A fun mesmerizing adventure indie game | Solar Ash - Review

Glide your way into a satisfying melancholic lightshow in style. Solar Ash’s artistic style is as joyfully vibrant as it is depressingly dark, as you journey through and across space and time inside a blackhole called the Ultravoid.

The entire premise of Solar Ash is a surreal experience, part science fiction, part imaginative fantasy. The story of Solar Ash is just as strong as its artistic style. Widely gripping and entertaining. Lighthearted, but tragic. You control Rei, a member of a group of voidrunners who has entered inside a blackhole. The mission is to destroy it using an experimental technology to save their planet from getting sucked into the blackhole and destroyed.

Its sci-fi elements are quietly referenced throughout the narrative, with mentions of advanced technology, government and civilizations, and artificial intelligence. But its fantasy elements are more evident as you skate throughout the colorful desolate landscape populated by otherworldly creatures and beings, a surreal chaotic representation of an inside of a blackhole when concepts such as time and space are warped and the lines between reality and dreams are blurred.

The story sets up the core gameplay, you roam around in skates and investigate the land, what happened to the other voidrunners, and how to activate the experimental technology — called the starseed — in order to stop the blackhole.

Solar Ash’s movement system is all too satisfying and it never really felt like a chore to do. You just hold a button to skate, press another button to boost and another button to jump. There is also an attack button used to clear out the anomalies, destroy scattered caches, and destroy randomly wandering inconsequential enemies. You can also temporarily enter a slow motion state in order to give you time to aim and reach farther objectives.

This is Spider-Man all over again, in which the movement system is so fun and cool that you never really see the need for fast travel or ever get bored while traveling. In fact, I can just enjoy gliding around randomly without even going for objectives.

The chaotic apocalyptic landscape also sets up the platforming aspect of Solar Ash. You will need to race and jump around in order to reach various areas, sometimes requiring speed and precision in anticipation of incoming hazards. For example, you may need to move fast because the black goo you are climbing on will overheat in a few seconds and destroy you, or you may need to jump precisely or you will fall to your death instead.

These are all but mini-challenges in the game that ultimately culminates into some sort of a boss fight to finally clear an anomaly. Where you need to grapple and jump on top of a massive anomaly, a titan-like creature called a Remnant. They’re so big that you can skate on its body, be it its extensive back or its gigantic arm. The boss fight mechanic largely keeps the same format as the mini challenges, move fast and avoid all the nasty surfaces, destroying the sub-anomalies along the way until you clear the big one at the end.

Solar Ash’s movement system blends so well with the puzzle platformer elements set in place. The added time trial aspects requiring you to be in your absolute best speed in order to clear out objectives enhances the experience and turns it from a relaxing chilling experience to one that is frantic and stressful when needed.

Solar Ash is truly one of the most mesmerizing experiences I’ve had all year. It’s masterful trio of narrative, art style and gameplay makes it a worthwhile play, comfortably beatable in under 10 hours.