Solar Ash

Solar Ash is one of those masterpiece titles that seemed to have fallen under the radar. Between the brilliant visuals, gameplay, and sound engineering, you'll find yourself exploring or hunting down every piece of story lore.

It seems we may need to wait for Hyper Light Breaker, to see a truly worthy successor but at least Heart Machine’s writing and style chops remain consistent.

Solar Ash looks and feels like a surrealist dream. Even after a half dozen hours, I still found gliding across desolate yet beautiful backdrops to be an absolute blast. Still, a repetitive combat system stands out as a notable blemish on an otherwise stellar adventure.

Solar Ash is short, sweet, and a little too repetitive. The gameplay is a ton of fun the first hour or two. By the end things were carried by the gorgeous visuals, excellent music, and heartbreaking story. This one should be a no brainer to at least check out through Game Pass.

Solar Ash is not a bad game. The famous last words, heh? Well, it’s not. It’s promising and slick, but there’s a feeling that the inspiration wasn’t really there for the developers. They know how to make a character move, but Solar Ash just can’t motivate me to keep playing.

For me, it is a game that I wish I loved, but only liked, and I fear that will be the most common experience. There are a few too many flaws to overlook, and it's hard not to compare it to the masterpieces it hoped to emulate. That said, the video game world could do with more ambitious, imperfect works like Solar Ash and fewer safer bets. It may not be quite the masterwork that Hyper Light Drifter was, but it's still likely to stick with you after the credits roll.