Sometimes you’ll mess up during a tricky section it’s inevitable. There’s nothing quite so gratifying as gliding, jumping and grinding in sequence, nailing each landing perfectly as you move through Solar Ash‘s intriguing and mystifying world. Holding down the same trigger button lets you grind along it, blustering through the air like a super-speed Tony Hawk. Vast distances are covered in no time, and by gliding and then jumping, you can travel even further, reaching platforms that would be otherwise slightly too high or too far away.Ī little later into the game, you’ll meet a grinding rail. Gliding is fast, smooth and satisfying you’ll never traverse without it – not unless you need to. The first thing you’ll be told when starting a new game is that by holding down a trigger, you can glide over the environment rather than simply walk.
I hope to see more like this from Heart Machine in the future, perhaps with a bit more depth to combat that can really bring out the potential a game like Solar Ash had.There’s a lot more to Solar Ash than simply gliding and grinding around its luscious world, but by god is it good fun. I’m a huge fan of the visuals and character design, and frankly if you’re into the aesthetic enough it can carry the entire game. That being said, essentially everything else about the gameplay experience is incredibly satisfying. Unfortunately the core loop is a bit counterintuitive for that, with time trials that can get stressful to complete being a majority of the focus for completing objectives. I think Solar Ash is great to experience in small bursts and is really a game to take at your own pace to really focus on the environments and exploration.
While the movement is incredibly smooth and satisfying, the combat can get old relatively quick, and I mostly found myself skipping enemies after I really got accustomed to the movement. This is the primary gameplay loop not just for the normal sequences, but for boss fights as well.
The enemies are little more than hindrances in what is primarily a collection of time trial “attack the objective” missions while platforming and swinging around harmful platforms. It suffers from the same lack of combat depth quite a few games have had as of late, having the game favor the movement options much more. The “combat” is quick, minimal, and largely optional.
This is the main focus of the game, as most of the game’s objectives and collectibles are based around not only how you can platform to them, but how quickly you can access them. It is incredibly satisfying to skate through foreign worlds and jump or grapple from cliff to cliff, taking in all the colors and environmental changes along the way. What I can easily say the strongest feature Solar Ash presents is satisfaction. The issue is, this general omission makes it tedious to put story bits together as they’re delivered, as there tend to be long stretches of silence while Rei skates back and forth completing the same objectives over and over. Even moving from the crash site to the initial cloudy dreamscape where you meet your first friend and first boss fight is enough of a story on its own an excellent way to set the pace for the rest of the game without having to say much. Structures of ages past being run down and torn not only by the pollution that you’re fighting, but with time make for great environmental storytelling. What I can say Solar Ash does particularly well is establishing a general “feel” for each area even if the coloration remains mostly the same. This is due to the core gameplay loop of the game being the movement, which I’ll touch on a bit later. Unfortunately, story beats are few and far between, as exposition is put to the wayside in favor of finding collectibles and doing time trials. While a lot is left omitted and there’s a mysterious godlike entity that talks to you in a generally unfavorable way, the story was what would have been a major seller for me. Now with the inability to return to her comrades, Rei must figure out why the system isn’t responding and save everyone before it’s too late. There’s a centralized system and other people that should be there with the main character, but our hero Rei is stranded and alone. Out of the gate, this is already a relatively interesting story, especially with how the issue surrounding the black hole is presented. Solar Ash is primarily a beautiful game with a trippy aesthetic, you’re already stranded in space looking to save your civilization using a device located near a black hole.