Away: The Survival Series will let you play as a tiny sugar glider

By Heidi Nicholas,

Adventure game Away: The Survival Series is set to launch for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S through backwards compatibility later this year, and has you playing as a tiny sugar glider in a big and dangerous world.

Away: The Survival Series has been in development for around five years. Your character, that little sugar glider, is setting out into the world to save its family. The game draws inspiration from nature documentaries — for instance, a narrator will describe the plants and creatures you encounter so that you learn more about the world as you move through it. Creative director Laurent Bernier says that a key aspect of creating the feeling of a nature documentary "was setting the right atmosphere through the game’s music and sound design," and that developer Breaking Walls partnered with Mike Raznick, who worked as a composer on BBC documentaries like Life and Planet Earth II, to "create an enchanting orchestral soundtrack for our game."

As a sugar glider, you'll be vulnerable to a variety of threats. The game's world includes forests and swamps, and your sugar glider will even head underground. Bernier says that "you must rely on the sugar glider’s agility and stealth to avoid becoming your predators’ next meal. In some cases, though, you may have no choice but to face enemies head-on and put the sugar glider’s fighting skills to the test." You'll be facing everything from lizards to scorpions, and, as we saw in the extended gameplay video, your sugar glider will even possess other animals. That last bit was pretty unexpected, but it's true; apparently, having your sugar glider eat blue mushrooms will cause its possess bar to fill, meaning you can look for other animals to take control of.

Along with the nature documentary theme, Away: The Survival Series also has a bit of a futuristic vibe — the game's set in a distant future "where nature has reclaimed the planet," and the gameplay footage above shows overgrown bunkers filled with security cameras and footage, with the sugar glider apparently working out what happened to the world.

Away: The Survival Series is set to launch for Xbox One later this year.

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Xbox One

Written by Heidi Nicholas

Heidi tends to lean towards indie games, RPGs, and open-world games on Xbox, and when not playing Disney Dreamlight Valley, happily installs every new wholesome game that appears on Xbox Game Pass, before diving back into favorites like The Witcher 3. She's looking forward to Age of Mythology Retold, Everwild, Fable, and Avowed on the Xbox horizon. Heidi graduated with an MA in English Literature before joining the TrueAchievements team.