AWAY: Journey to the Unexpected

I've got no idea why this thing has a negative rating. It's definitely not amazing, but it's far from being bad.
This is a cutesy story that lasts 3 or 4 hours, as it blatantly says on the store page, where you try to save your parents from an evil construction company. You recruit other characters by meeting them in the game world and they've all got their own abilities.
It's got shooting, melee and more defensive characters.
Visuals are appealing, performance is smooth enough only thing is that it's very short and a little bit expensive for the content. Otherwise, not all that bad.
Full video review:

I wish steam had a "It's okay" not just a binary yes or no answer, I only give this a yes because it's right up my alley, I can't get enough of games with this kind of charm to it. However, until it gets more updates or something, it's just not $16.99 nice. If you can pick this up for about $5 I say absolutely go for it because it isn't a bad game in the slightest, but you'll complete this game in under 4 hours.
I like it, I like the charm and personality it has, I like the wholesome writing the game has, I love the art style, I like the music, I like the environments. Ultimately, I think my biggest issue with the game is that there isn't more of it. It felt like it was over just as it was beginning.
That being said, The combat could do with a bit of a tuneup as well, as like, I see what they were going for, which is quick Zelda-like whacks, but the rest of the game doesn't have enough meat on it's bones for the charm (which IS there), to carry it alone at the price they're asking for.
You can exploit pretty much every enemy in the game by circling around them or rhythmically whacking as soon as they get close enough while standing still. If there was just a bit more variety that kept you on your toes other than the mole enemies that you can only damage when they come out from the ground, then it'd probably be a better combat system. But even the mole enemies you can exploit with a charge attack. The game is pretty much just too easy. There's nothing wrong with easy games, but the rest of the game does not have the depth or longevity to match the kind of games it pays homage to.
Also, they didn't translate from controller to Keyboard & Mouse very well, as there's a mouse lag in the game and you cannot turn it off at the time I write this review. Also, the menus are keyboard controlled instead of mouse controlled. Some people really don't like this, and in any other game it'd be a death sentence for it's controls, but it never became such an issue that I couldn't get used to it since this isn't a twitch shooter where precision matters.
All in all, I give this a slightly cautious recommendation. Like, again, it's not at all a bad game in the slightest, it just lacks length and certain key things that would take it from good to great.

Picked this game up on PSN to pass around with my kids. I played for about 3 hours on my first playthrough. That time is what this review is based on. Although, I did play for about 20 minutes here on Steam so I could make sure everything was the same. I plan on keeping it here on Steam, even though I'll most likely be playing it on the PS4. It's worth a double purchase. So yeah, the review.
Away is a pretty simple game with a simple gameplay loop. Make friends, get gold and bombs, then kill stuff till you either die, or get to the end, level up and gain access to new areas and abilities, repeat. That's it.
But, that's not it, completely. Because it's the stuff that fills in the cracks that make Away such a fun time.
The movement is just plain fun. It's fast, responsive and the game will play out as fast, or as slow as you want it to depending on how good you are with movement/combat. Honestly, this game screams speed running, if you're into that.
The audio reminds me of Spyro a bit, as does the general tone, although that may just be because of my own mental wiring.
Graphically, the game is beautiful. From the anime opening that is reminiscent of Studio-Ghibli-lite mixed with some of the anime found on early Cartoon Network blocks, to the Dragon Warrior-esk enemies. This thing feels like a love letter to classical anime design. The visuals are eye-candy, and the intro can be left on repeat for a bit before it even starts to get tiring.
Then there's the story. It's not Shakespeare, but it doesn't try to be. It's a lighthearted story about a boy that's trying to figure out who busted a hole in the wall of his grandparents home. Along the way he meets characters that know a little more (or sometimes a little less) than you about the situation at hand, and another narrative that's threaded in too. You befriend some of the characters, and this allows you to play as them in a sense (more on this in a second). It never gets very deep (although I haven't beaten the final boss yet), but there's a kernel to chew on once you get past some of the initial arcs. There's also some side-characters that have their own stories that all work to add a sense of character and depth to the world.
The friends you meet along the way is probably the mechanic most worth talking about. While playing you pick up Friendship Cubes. These allow you to open up larger conversation chains with different characters you meet. If you pick the right options, or meet a certain goal, they'll join you on your quest. From then on you can switch between the main character and his friends. All of the friends have different quirks and attacks. From a fireball tossing wizard, to a friend that tosses something near and dear to them on the ground (no spoilers). These friends don't work off of your heart/health system, but their own energy gauge. If they get hit, the gauge goes down. If they attack, their gauge goes down. There are certain exceptions to this, but generally you need to look at them like abilities that you can use that run on a limited basis. Because once the energy is depleted, the friend/ability is gone till your next run. Choosing when to use them is a pretty fun part of the game, as it has you deciding between risking hearts and fighting with a stick, risking running out of energy and being locked out of a good ability later when you may need it more, or tossing grenades (fireworks in this game), a resource that doesn't regenerate naturally, but you can find them in chests, as drops, or at the store. To add to this, once you unlock a good selection of friends you also have the choice of what ones are you going to add to your group to effectively build your character with. On first glance, it seems shallow, but as you play the game and feel the choices and options for yourself I think you'll come to appreciate it.
All in all, this game is well worth the asking price for what it is. A feel-good action game with a short gameplay loop and tons of charm. It's something parents can enjoy with their kids, or by their selves to get that feeling of other feel-good action games of the past (such as Spyro or some of the Rare N64 action games).
Pick it up and give it a chance if this review sounds good to you. I think you'll have a fun time.

