PREVIEW : Torn Away Demo (PC)
With a few exceptions, there weren’t many significant AAA announcements at Gamescom this year, but the event did feature a lot of intriguing independent releases. Torn Away from Perelesoq is the subject of today’s retrospective.
What we know
The story of World War 2 is told from the viewpoint of a young child in the game Torn Away, which combines three different gameplay philosophies. Platforming sections occasionally include mini-puzzles and quick stealth sequences, all of which are presented in a 2D visual style that was influenced by the Gobelins school of animation.
The game will occasionally switch to a traditional 2.5D adventure game format as well, allowing you to explore areas, find and use objects, and advance the plot. Frequently, these interactions will involve your imaginary friend, a sock puppet who represents a connection between the main character Asya and her father, who was sent off to war although there hasn’t been any word from them in a while.
Asya, who was also sent to a labour camp, is followed in the game as she escapes and searches for her way back “home,” wherever that may be at the moment. Asya’s journey is peaceful because she is only ten years old, but the path to freedom is nevertheless paved with peril. The most dramatic scenes are shown in first-person sequences as Asya makes her way through crowds of people or tries to find refuge from a blizzard. Since it was created in Unity and is presently being developed for the PC, a console port is conceivable if the game is successful.
What we saw
With a playable demo available on Steam during Gamescom, Torn Away caught our interest with its non-violent approach to the gory realities of war, not dissimilar to what the well-received This War of Mine did a few years back.
To learn more about the game, we spoke with Artem Koblov, creative director at publisher Perelesoq, as well as experienced the demo, which has roughly 20 minutes of gameplay. Before our hands-on time, he led us through the demo and was there to answer any questions afterwards.
What we thought
The demo did a fantastic job of displaying all three of the components that would make up the narrative campaign, even though the full game will take roughly 3 to 4 hours to complete. The total of the three, though, lies in the narrative delivery, which seems to be an effective one even though none of the three in isolation demonstrated much in the way of originality or cutting-edge gameplay.
Although Asya’s narrative is tragic, it is also one of optimism and a yearning to flee the atrocities of war. Torn Away is shaping out to be one of those games where the gameplay serves a greater purpose of presenting a memorable narrative that leaves an imprint that transcends the game’s mechanics, with a plot that was inspired by actual letters written by children during wartime.
If the demo is any indication of what is to come, two key components to assist communicate the narrative are in place, and both have been implemented well: a distinctive visual style and voiceovers that help explain the story. We anticipate having fun with the finished product once it is ready because the upcoming months will primarily be spent on additional polishing.
