Item: Solar Ash
Rating: 9
Author: Heather E. Houston

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Solar Ash

Solar Ash has gut-clenching action buried within a surreal mystery laid out across breathtaking vistas. The endearing characters will often break your heart as they try to cope with the devastation. This second game of independent developers Heart Machine is one for those with strong hearts and nimble fingers.

Developed by: Heart Machine
Published by: Annapurna Interactive
Released on: December 2, 2021

Initial Impressions

Almost immediately, you start with massive enemy encounters. These massive enemies require wild, high-speed traversal and fast fingers. There was a point before I realized this was a mystery that the repetition was overwhelming. However, once the intriguing snippets started poking through this highly stylized world filled with endearing characters, I couldn’t get enough.

Characters

Rei

VoidRunner and savior of her planet, Rei is on a mission. However, something is very wrong. She is virtually alone in this adventure of intrigue and mystery. Everyone depends on her but the balance of the universe may be too much for her to hold.

Echo

We all know someone jaded and unable to see the beauty in the world through a mask of pain. Echo knows more than she wishes. She isn’t a traditional storyline, which propelled me forward through the game.

Massive Anomalies

The enemies are few but formidable. They are huge and require wild high-speed traversal to defeat. Are they what they seem though? Where do they even come from?

Remnants

This stuff is alive and goo at the same time. It has the ability to nuke your character if you stay on it too long. So, keep moving and find the weak spot.

Final Thoughts

Massive enemy after massive enemy reminded me of a classic 2d platformer reimagined on a 3d canvas. Everyone seems to agree that this game should take about 5 hours to complete. On the other hand, I would have to interject that this number will depend greatly on your finger dexterity. I am on the low end of this particular scale, which led to much repetition. I was able to progress through the game but slowly. At 5 hours, I believe that I was on level 2 fighting the second massive anomaly.

Overall, this was an amazing game full of fun and intrigue and well worth the hours I spent on it. Grab it in the Epic Games Store here.

Score: 9.0

Solar Ash Review

Overall

9/10

Overall - 9/10

9/10

Summary

From the creators of the award-winning Hyper Light Drifter comes the high-speed and gravity-bending world of Solar Ash.

Set amidst a surreal dreamscape filled with long-abandoned ruins of great civilizations past, you play as Rei, a Voidrunner determined to stop at nothing to save her planet from falling prey to the Ultravoid’s path of eternal hunger.

Fight through mobs of grotesque creatures, grind rails with sheer delight, grapple to wild heights, take down enormous bosses, and surf the ashen clouds of shattered, bygone worlds swallowed by the void.

In this highly stylized action adventure unlike no other, will Rei persevere and make her way through the deadly encounters of this ravenous void in order to save her home? Will she learn the truth about these massive beasts that roam this strange land and uncover the mysteries of the Starseed and Echo?