AWAY: THE SURVIVAL SERIES First Impression: Potential Hides Behind Difficult Controls

It wasn’t long ago when Breaking Walls invited me to try out the first prototype for their upcoming game Away: The Survival Series. Since this invitation, they have released the prototype to the public via a free demo on Steam. In this prototype, appropriately titled the “Gliding Prototype,” the player is given the challenge to chase the dragonfly. Seeing as this is a natural prey for the Sugar Gliders, it is fitting that we are given this challenge. This challenge is also the first taste of what to expect from the game, and while I enjoy a challenge, there is still some work that needs to be done.

Gameplay

You start off on a log over a lake bed and are forced to begin the mission of chasing down the dragonfly. As you chase them, your controls as simply dive, pull back, turn left or right, dodge left or right, and space bar to jump (which is really just to begin the mission as far as this prototype goes). You will want to go into the settings and adjust the sensitivity first thing so that you can get it to a controllable level for you as the default maxed out sensitivity is nigh possible to use.

Once you start to get the hang of the controls you will start to focus on the mission itself. Even though it sounds simple enough, I believe you will find yourself having a lot of trouble completing the mission just as I had. There are plenty of landscape obstacles that you will have to avoid, but be sure not to hold down either turn button as this will begin the control lose spiral that leads to your run-ending crash.

The path the dragonfly leads you through will have these blue orbs that are speed boosts or dash boosters. These will send you flying forward very quickly in order to catch up to the dragonfly. There are two ways to complete the mission: reach the final section of the chase sequence or actually catch the dragonfly.

After you complete the first mission, you will find a second mission that is exactly the same, but the pathway is different. These missions will increasingly get more difficult, but can be completed with enough practice and persistence. Unfortunately, and to be perfectly honest, I was unable to complete the third mission, which I believe was the last one.

Expectations

I am sure this game will have full on gliding moments like this, but they need some better controls when it comes to the flight. It is way too easy to lose control just by turning left or right for too long. From the trailers it seemed like there will only be a bunch of short gliding moments, but with a prototype featuring full gliding missions then we can be sure to see some of these in the final game.

It would have been nice to try out some of the interactions with other animals, ground traveling, or even a boss fight in the demo. I’m still not completely sure what to expect when it comes to this part of the game, but we can hope to be able to test out this part of the game in an upcoming prototype.

Conclusion

Away: The Survival Series still shows as much potential as it did when I first saw the trailer during PlayStation’s State of Play. I look forward to the games full launch and am not surprised that it has earned over $100,000 on the Kickstarter alone. This game is going to feature a lot of different elements of gameplay and wildlife interaction, which will be a nice break from all the different direct and single-animal featuring games out there today. With a bit more tightening and work, I can see this easily becoming one of the best games of 2019.