I bought a lot fo games that are still sitting in my Playstation library and one of those games was this week’s game. I remember seeing someone run it on GDQ’s Twitch and it looked awesome, so I bought it. I’ve never had so much fun traversing an open world before.

This week’s Quick Thoughts is Solar Ash.

LIKES!

• The story is absolutely wild.
  • You play as Rei and hop into a super massive blackhole to try and save your home planet from utter destruction.
    • on top of that, you have to deal with some kind of being that questions your intentions.
      • ON TOP OF THAT you have to fight Shadow of the Colossus-sized bosses.
        • AND ON TOP OF THAT you can learn about what happened to your friends.
          • which can be found in chests scattered around the map
  • The world-building is intertwined with the story as Rei is tasked with finding and helping her friend Cyd with repairing networks while in the black hole.

• The game looks fabulous.
  • It really, really evokes the feeling that it is a Heart Machine game.
    • Lots of blues, pinks, and greens.
• The gameplay is what drives the game.
  • The open world really lends itself to fast-paced action platforming.
    • The movement is incredibly satisfying and fun.
      • The world is filled with rails to grind, jump pads to jump on, and platforms to jump onto.
      • The platforming puzzles are even more fun because of how fun the movement is.
        • the puzzles are simple but regardless fun to do.
• The combat is shallow but fun.
  • small baddies are just learning curves for the main baddies: the Anomalies.
    • Huge bad guys tower over Rei and the world around her.
  • Each boss has a mini-puzzle attached to it.
    • little needle points stick out of an exposed area and Rei swipes at them.
      • it really highlights how awesome Rei is at being a Voidrunner making it seem like the action is accelerating at a ridiculous pace.
        • Do this until the boss keels over and dies. and on to the next one.

DISLIKES!

• The camera really does not do it for me. It has a really hard time keeping up with the later anomalies.
  • It is really hard to judge where you are when the game is moving that fast and the camera is just lagging behind.
  • Later on, the game is less forgiving and the challenge ramps up and the camera has to keep up, but cannot.
• The ending is a choice.
  • just choose, I guess.

OVERALL: Solar Ash is a great game. I am glad that I played it. The traversal, lumbering bad guys, art style and platforming puzzles are all really good. It is just a shame that the camera sucks at certain times that makes the game a little frustrating every once and a while.

7/10