Those sneaky sneaks at Heart Machine thought they had bettered me, but I proved them wrong! It does take a little of the momentum away from skating from one objective to the next, but the ‘oh THAT’S where it is’ moment I had when I eventually figured it out will stand as one of my favourite moments of the year. That’s not a slight on Solar Ash, not at all, as the game does a good job of both making it easy to navigate and figure out your path forward by simply following the landscape of available grind points or climbable areas. One particular place had me completely stumped for an embarrassing amount of time. At more than one point I had to stop and take a look around to figure out where to go next. Here, however, is where I profess my lack of elite gamer skills (I am a gaming journalist after all). Each new region brings with it new mechanics, be it giant crumbling buildings that act as epic rails, acid-tainted seas or darkened eery cave structures, each one leads to a similar epic confrontation with the local home owner, as the story and Rei’s desperation grows. Do that over a few times and eventually the beast will be felled, unlocking Cyd and the next area that needs to be explored. A trusty hook shot mixed with a slowing down of time mechanic allows you to both target enemies, reach higher places and pinpoint said weak points which, when combined, feels so damn good once you get the hang of it.Ĭlear those out and slowly the beast becomes aware of your presence, leading to a final confrontation that has you climbing and sliding across their epic forms and similarly destroying points along them. A quick scan reveals where these issues reside, leading you to discover the general mechanics of gliding effortlessly across the ground and targeting various weak points of the black ooze like structures that block your way forward. The opening area sets the scene, with the Starseed’s conduits and your faithful AI Cyd having been blocked from communication by various abnormalities born from the monsters that call that area home. As many others have described it, think Jet Set Radio crossed with Shadow of the Colossus but on a much wilder, neon-tinged scale. As Rei, a masked Voidrunner with silky skating-like skills, you’ll be flinging yourself across the voids of dangerous, colour-drenched environments to awaken giant beasts and remove them from your path to power the Starseed, an enormous structure at the heart of the map that Rei believes will solve everything. Solar Ash opens as a planet and its civilisation are pulled into The Ultravoid, a devastating black hole, with our hero tasked with averting untold disaster. Do you build upon a popular base with a sequel, remaining comfortable within familiarity, or do you go all out with a new concept and a point to prove? For Heart Machine, following up their 2016 success story Hyper Light Drifter was always going to be a test, but through dynamic controls, clever world building and beautiful visuals, Solar Ash passes with flying neon colours.
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