This review may be about four months too late, but after getting my hands on Solar Ash, I couldn’t resist wanting to talk about it. Originally released late last year in December, Solar Ash is published by Annapurna Interactive and developed by Heart Machine, the same developers as the 2016’s very stylized 2D action game, Hyper Light Drifter. Just like that game, this one is utterly gorgeous with its simplistic style, but also, its extremely vibrant colors, making this apocalyptic adventure a real site to behold.
Solar Ash takes place inside a black hole known as the Ultravoid. This black hole is a devourer of planets and it’s up to our female protagonist, Rei, to stop the Ultravoid from decimating her home planet. Rei is a voidrunner, part of a group of explorers that seek out these black holes for the betterment of preserving life. As a voidrunner you are equipped with tech that gives you a cool melee weapon and the ability to traverse maps quickly with a very fun roller skating-like ability. One of my favorite parts about this game is exploring its vast chaotic world. The colors pop with a neon-like pallet and with the simple animated approach, everything looks sleek, smooth, fluffy, and sometimes delicate. Throughout playing I was also consumed by it’s amazing sci-fi synth score, I tip my hat to the composer.
While progressing through the story, there are handfuls of smaller enemies to fight through, some really fun platforming, and some light puzzles to help mix things up. The standouts for me are the boss fights. You’re fighting these remnants, these giant, titan sized monsters the best way voidrunners can… by usually skating directly on them, which will also require some challenging platforming to pull off. Scope is something the developers pull off very well, the size of these monsters, the size of Rei, all of which in this vast destructive void. All of it makes the experience feel an extra level of grand.
Besides fighting the bosses to proceed, there is a bit else to do inside this Ultravoid, such as collectibles. As you explore, you’ll come across audio logs and notes, this is where a predominant amount of the lore building takes place. Most of the voicework is from those audio logs, Rei herself isn’t complete mute either, but with such a tranquil score and engaging visual esthetic I didn’t mind the quiet. It can be quite peaceful traversing around, reading notes and listening to those logs. Solar Ash is brilliant at constantly making you feel in motion in some form or another. The areas are also very well designed and really helps the gamer believe they are exploring with a purpose. There are also a handful of different suits to acquire that all have different abilities, a part of me wishes I could keep all the abilities at the same time, but changing up how you look every now and then to do something specific isn’t bad either.
Solar Ash really surprised me with how engrossed it made me feel to the world they built. I was very pleased with the ending, which I wasn’t expecting. The entire experience may take you up to roughly seven hours to complete. While that doesn’t seem like a long time, I had a very memorable seven hours playing it. With a $40 price tag, I say it’s very much worth it. If you’re still not swayed, it will certainly be worth it whenever it goes on sale. Check it out!
9/10
For more information, please visit: https://annapurnainteractive.com/games/solar-ash
Related: SOLAR ASH New Gameplay Revealed at Sony’s State of Play
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Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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