While there are enemies to fight, encounters with them are streamlined. This is a world full of swooping rails, of floating platforms, of localised gravity, and of simple but satisfying movement puzzles. This is a world full of swooping rails, of floating platforms, of localised gravity, and of simple but satisfying movement puzzles.īut for the most part the skating feels great between those hiccups, whether you’re boosting then double jumping to skip across the surface of treacherous acid lakes, leapfrogging through a series of grapple points in the air, directing then riding mushroom rails, or ascending a bulbous column of clouds in order to reach an ancient structure high in the sky. I appreciated having to wrangle Rei’s inertia in order to bring her to a sudden stop from full pelt, but the joy of movement was occasionally stymied by quirks like inexplicably going the wrong way on a rail, missing grinds entirely, or falling off a platform thanks to an unhelpful camera. She smoothly transitions between running and skating, with an incredible feeling - and sounding - boost ideal for zooming past enemies, hitting a lip at top speed, or just catapulting forward from a standing start. Rei has a slight yet powerful set of abilities, crafted specifically for open-world platforming. The fun here is in working out how to reach objectives, not wondering where they are, so I always felt like I was navigating the world with purpose. You’re able to scan each area for key objectives, while telltale icons on surfaces reveal if a hidden audio log is nearby. This kineticism is expressed through wide open environments and platforming challenges that allow Rei to almost always be in motion. This all helps make the overarching plot more impactful as it gradually comes into clarity, leading to a climax that’s punchier than I was expecting a neat twist for a game that’s so kinetic in focus most of the time. In Solar Ash you’re faced with platforming challenges, light puzzles, enemy encounters, bosses, and impossible spaces - and you glide your way through it all, accompanied by an appropriately atmospheric, synth-driven sci-fi score.Īction-platforming is very much the main driver of Solar Ash, but it’s interested in worldbuilding too, and has plenty to dig into via story elements like audio logs left by Rei’s missing teammates, scrawled notes in the environment, a handful of survivors you can talk to, and quizzing Rei’s friendly AI construct Cyd on the details of the mission. Solar Ash’s vivid colour palette is evocative of developer Heart Machine’s last game, Hyper Light Drifter, but transposed to a 3D open-world, in which momentum is the overriding design principle. Rei contemplates the Ultravoid before leaping in. Solar Ash has some big ideas, and while it’s not all smooth skating thanks to minor control quirks and a couple of design elements that don’t quite reach their full potential, it’s definitely a journey worth taking. Above me, a monstrous-looking creature known as a Remnant patrols the sky, and it’s so large I’ll literally skate along its back when I confront and kill it part of a desperate bid to save my home planet from becoming the latest victim of The Ultravoid’s insatiable appetite. This is all that’s left of a host of forgotten worlds, sucked inexorably into the gravitational pull of a massive black hole. I glide serenely through the undulating turquoise sea, enjoying the silky sensation of movement as I cut a path through this landscape of… what? Clouds?! The Ultravoid is an utterly surreal place - beautiful, colourful, yet also broken, desolate.
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