So I'll start by saying this, I got this in the Jingle Jam bundle (so technically not free, but I didn't buy it individually)
I've played just over an hour as of writing this, so I may update this as I go on...
TLDR, cute game, great aesthetic, nice change from a regular rogue-lite if you're looking for a slower pace. Gameplay was semi-challenging (so far) BUT there are definitely fixes and quality of life changes needed...
- Make the 'hub' worlds smaller/get rid of them, far too big and empty
- Allow access to view key bindings for controls and moves learned
- Fix the sound!
The story seems interesting, you start in your room and search the house, you find a frog in your toilet, grandparents in the kitchen and then your dog in the basement. They tell you someone blew a hole in your house, and so you leave through it and are thrust into the first 'hub' world. I started to run around and talk to characters and expected a slow paced open world. But then when I eventually died to the first boss, and was dropped back at the beginning with most of my progress lost, I was reminded this is a rogue-lite. It felt very disjointed and I was a little thrown off. I thought maybe it would pick up the pace after the starting area, but this hasn't happened yet and eventually started to feel oddly grindy.
The same goes for the 'hub' worlds. From what I can tell in each area there's a shop and three goals/switches needed to activate the boss door and progress to the next area. Great concept, it gives reason to the different 'zones', but the hub worlds are SO BIG AND EMPTY! It takes FAR too long to go from the entrance to the shop, back to a cave, then off to recruit a character, then back to the shop etc. I spent so much time just running around doing nothing it got quite boring, and in turn made me quite impatient when it came to combat, inevitably leading to mistakes. Again this made it feel disjointed as combat can actually be challenging.
I understand this is a shorter game (3-5 hrs) but knowing this just makes the large maps seem like they're there to artificially extend the playtime which is disappointing... The only incentive to run around and explore the seemingly empty map is to get enough money to use at the shop (which I found too useful to ignore) or to find the chests which can contain money, items or hearts. If your'e full on hearts, however, it just disappears and you've wasted your time. This was the biggest downside for me, as it felt slow and back-tracky.
HOWEVER, I appreciate when you get further you open 'shortcuts' and can run through (slowly) and get to the next area faster. Maybe you unlock other things to make this less annoying later. You also keep your money, from what I have seen, but you loose your followers which you then have to run and speak to again to get back (if you've also run and picked up the character cube slot thing).
Lastly there's the lack of any form of 'user guide'. For example in many games you'll have the controls and their key bindings in the pause menu. I could not find this anywhere. There was no description on controls apart form a series of pop ups when you first start the game but never again. There is no guide to remind you of your items, what they do, how you swing your weapon etc. Granted, the controls are very simple, but later in my play through I learned a 'charge attack' but i missed how to activate it, because the only time I saw it mentioned was when I died, and it shows what your exp unlocked. I don't wish to die every time I want to remind myself of how to do a move.
Another thing was the sounds. It was incredibly loud on start up so I immediately adjusted the volume to one above zero which was tolerable, but throughout the game certain sound affects were still at full volume (e.g. the first boss screaming at me). This even happened when I turned all sound off. This may just be a bug or be patched already, but it's such a simple thing and made playing frustrating at times.
So there is is. Overall I do like this game. I will play again and possibly update this review in time. It will certainly be for the lazier days where I fancy a rogue-lite type game that's a bit slower and chilled out though.
I cant help but feel with smaller hub worlds (or getting rid of them completely in favour of a linear dungeon crawl layout) this could have been a much more enjoyable experience and a very unique addition to the rogue-lite genre.

The art style is absolutely adorable. Controls are straightforward and easy to understand. The game play is a little repetitive, though. Combat is a little bit more difficult than anticipated, leading to a lot of running the same section of the game over and over again(I'm watching the developer stream right now, and they are doing the same thing over and over and over again). All together, not a bad game. I'm enjoying it thus far.

Another case where a neutral option would be perfect. Love the art style and character designs. Gameplay is decent, though hit detection could be better. Wish it was a more fully realized action RPG rather than a quick little rogue-lite. Definitely could have used more content. Not as bad as the current average of "mostly negative" would lead you to believe, but I feel that there isn't enough content for $15. Worth picking on sale though.

Fps roguelite (barony, delver, city of brass etc) with the cutest, charmingest, most amazingest graphic I've ever seen. It's so charming it can rot your teeth off. The gameplay is simple but solid, and the gimmick you recruit party member as your "weapon" but you also change into their pov when you change into them, for example someone might only see in monochrome, or someone have broken glasses ruining their pov. The length seems to be short and sweet, which is the kind of game I like nowadays anyway, but some people might prefer it discounted.