Developer: perelesoq
Platforms: PC (Reviewed), Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Genre: Adventure
Publisher: perelesoq, Hawthorn Games, OverGamez
Torn Away is an interactive story. This game was developed by Perelesoq and published by Perelesoq, Hawthorn Games, and OverGamez. A similar game to Torn Away would be OU. Torn Away features a unique blend of adventure games, side-scrollers, and cinematic first-person levels, which is not found in many other games. This review was done for the PC but is also available for other gaming platforms.
Torn Away is a single-player game that is focused on war, and the story is told through the eyes of a young girl. The young girl’s name is Asya, and she is ten years old. The game captures realism through brutality and the good side of humanity through the eyes of the young girl. The story revolves around her struggles through the war and how she literally gets “torn away” from home. The game does a lovely job of capturing such a traumatic story with great narrative aspects. I would say this game may not be intended for everyone, but it truly is a game that flawlessly tells a heartbreaking story with greatness.
Now, the controls for Torn Away are fairly simple. When starting the game, Asya is in her room, and you play through a little tutorial that shows you the different controls you will need to know. As the game has many different elements to it, other controls are shown in the future when getting to a certain point. For instance, when wrapping up a cut with a bandage, a mouse turn symbol appears to indicate to the player to carry out this action. The controls have no delays and play extremely smoothly.
The art style for Torn Away is, in a way, the perfect style to describe this story. It seems like a mix of hand-painted elements to create line sketches and cartoonish characters while still simulating realistic aspects. The visuals are beyond stunning and gorgeous. There are various elements that take on the cartoonish look, which, in a way, portrays the way the child views the world, and the muted colour tone of the game portrays the horror of the war. It blends this idea of playful youth trapped within a disaster. The colour sets the tone for this depressing atmosphere, which further adds to the story. What I really liked is Asya’s way of disassociating from the real world is to imagine fun things that turn into a completely different colour tone. It becomes filled with vibrant colours that completely differ from the world Asya truly lives in. The visuals show the player just how bad the world Asya lives in is and create a strong message. Alongside the visuals are the wonderful soundtrack and the great voiceovers. Now, this is a Russian game, so the voice-overs are in Russian, but it makes the game even more authentic. English dialogue follows alongside the voice-overs, and in a way, it gets the player to be more interested in the story. Even though I am not able to understand the voice-overs, I find them to be well-suited for the characters, which is a really good detail to the game. The soundtrack is also not empowering, which I really like; it’s very subtle, with slight music, if anything, played from scene to scene, which does not disrupt the story itself. I like that the sound effects in the game make the atmosphere much more realistic and captivating. All in all, the visuals and audio of this game are spectacular.
I really liked this game as the story captivated me as a player. It showed both the beauty and distraughtness of how a youthful point of view lives through war. As the narrative is so heavy, the visuals, sound effects, and various mechanics really carry the game to its glory. Being able to encounter other side characters and getting to know their stories was one of my favourite parts as it showed the different points of view. The best part about this game is how effortlessly the gameplay style can switch from scene to scene. For instance, you can be playing with a first-person view that can go from a point-and-click style puzzle to a 2D side scroller. It shows the various elements taken from other games to create this seamless blend of play styles. This adds to the main premise of the game, which is being able to show different perspectives and allows the players to delve into other styles they may not have played before. The narrative of this game was stunning, except I found the ending to be a bit unfulfilling, especially when the rest of the game had you so captivated; it seemed like the ending was just thrown there. It was a lovely game to play, and it took roughly 5 hours to complete.
If you’re looking for a game that has a compelling and beautifully told narrative, one that creates an experience filled with unique gameplay styles and remarkable visuals, then you need to check out Torn Away.
Overall: 9/10
This is S & S. We are world game explorers. We play games. We have played over 10,000+ games! We travel, we write reviews AND we play more games!!!!
