AWAY: The Survival Series
OpenCritic Rating
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
AWAY: The Survival Series Trailers
AWAY: The Survival Series - Launch Day Trailer
AWAY: The Survival Series | Announce Trailer
AWAY: The Survival Series | Official Teaser
Critic Reviews for AWAY: The Survival Series
AWAY: The Survival Series had a shot at providing something a bit different, but it has a multitude of issues that hold it back. Maybe the number of bugs is supposed to be some meta commentary about the actual creatures in the game, but I doubt it.
While AWAY: The Survival Series nails its nature doc narration conceit, it doesn't have anything particularly enlightening to say. The game does sometimes succeed as a straightforward cinematic adventure, but rough controls and a general lack of polish derail the rollercoaster far too often. Playing AWAY can be compelling at times, particularly if you're an animal lover, but you might find queueing up a few episodes of Planet Earth more fulfilling.
Though well-intentioned as an interactive educational documentary about the spectacular lives of sugar gliders, AWAY: The Survival Series simply isn't sufficiently sophisticated or well designed enough to pass muster as a videogame that will keep you coming back. As it is, AWAY: The Survival Series is an attractive, if clunky edutainment title that only the youngest and most inexperienced PlayStation gamers will truly enjoy.
AWAY: The Survival Series is an audacious game that fails to deliver on its excellent premise. Although clearly built with love and passion, the number of bugs and flawed mechanics make this a frustrating and arduous trek through the wild.
The story mode will be wrapped up within five hours but there is an exploration mode if you haven’t quite had your fill of bugs. Here you’ll be able to take control of other creatures and, as the title suggests, explore. There are short video logs dotted around the place if you want to try to find out more about what happened to the world. Although, once you realise that the other creatures are even harder to control than the sugar glider, and have encountered your fair share of crashes, you’ll probably decide that you don’t actually care that much about the reasons for humanity’s demise.
The beauty of Away: The Survival Series isn't the gameplay but the journey itself. While it has it's problems with bugs, the environment itself is lovely and the narration and musical score at least give the short expedition a quiet elegance.
Buggy, broken, and boring, Away: The Survival Series is awful all around.
I wish I had more positive points to speak about, but AWAY: The Survival Series just isn’t that fun to play, and being a video game this is one of the most important aspects for the developers to nail. The experience feels unnaturally empty and shallow, and whilst the good intentions are there, the execution makes it a hard title to recommend spending money on, at least in its current state which feels like an early access title, despite it being a proper release. If this title piques your interest, I would suggest waiting to see what the developers end up fixing and tweaking as they have promised to fix multiple issues and provide constant updates to offer a more polished title.
