AWAY: The Survival Series Review

thesixthaxis.com:

Nature documentaries are great. Learning about the natural world while a calm voice explains what you are seeing on screen is something that appeals to millions. So, having a game that looks to put you in the paws of a creature while its life is narrated is very appealing, and that is what AWAY: The Survival Series sets out to do, cast you as a sugar glider.

Originally released for PC and PlayStation in 2021, we took the opportunity to glide through the experience for its Xbox release

AWAY: The Survival Series has two modes, a story mode and an exploration mode. The story mode is the main mode where you become a six month old sugar glider, destined to go on a dangerous journey to save its family from the clutches of a vulture. This scenario is set against a backdrop of a post-human Earth, where humans have become extinct due to a catastrophic change in the environment known as the shift, which has led to severe atmospheric changes. It is a world where danger lurks everywhere, especially for a sugar glider that is the size of a spider.

Unfortunately, you’ll be dealing with the dangers of bugs throughout AWAY, and I am not talking about the kind that skitter around the ground. Throughout the five hours it took to complete the story mode there were a multitude of issues popping up. Things were not off to a great start when the game crashed partway through the tutorial. However, that did not deter our young sugar glider, nor the narrator who tries to mimic the style of David Attenborough as he describes what is happening on screen.

Progress is linear, with platforming and combat making the up the majority of AWAY’s gameplay, and neither feels particularly accomplished. With the platforming the jumps need to be precise, and while