[h1]Another abandoned title dropped into the abyss of what I like to call [i][b]Early Access Hell[/b][/i].[/h1]
[h1]Overview:[/h1]
"[i]AWAKE[/i]" is supposedly supposed to be a survival game where you fight for your life dealing with both thirst and hunger. Unfortunately there's nothing else you really need to look out for. There are no predators, weather hazards, or anything else of the sort to keep you on your toes besides just thirst and hunger. You start off with some food items, a pickaxe and an axe; the only two '[i]weapons[/i]' you'll have in the game which purposes are only to harvest resources. There's food and water to be found sure but that's literally it. Besides finding the necessities you need to keep on playing ([i]if you really are that mad[/i]), you can run around chopping down trees or mining rocks for resources to craft certain things which all have no real purpose other than just being there. I guess it [i]does[/i] technically have some of the basics that a "[i]survival[/i]" game needs in order for it to be what it says it is, but there are definitely numerous holes in the game that just spells out "[i][b]no[/b][/i]". It's unfortunate that almost all [i]Unity[/i] games have to be put out like this because great things can be made from said engine if done right.
[h1]Gameplay:[/h1]
"[i]AWAKE[/i]" has little to offer when it comes to actually playing it despite calling itself one of the types of games where you almost have all the freedom to do what you want to survive. The actual gameplay (if even there) is extremely boring and it doesn't take long before the player will eventually be bored enough to quit before they even craft anything. Not even 5 minutes into playing and I already knew what kind of game it was. It is abandonware in which the initial developers have given up on updating the game and/or working on it until completion. This means that what the game may promise or claim it will have is no more. This alone is enough to send people the other direction because the game is incomplete. That being said, the entire game's playability is barely there and what you may think you can do, you probably can't. It looks like you can do a lot more than you actually can and to be quite honest, the game looked like it had a future to say the least. Essentially the only things you can do in the game to my knowledge is:
[b]1. Basic movement; walking, running, jumping, climbing (somewhat).
2. Consuming certain items that affect your status.
3. Manage inventory; organizing items, switching between pickaxe/axe.
4. Mining rocks and chopping down trees.
5. Picking up items.
6. Crafting structures.[/b]
Something you [b][i]SHOULD[/i][/b] be able to do but can't do is swim. That however does not surprise me.
The game gives you as little as it can possibly get away to still be a survival game. The game technically still functions as a survival game but more than half of what the game should have isn't present which makes everything that much more boring that much quicker.
[h1]Visuals:[/h1]
The game doesn't look as good as I believe it could have. The actual visuals could have looked nice, but shaders, rendering distances, and consistency mess up with the overall look of the game. The game looks like a mess with different models and sprites having different resolutions making it seem like objects from other games were just randomly thrown into the world with no thought or care whatsoever. The game looks like a dull and uninspired mess. Everything you may run across doesn't have any kind of reason of being there, it's just there. Examples are some buildings you may find that have nothing in it and sometimes can not even be entered even though there's an obvious doorway. Shading in the game is also inconsistent. Places where shadows should be casting, aren't casting where some parts of the map will have the appropriate amount of shading. And rendering distance is an absolute disaster even on max settings. Small grass decals will not appear further than 10 yards from your view and shadows will also cut-off depending on how far you are; they sometimes even stutter. The graphical quality in the game did not receive any kind of regard whatsoever and the developer did not at one point take into consideration of the quality of the visuals (and if they did, they certainly did not show it).
[h1]Controls:[/h1]
Like pretty much everything else, it's inconsistent. The biggest issue I encountered when it comes to control is that picking up items don't always work. Even if you look directly at an item you intend to pick up, it does not always register and you have to fidget around a little before you eventually pick it up. Spamming the jump key can also almost get you anywhere you want that has a slant which is ridiculous. The general feeling of the controls in the game feel primitive, cheap and almost binary. It feels like you're playing the most basic browser game and just doesn't feel satisfying. If controls had a price, this would range between the 1 dollar range.
[h1]Audio:[/h1]
Nothing much can be said for the audio besides: "[b]It's ripped straight from the asset pack![/b]". Again, basic sounds like the wind and ocean stay at a fixed volume and can be heard forever no matter where you are on the island. Everything else sounds I guess the way you would expect it to sound for a game that's another simple asset flip from the [i]Unity Engine[/i]. Doesn't sound unique but sounds the way it should. This does not however mean the game's audio is pristine. It still sounds cheap and just tossed in without regards to volume and distancing ([i]e.g: Sounds of the ocean do not lessen the more inland you go[/i]). It's again, all binary just like the controls.
[h1]Conclusion/TL;DR:[/h1]
It's clearly an abandoned game almost [b]5 years[/b] in alongside the other hundreds of survival games stuck in [i]Early Access[/i] that have been long forgotten by its developers. It feels incomplete and the island itself is bland, boring, and unappealing to look at let alone play in. It's barely good for even 10 minutes of playtime before you're off to do something else more fun. But it's free? Don't be robbed of your time. No matter how tempting the word "[i][b]Free[/b][/i]" may be, you're still losing something you [i]can't[/i] receive a refund for: [b]Time[b].
