(PAX West 2017) AWAY: Journey to the Unexpected
I can’t emphasize this enough, AWAY: Journey to the Unexpected was a joy to play. You take control of a boy who goes out to find out why his basement exploded. However, while your adventure may start there, there is a twist. You don’t have super natural strength or anything, you’re just a kid. Well… a kid with a stick and a thirst for adventure and the ability to make friends. Man this game sounds super cheesy, but it’s very cool and very aesthetically pleasing!
On your adventures you’ll gain the ability to befriend different monsters all of which have different abilities. They mention something about having to figure out which phrases to pick to convince monsters to join you, but in my experience there doesn’t seem to be much difficulty because if you choose incorrectly you’ll start the conversation over again and then pick the correct answers. Simple as that. No real big lose for me because the fun wasn’t had in conversing (although the dialogue was fun). Once you have befriended them you can switch to their powers whether it be fireballs or weird floating bat mines (at least that what they looked like to me) until they run out of energy. I’m not sure how to refill it, but it was almost enough to get through the demo area. Maybe a vendor will sell some form of energy drink?
The hit-boxes were a little funky and took some getting used to with the combat, but that is apparently something they are working on currently so that won’t be an issue when it launches hopefully. Given that, I still had fun running around with my stick poking things in the eye. Technically I was beating monsters over the head, but I won’t split hairs. I was rather conservative with my friends abilities because I did watch other people play ahead of me and they ran out of “buddy-go-go-juice” in the middle of the boss fight and I didn’t want to be that guy. I was, however, that guy who got the boss very far down and beat him to death with my stick. It was very satisfying. I want more!
Further Reading on AWAY: Journey to the Unexpected: Official Page / Steam
