Before The Elder Scrolls series and Fallout, there were titles that kept the first-person action/adventure very simple. These older titles would be over swept by modern day gaming and would never be missed by most but we here at Honey’s Anime remember them quite fondly. Away: Journey to the Unexpected reminds us of those simpler days but wrapped up with an anime aesthetic that just screams our names! However, does Away: Journey to the Unexpected remind us of better days or does it falter in both gameplay and design? We arrive to those answers below in our full review so don’t leave this page just yet!

Away: Journey to the Unexpected has players take on the role of a young boy who must stop an evil force aiming to remove his family due to their diabolical—and ridiculous—plot. Pick up your mighty stick—yes, we said stick—and fight off monsters and explore various areas. You’ll have to also befriend potential allies by answering their questions correctly and earning their trust. With anime themed visuals, a simple gameplay formula done by a two-man developer team and an intriguing tale, Away: Journey to the Unexpected will appeal to gamers who might like simpler titles.

Sometimes, a journey starts in the most peculiar of ways. They can begin by finding a secret book that teleports you to a mysterious world or maybe you find yourself meeting a traveler from a far away land. In Away: Journey to the Unexpected, your journey begins when a hole in your basement opens and you decide to see where it leads to. Arm yourself with a feeble stick and embark on a whimsical tale filled with strange allies and even stranger enemies. Gather a slew of heroes/sidekicks and become the hero you were never trying to be!

Most games have development teams of dozens of employees who must work together to create even the simplest game for the gaming public. Away: Journey to the Unexpected was done by a two-man group who worked on games like Rayman Legends and The Next Penelope. Thus, we went into Away: Journey to the Unexpected with genuine curiosity and wonder. The minute that Away: Journey to the Unexpected loaded up, we were greeted to an anime-like opening that instantly hooked us and made us slam the start button. Unfortunately, not too long after we started up Away: Journey to the Unexpected, we began to see some issues that we knew would damper our enjoyment of the game. Is Away: Journey to the Unexpected a game worth playing? We shall give you our answer in our full review of Away: Journey to the Unexpected for the PC.

At its core, Away: Journey to the Unexpected is a first-person adventure RPG with an action focus. Your primary goal is to go around different locations—all of which are quite nice to look at due to the semi 2D/3D anime theme—and beat down enemies to save your family. To accomplish this seemingly impossible task, you’ll need to use your primary weapon—a stick—and beat enemies silly. Away: Journey to the Unexpected does offer other weapon choices from your potential allies you recruit as you go on your adventure. Each ally has a different weapon and power which you can tap into as long as they have energy to be used. This simplicity allows Away: Journey to the Unexpected to work—in terms of gameplay—well enough to be a solid first-person adventure title, but it’s also where we began to see the major issues with this indie title.

Before we talk about what Away: Journey to the Unexpected does wrong, let’s discuss the positives. The first big thing that is noticeable right away in Away: Journey to the Unexpected is the anime visuals that blend 2D and 3D together. Enemies and characters have an almost 2D nature to them but they move—like you do—in the third dimension. While it might seem strange, it actually gives Away: Journey to the Unexpected a really strong sense of individuality. Add to this the impressive score—which really awesome—and you get at least a beautiful looking and sounding game.

Gameplay wise, Away: Journey to the Unexpected does a few things right. The brunt of the game is you running around different locations and beat up enemies with a stick, but Away: Journey to the Unexpected also throws in some interesting elements that work well. Dying in Away: Journey to the Unexpected might seem like a punishment—since you have to redo everything you did up to that point—but it also acts as your only form of advancement level wise. After you die, your progress made gives you experience points which in turn unlock new perks. These perks will help your survivability next run and usually make things a bit easier with each advancement.

As you progress—story wise—in Away: Journey to the Unexpected you’ll meet a strange slew of allies that will also help you stay alive. Each new character you can recruit will give you a slew of questions and if you appease that character with good answers, they will help you in your quest. You can have several allies in your team and at any time can swap between them allowing you to use their weapons/skills at the cost of their energy going down. You’ll have to learn when to use an ally and when to keep them in reserves—usually using them in boss areas is the best stratagem—to best stay alive in Away: Journey to the Unexpected. However, dying with allies means you’ll have to re-recruit them and it’s here we begin our journey into the weaker elements of Away: Journey to the Unexpected.

We’ll be quite honest, folks; Away: Journey to the Unexpected is a bit repetitive and stale for what is only a several hour game at best. Unlike other indie titles with roguelike elements— Away: Journey to the Unexpected has random elements so it can be considered a roguelike—there’s a feeling of been there done that with Away: Journey to the Unexpected. You’ll go through areas over and over as you perfect your runs, but the combat and gameplay never change enough to feel refreshing. Hitting enemies with a stick might seem funny at first but less than an hour in we began to grow bored of it and wished we’d gotten a sword or something. Allies might have different weapons but often you won’t be able to use them enough and will be forced to just run around…with a stick. Away: Journey to the Unexpected feels like an indie game from ten or more years ago and that makes the experience feel very weak overall.

Lastly, Away: Journey to the Unexpected might be totted as an affordable indie game for its run time, but we don’t feel that is a very accurate statement. If Away: Journey to the Unexpected was $8 or $10, we’d be perfectly fine with how it looks and plays. Instead, Away: Journey to the Unexpected is $17 dollars, which just feels like a bit of a steep price. We understand the anime visuals and music might have made the price of Away: Journey to the Unexpected a bit higher overall to make but its gameplay—as mentioned above—doesn’t warrant the cost. Most indie games can push hundreds of hours’ worth of play time with beautiful graphics and gameplay all while still only costing $15. It’s admirable Away: Journey to the Unexpected was done by two fellows with a vision, but it still doesn’t deserve such a high price tag for what is a quick and repetitive experience.

Away: Journey to the Unexpected clearly was made by a small team and while it has plenty of charm, the gameplay itself suffers do to this lack of developer power. Combat never goes beyond simple one hit attacks, the adventure—while funny and random—doesn’t really feel that engaging and ultimately the experience feels too bland to really enjoy. Is Away: Journey to the Unexpected a bad game? Not necessarily, but its nearly $20-dollar price tag doesn’t make us recommend it to everyone. If you were a fan of the older first-person adventure games of yesteryear, then Away: Journey to the Unexpected might appeal to you given it looks good and feels old school. However, seeing as how we’ve come a long way in gaming since those days, Away: Journey to the Unexpected won’t appeal to most and we can understand why.

There’s a lot of developer power in Away: Journey to the Unexpected seeing as how both of the two-man team has some strong titles behind them. However, Away: Journey to the Unexpected feels very outdated maybe do in part to its smaller dev team. If Away: Journey to the Unexpected was priced at maybe $8-$10 dollars, we could forgive a few more of its flaws, but at $16.99, the price of admission feels a bit steep. Away: Journey to the Unexpected is clearly geared at anime fans and/or those who grew up with simpler first-person action/adventure titles but in a world where other titles have done it considerable better, Away: Journey to the Unexpected just misses the mark to be a truly solid title.

Have you played Away: Journey to the Unexpected or have a different opinion than us? Comment below as we always love talking about differing opinions on games we’ve played. Be sure to keep stuck to our hive for more game reviews and articles done by us busy bees at Honey’s Anime!