Away: Journey to the Unexpected

 Xbox One
Away: Journey to the Unexpected Image
Metascore
54

Mixed or average reviews - based on 5 Critic Reviews What's this?

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  • Summary: Welcome to a feel-good FPS. A colorful adventure combining action, negotiation and rogue-lite elements. Befriend and play a large variety of quirky characters, all against the backdrop of the anime-themed soundtrack by Kazuhiko Naruse.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 5
  3. Negative: 2 out of 5
  1. TrueAchievements
    Feb 7, 2019
    70
    Away: Journey to the Unexpected tries to do a lot at once, which is a tall task for a game mostly built by just a pair of people. Ultimately, its strange direction lends to the charm of it all, but it's also clear the game is lacking in a few key areas — namely, shoddy combat and inconsistent level randomization. Still, it was billed as a "feel-good" indie and I'd have to agree. Despite its faults, I'm happy to have played this weird game.
  2. 4P.de
    Feb 11, 2019
    63
    In the beginning you experience a lot of fun and a decent amount of arcady excitement. But rather sooner than later you discover that all the elements seem hastily connected, thus giving the impression of a disharmonic gaming experience.
  3. XboxAddict
    Mar 4, 2019
    50
    The visual aesthetic of Away: Journey to the Unexpected sold me right away, as it’s absolutely gorgeous with its blend of 2D and 3D and bright colorful environments and characters. Below the surface though, the rest of the experience is as bland and uninspired as you can imagine a boy fighting with a stick would be. It’s tough to recommend when it’s only redeeming quality is how pretty it looks, like a gorgeous date you picked up that happens to have a terrible personality and annoys you.
  4. TheXboxHub
    Feb 5, 2019
    40
    Overall, Away: Journey to the Unexpected is a bit of a mess, and what’s even more disappointing is that the trailers of the game have made it really seem like the feel-good FPS game that the developers have aimed for. But the poorly thought out combat mixed, with a lacklustre gameplay loop make the hours spent, frustrating to say the least. While there are some aspects of the game that are well executed like the art and music, Away is a tough game to recommend.
  5. Xbox Tavern
    Feb 7, 2019
    40
    The game is described as a feel good RPG, but in truth, and due to the sheer number of poorly implemented mechanics, it’s more like an RPG that looks good, but feels terrible. The combat is all over the place, the pacing is questionable at best, and the core ‘buddy-up’ system just fails to excite. It doesn’t help matters that its random generation is puddle deep, making it overly repetitive as a result. Pass this by.

User Reviews

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  2. Mixed: 1 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. Xbox_Alive
    Feb 12, 2019
    6
    The presentation side of the game was definitely the best thing about the game as I enjoyed both the visuals and sound design. I enjoyed theThe presentation side of the game was definitely the best thing about the game as I enjoyed both the visuals and sound design. I enjoyed the story that was present for the most part because the humor and charming dialogue kept me invested during my time with the game. There’s a decent amount of variety present in the characters that become added to your team as you progress thru the game. The core gameplay elements get repetitive very quickly which does make things become more tedious than it should. I was a little disappointed with the controls in the game because they never felt as tight as they should’ve been. In terms of content there isn’t a great deal for you to get to grips with and the content that is available to you isn’t varied enough. Combat left a lot to be desired in this game because you never feel in full control and it’s definitely not satisfying enough. Most of the mechanics in the game don’t combine together well enough. I appreciate a game trying to be different but sometimes when doing that you can lose the vision and the game ends up failing in some areas. Unfortunately that’s exactly what Away: Journey to the Unexpected does and this in turn makes you forget quickly about the good things the game does. This is too bad, because the story is interesting and funny and the presentation that accompanies the story ticks a lot of boxes. This however is not enough because the gameplay is just not fun enough and any fun it does have is quickly lost due to the game’s problems. These problems range from being too repetetive to controls that simply don’t feel right and the issues don’t stop there. The combat elements fail to pack a punch which in turn makes defeating the enemies and bosses you come across not very satisfying at all. You also have to deal with several mechanics that don’t combine together well enough and the lack of variety in the content makes you forget about the nice and diverse characters that are present. At the end of the day then Away: Journey to the Unexpected just has too much wrong with it and I came away from the game feeling very disappointed because I must admit that I did expect a lot more. Unfortunately then I can’t recommend this game to you because when it’s all said and done there are much better games out there for you to play.… Expand