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. This broad story set-up translates to reaching and clearing out anomalies that are interfering with the conduits, then defeating each area’s colossal boss creature.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.

These are necessary to power a gigantic, monolithic piece of technology called the Starseed - which, in turn, is the only hope to close the black hole itself and save Rei’s planet from imminent destruction. You are Rei, a Voidrunner who has ventured inside a black hole called The Ultravoid, and you’re trying to find out what happened to each of your companions and ensure the conduits they set up throughout the different sectors of the void are operational. 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.

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.

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