AWAY: The Survival Series

AWAY: The Survival Series is an adventure game with exploration and survival elements, inspired by nature documentaries. The game is played from the third person perspective (TPP). It was developed and published by Breaking Walls studio - a group of gaming industry veterans, previously working on such series as Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia and Far Cry. AWAY presents the life of a sugar glider - a small marsupial, which looks and behaves like a flying squirrel. The creature inhabits Earth plagued by cataclysms, where human civilisation has met its end long ago.

Plot

The game is set in the distant future - a time when nature regained its power over the Earth and human civilization remained only a memory. This is the environment in which our protagonist lives, a small mammal known as a sugar glider . The surrounding world is full of dangers, so the creature decides to embark on a journey to find a safe place for its family.

Mechanics

The main goal of the game is to explore vast lands and to help the animal in getting food and struggling with daily threats. While traversing vast areas - each with its own ecosystem - we have the ability to glide over precipices, jump from tree to tree and climb various objects. We can even move around using pieces of wood or climb on the backs of some animals.

As every creature, also sugar glider needs to regenerate before further expedition, so it is important to hunt for small prey appearing on the way, which will satisfy its hunger for some time. Sometimes we also have to fight with prey matching our weight and strength or compete for food with other creatures. It is also worth remembering that in nature every animal has its natural enemy - a predator, which is only waiting for the right moment to attack its prey. In order to avoid injury or, in the worst case, even death, you need to find a good hiding place as soon as possible or stand up to the threatening predator. Along with the progress of the game we develop combat skills of our hero, thanks to which he can defend himself more effectively.

There's always something going on in the world of AWAY, so it's worth keeping an eye out all the time. If you want to check whether there is a predator nearby, it's worth using the instinct of the sugar glider. This allows you to see nearby animals, sometimes lurking in the bushes or creeping through the tall grass. Enemies are marked in red, while creatures with which we can feed and thus regenerate health and/or energy are marked in green. Sugar glider can feed not only on insects or small reptiles but also on certain types of plants.

Some animals are easier to catch, while hunting others requires good strategy. Sugar glider can attack its prey from hiding, but if its target spots it, it can also chase after it. Our protagonist loses energy quickly, especially when using the glide option, so it's important to constantly look around for a new source of food.

Just like in nature films, our every move is tracked by a narrator who discusses our actions aloud. Thanks to him we can also learn something more about the surrounding flora and fauna, get to know the special properties of some plant species or the way of life of the animals we meet along the way. During the exploration of the vast and wild world of AWAY we can also come across mysterious remains of the fallen human civilisation, climb on elements of decaying buildings and observe the surroundings from the tops of falling down constructions.

Most of the gameplay is from the perspective of a sugar glider, but there are short sequences where we can take control of other animals such as beetles, lizards, crabs, foxes and many others.

Technical aspects

AWAY: The Survival Series features 3D graphics in a photorealistic style. Breaking Walls studio made sure that the world presented in the game was as realistic and diverse as possible. The game's orchestral soundtrack was composed by Mike Raznick, an award-winning composer who has created scores for such nature films as Life and Planet Earth II.

Other information

The studio has also released a set of relaxing soundscapes straight from the game, featuring dense forest sounds, gentle bird calls and the echo of a distant waterfall. This set can be downloaded for free at awayseries.com/nature.

Last updated on 27 September 2021