5 reviews liked by icepotato


I really like the concept of a game where you can build environments and nudge evolution. However the presentation is a bit rough. It becomes very repetitive very quick, the environments are hard to modify in detail, and the platinum literally requires you to leave your PlayStation on for almost a month. It has fun moments, but it’s mostly enjoyable for maybe a dozen hours, not 100s

An incredibly powerful exploration of mental health, the creation and consumption of art, and a fantastic use of games as a medium. A celebration of Source engine development, and incredibly accessible to anyone who can control a player in a 3D space. Absolutely a must-play.

After completing it: Yeah, this is an all-time favorite.

Feels like a grab-bag of games I really love: Shadow of the Colossus, JSRF, Sonic Adventure 2, Prince of Persia Sands of Time (no joke), and Outer Wilds. Surprisingly, its highs are as high and sometimes moreso than those games. However, it does falls a little short of Sonic Adventure 2, but you can't ding a painting because it isn't the Mona Lisa.

Momentum is just such a fun thing to experience in video games, and skating around such beautifully varied environments is basically just asking me to give your game a near 5 stars. I was consistently just so overjoyed with the new ways they found to create challenges for the mechanics, as skating, grinding, climbing and jumping are all you do in this game. There is NEVER any stupid ass gimmick to detract from what is such a solid foundation. There is one section that involves grappling and grinding to get to a ship in the sky and my god, it is so fun. There are so many moments throughout this game that I am going to think back on and go; "Damn, that was really fucking fun!" Which, to me, is the litmus test for a good game.

The sheer fantastic delight on display here reminds me of playing Spyro the Dragon as a kid, interestingly enough. The sheer amount of color and whimsy is such a visual treat, and make no mistake, this game is an artistic triumph. The fact this thing was sent out to die on the Epic Games Store is an Art Crime because no one fucking played it because of that. I have nothing but respect for how difficult this game looks like it was to make. No game is easy to make, but this game in particular is so well-made and functions so tight that I'm stunned by how SHORT the credits were, how SMALL this team was for how ambitious this game is.

One thing that struck me was that I 100% completed it my first run through. That isn't me saying that I have the game mastered due to my Gamer Instinct, that is more a testament to really good level design and FOCUSED design that meant I always knew what I was looking for, where to find it, and how to get to it. By keeping the systems so simple, there was never an overwhelming amount of shit to look for, it always came naturally. Also the amount of times I would just explore random stuff that had no benefit proves a truth that Super Mario 64 got and no one else did: gamers will explore for its own sake if exploring is fun. If playing the game and moving around the game world is fun, I don't care if I find something useful.

The boss fights are also really something special. The game is obviously drawing a lot from SoTC, which it makes no secret of, but the way you interact with the bosses here is much different, it gives the game a very one of a kind playstyle. You skate around the bosses, timing jumps and hits almost like a rhythm game, with each variation becoming more challenging and requiring more precise timing. I don't think any of the fights can match Shadow of the Colossus's finest moments, HeartMachine does a really great job giving Solar Ash's bosses an identity all their own.

That identity is why it is such a bummer that it is trying to remind you SO MUCH of Shadow of the Colossus. It feels like a very insecure game in that regard, that it doesn't think it can stand on its own so it needs to evoke SoTC in almost every regard. The ALMOST here being that SoTC was a very quiet game, that had very little voice acting, and let its gorgeous visuals do a lot of the talking.

Solar Ash almost has this, but for some GODFORSAKEN reason they have elected to have Rei not SHUT UP EVER. I find the voice acting completely out-of-place too: a made-up language would be fine, but having a very graceful and divine looking being like Rei speak like she is ringing me up at the record store is just a total mismatch. Turn the voices off if you want to be able to get into the alien-nature of this world, as the writer's are trying to sabotage it with every fucking quip. There is so much writing in this game, and the writers were not in their bag for much of it. The lore is not well-explained, over-written and too dense to be interesting, the whole "protagonist is actually doing something bad" angle is so foreshadowed that it actually felt like a joke at a certain point. The game was inspired by SoTC, of course the protagonist is doing something bad. I would be lying if I said that some of this didn't actually work though. I started to grow fond of Rei and CYD, the twist was actually fairly well done and the final fight has some good groundwork laid for it narratively that I'm not opposed to its rather hokey nature. I have no idea who the writers are, and they ARE hacks, but they're at least creative hacks.

I would love for HeartMachine to make another game like this, as this gameplay loop is something I am absolutely crazy about, I just want them to be more confident in their game, and not feel this aching need to remind me of a completely different title. Solar Ash is a beautifully made game and it IS one-of-a-kind. If only people actually knew it came out!!

I really wanted to love this game. Visually, the game is very appealing; the art is fantastic. And the idea of a Metroidvania being mashed up with a bullet hell shooter sounds so good on paper.

Unfortunately, the game is hampered by terrible checkpoint placement and a card system that makes battles tougher than they should be because you’re never quite sure which special attacks are mapped to which buttons without looking at the icons in the bottom right-hand corner, which obviously doesn’t work too well when you’re trying to avoid a sea of bullets.

Perhaps I would’ve stuck with the game if there was an option to lower the difficulty, but such a thing doesn’t exist, which is a shame.

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