Log Away Review (PC)

Log Away relishes the notion that the world can be a better place when it doesn’t have the hustle and bustle of big-city living and monolithic culture. It writes a love letter, not to enlighten you on the possibilities outside of city limits, but to invite you to spectate the wholesome commodities that flesh out the campfire quarters of a quaint woodland retreat. With the keys to a log cabin and a plethora of naturalistic trinkets, it welcomes you with a blank slate, and asks only that you take a moment to breathe, relax, and enjoy the ambiance of a quieter, simpler world.

Glued between the splinters of Log Away’s rustic charm is a cozy build ‘em up experience that allows you to plant roots in a multitude of natural cabins and, with the help of a trove of resources and custom materials, establish a home away from home where you can leave negative thoughts at the door and openly embrace tranquility deep within its warm boroughs and candlelit crags and crevices. It doesn’t hand you an endless scroll of chores to complete, nor does it force you to battle the climate with a survival-based attitude. No, instead, Log Away grants you the opportunity to create without the hassle of having to deal with temperamental weather conditions or impromptu wildlife encounters. And if you think that sounds awfully cozy, well, that’s because it is.

Log Away proudly wears its heart on its sleeve with a simple yet elegant customizable canvas and sleek UI that offers you the flexibility to explore, build, and essentially wipe your feet wherever you deem fit. It doesn’t do much more than that, but funnily enough, it doesn’t need to. See, there’s a gripping hook here that feels endearing, despite being without the meat of a full-fledged open-world sandbox or the slack of a bottomless toolkit. It’s a therapeutic pastime—a cozy affair that soothes the soul and keeps you from falling back to bad habits. And, when all’s said and done, isn’t that sort of what video games are all about?

Candlelit Memories

Log Away is a bunch of different things, but a tough and perplexing survival-crafting game isn’t one of them. See, while the game does accommodate shifting weather patterns and a seemingly ominous location, at no point does it strike you as a threatening tale. If Log Away is anything at all, it’s a cabin-centric build-and-bolster experience in which you collect mementos and natural keepsakes, embellish woodland retreats, and harmonize with the natural ambiance and its vast wonders. There’s no time limit to keep you on your toes, and there are no endgame secrets that hide behind dozens of progression-locked milestones. It’s just you, an open planner, and a corner of paradise that looms out in the middle of nowhere.

The objective is a simple, albeit common one: build a cabin out in the sticks—a job that involves selecting walls, windows, and natural building materials to help form the foundation, and adding small pieces of art and other homely comforts to the space to give it that natural feel. To add, you can unearth “Keepsakes”—small items that house a backstory that, once found, illuminate a certain aspect that correlates with your personal interests. For example, if you select three out of ten possible interests at the beginning of your tale, then the Keepsakes that you find over the course of your retreat-building escapade will revolve around those hobbies and personal goals. It’s a neat touch, and one that also happens to boost the overall replay value, naturally.

As you progress through Log Away and gradually decorate till your heart’s content, you frequently come to find additional trunks and travel bags, which offer you the chance to remove the latches and add even more intricate details to your chain of retreats. In short, the more you add, the more your warm heart begins to adjust to the idyllic spirit of the world and its acoustic effects. Sweet, yet charmingly more-ish, all things considered.

Home Is What You Make It

Essentially, what you have here is a laid-back first-person experience that presents you with a selection of windows and portals to explore, with each “pocket” of its woodland archipelago offering its own binder of Keepsakes and backstories to unlock, and a themed suite of decorations and items for you to manually implement and customize. There’s a simple tool here that, while not teeming with lavish add-ons and bits and pieces for you to tailor, harbors some great ideas and options to experiment with. Courtesy of its in-game toolkit, you can work with a plethora of lights, plants, studies, and all of the natural furnishings that emit wholesome auras and campfire comforts. And to give credit where it’s due, there’s a lot of creative work to be done here, with multiple cabins to venture out to and a wealth of heirlooms to unlock for your binder.

There are, sadly, a couple of issues that need to be addressed here. For example, the camera movement is a little finnicky, and can often prove to be a pain in the neck when moving between rooms. To add, there are only so many options for you to explore before the experience becomes a little dull and repetitive, by which I mean, once you finish mopping up your cabins with all of the natural carvings and Keepsakes, there isn’t a lot for you to do. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still cozy, but there’s also a novelty factor that, unfortunately, begins to wear thin the more you kick your feet up by its warm fires. Perhaps, then, a few more modes of play would be beneficial. Just a thought.

Verdict

Log Away is a pleasant woodland-centric sandbox that is as soothing as it is smothered in blissful detail, with its wholesome candlelit atmosphere and quaint naturalistic feel amounting to the oaky backbone of a genuinely enjoyable experience. It’s still without the weight of a big-city build ‘em up, but with troves of keepsakes and seasonal set pieces here for you to choose from, it is in receipt of plenty of solid features that will keep you fleshing out woodland wonders for hours.

Of course, if you do enjoy stress-free sandbox games that turn a blind eye to relentlessly challenging graft culture, then Log Away will more than likely appeal to your inner creative at heart. It’s a peaceful game all in all, and one that chooses to be simple and elegant in a manner that doesn’t require much context to be enjoyed. Granted, it doesn’t do much more to keep you interested outside of its cabin decoration suite, but it does achieve the desired effect: to provide its audience with a cozy atmosphere that can be tailored and explored to suit the curator’s primal desires.