As you progress through increasingly eerie places, you’ll find strange grieving humanoid creatures muttering to themselves in madness. It’s a shame, as Solar Ash’s story and world building ooze potential. Where the developer’s previous release – Hyper Light Drifter – zoned in on compelling combat, this follow-up loses focus on the actual experience of play in favour of a grand vision. There’s a lot happening, and some of it is compelling, but it’s too much to swallow, a hurriedly stirred potluck of genres and concepts. Solar Ash is all about movement, an experience that prides itself on speed and flow – but all too often, it grinds to a halt.īecause it draws from influences as diverse as zombie-blasting rail grinder Sunset Overdrive and existential monster slayer Shadow of the Colossus, at times, playing Solar Ash feels like trying to follow the chaotic threads of one of Charlie from Always Sunny’s hare-brained schemes. I spent hours roaming the same areas in search of what to do next, slowly losing any lingering sense of intrigue and, eventually, my will to live. These anomalies are obtusely hidden, and Solar Ash provides little in the way of subtle visual language to help you find them.

But the illusion shatters once you turn to an objective.Ĭharged with saving Rei’s dying home planet from an ominous black hole, you drift and slash your way across the wheezing planet, seeking out poorly signposted tar-like anomalies and slaying the big beastie responsible for birthing them. In some moments, Solar Ash is glorious, the sort of freeform, wind-in-your-hair joyride that shuts down your thoughts and delights the synapses.

Reminiscent of thatgamecompany’s Journey, a soothing collage of oil paintings and minimalistic comic-book design, Solar Ash’s gorgeous ruined cities and pastel-coloured plains rarely fail to stop you in your tracks. Kitting the player out with invisible space roller skates, this colourful space adventure sees heroine Rei gliding across a gorgeously vibrant planet. L ife is about the journey, not the destination, the saying goes, and the speed-obsessed Solar Ash is built on that principle.

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