for this mod; it's designed this way for a reason, and this is to challenge reaction time and adjustment to pressure. You can also play at an easier difficulty if you're having problems completing this mod.

I finished the game with Rudra without using cheats and without continue playing level Mania (with exactly 5 lives, just like at the beginning of the game), obviously being able to use the special the game is easier.
This is why I advised to put on the same level, even those who want to play with Axel, Blaze or other characters, enabling the use of the helicopter in most screens, but if you've decided so I respect that.
But those who use Rudra or Elle, for example, is much more advantaged and the game is not so difficult, because the food is abundant