We reviewed AWAY: The Survival Series

Driftwood
Tuesday, September 28, 2021 | 3:30 PM
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GSY Review PC PS4 Xbox One

Sometimes games can be appealing because what they propose seems rather original. It was definitely the case for us when we first heard about AWAY: The Survival Series, a game developed by Breaking Walls. Sadly, there are also times when disappointment is all there is to find, as proven by this failed attempt to make us experience the perilous life of a sugar glider after the apocalypse.

Verdict

AWAY: The Survival Series is off to a good start on paper. We liked the idea of a linear experience in which we would play as a sugar glider in a very hostile world. The problem is that quickly enough, it turns into a very frustrating experience because of controls and performance issues. We're aware that an i9 9900K and a RTX 2080 Ti are not the best possible cpu and gpu out there today, but it's still annoying to have to cope with slowdowns and very brief freezes once in a while, even at 1440p. The game may not be a looker but it has its moments, but if yo play it on PC, we recommend you switch off death of field as it makes everything way too blurry, even closer parts of the environment. We've also encountered a bunch of bugs. Sometimes there were just funny moments, when the wolves animation was not working and they seems to be skateboarding their way down a slope, but sometimes we had to load the last save again. Technical issues aside, AWAY: The Survival Series is simply too cumbersome to play. Manual jumps lack precision and so does gliding, which basically means you're going to die a lot because of the game. The devs have added a sort of auto jump, which comes in handy every single time you can use it. The aimed platform just needs to be close enough. The problems is that you sometimes have to use the manual jump and it can be tricky. Combat is not satisfying either, due to some game design choices. Enemies can't be locked and unless you use your ~~spider~~ sugar glider sense, you sometimes just can't see them. We even got killed by an stealthy spider during a tutorial sequence in which we were only supposed to follow our mother to avoid catching the attention of a vulture. How frustrating is that? We didn't even realize we could be attacked. Actually, we didn't understand we were until it was too late... Stealth isn't more fun sadly, it mainly consists in sequences where you have to go from one hiding place to the other. The problem is that it's not easy to see much when you're in high grass. Again, the sugar gliding sense helps, but it'd have been nice to be able to see our little cute character normally.

Last but not least, the survival aspect gets old very soon as you have to eat mushrooms, butterflies, lizards or berries all the time. In some areas, you can't find any food, so if you haven't filled your hunger meter, you're bound to die before the end of the section, forcing you to replay at least a part of it. Now, we're not too fond of such mechanics in general, mainly because you usually must eat and drink way too often, but here in the linear experience of the story mode, it feels out of place. It doesn't mean AWAY: The Survival Series is all bad though. The way the story is told is great, it really feels like watching a nature documentary and it allows to discover things about the lore (when you find holographic messages left by humans, the narrator usually reacts to it too). Some passages are pretty well-done too in terms of presentation. You can tell the dev team tried their best to provide a cinematic experience at times, with scenes showing the wildlife trying to run away from danger for example. That said, with so much frustration felt when playing, it's hard to give the game a pass really. After completing the Story Mode in 4 hours (we were told it would last between 5 to 10), we simply didn't want to keep playing. The Exploration Mode allows to possess all the animals you encounter, but that's when you discover new control issues. Moreover, other than looking for the missed holographic messages, there is just nothing else to do in the open map once you've been through it in the Story Mode. Maybe the next game from the studio (in the series?) will take all this into account and make it worth our while, but as of now, all we can tell you is to simply stay away...