Review - Ashen... Let There Be Light.

 
Image Credit: A44 Games

Last year I was pleasantly surprised when I stumbled across the game called Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn. It was fun, explosive, and had just the right amount of difficulty in there to lightly frustrate while urging for just a little more from the player. Flintlock didn't just arrive from a fledgling team on their first outing, however. They had already created an arguably more famous game in Ashen.

    In Ashen, you play a nameless and literally faceless character who is traversing the depths of some caves for seemingly no reason. Your companion is a blond adventurer who has little to say in the offset, but you two work together to reach the minuscule beginnings of a village. Only a couple people are hanging out here, and it becomes readily apparent in a matter of moments that you are going to be required to help them out in building this place from scratch.

    As the villagers of Vagrant's Rest begin to build something to call home, you are out and about in the world trying to do the tasks that will expand it further. What is interesting about Ashen is the subtle change from darkness to light that can be perceived at Vagrant's Rest itself. In the beginning the entire world is shrouded in a blanket of shadow, but as you contribute more and more to the village and it grows larger and larger, the light of the world starts to come back into play. Well done, A44.

The Good

Let's talk about the visual aspects of the game first. I think the way the game is designed is potentially what makes it stand out as much as it does. Ashen is famous for being "that soulslike where no one has a face." This is a design choice from A44 that they said was meant to maximize judging others by their actions and not just by the aesthetics of their faces. It works, and it's actually pretty amazing how quickly you ditch caring about whether or not the characters have facial features anyway.

    Audio is another plus for the game. The voice acting is not really overpowering, here, because the characters get straight to the point of their topics. This is not a bad thing, it just means that they don't really have a whole bunch to say. What is said, however, is done with a strong performance. The music is also hauntingly appropriate for the different areas our faceless hero will traverse in his/her time trying to bring light back to a darkened world.

    I'm going to separate the combat and the gameplay as two different things here. I know that's odd, but hear me out.

    The combat goes into the good category because it's fun and intuitive regarding what you are trying to do as a character. You can roll around and dodge, or bring up a shield to block. Either way you're going to lose some stamina, and the real thing to worry about is the weapon in your hand anyway. There are an exorbitant amount of weapons in Ashen, and not all of them are amazing. They are all unique in their own way, however, and it is interesting to note that not any one weapon is "better" than any other. They are basically just designed for different playstyles. Whatever is better... is totally up to you.

The Bad

That freedom of choice for your character basically stops there. You're not able to respond to others or give your own kind of feedback about quests and tasks. You're a doer. The tool that is meant to complete the task, and that's it. That's fine, too. It just doesn't give the RPG feel that many of these types of games are going for.

    The narrative was a struggle for me on placement. I didn't think it warranted going into The Good, but I have a hard time dropping it into The Bad. It's a soulslike, so the environment gives a lot of the clues and explanation regarding what is happening in the world. I think my main problem is that I personally do not like that. Coupled with the amount of times that I died trying to fight the same villains over and over then had to trek across a whole slew of the same minions I already killed just to get there again... That is an agitating bit that keeps me from playing even more notoriously difficult games like Bloodborne. I'll say this for Ashen, though. The story has its moments, but the best dynamic of the entire thing is building Vagrant's Rest from nothing to something.

The Final Thought

Overall, Ashen is a great game for those who enjoy soulslikes. You'll find all the stamina management and covert storytelling you could ask for. It is also a good start for the company that eventually made Flintlock... I just happen to think that Flintlock is quite a bit better.

7/10

Good Enough