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Solar ash eternal garden4/3/2023 ![]() Thankfully, at least half of the challenges in Solar Ash allow the player to utilize Rei’s maneuverability in fun ways. While this wasn’t difficult, it’s more involved than just sprinting across a surface and hitting something. One particularly memorable challenge required the player to hit a couple of giant leafs to create a skating rail to launch themselves around the nodes. If a sprint doesn’t revolve around a unique puzzle, challenge the player or allow for creative parkour maneuvers, it might need some tweaking. They’re certainly fun, but sometimes I completed a challenge and wondered what it contributed to the experience. A chunk of these parkour sections are too small and lack distinctive puzzle elements. Unfortunately, the application is deceptively simple. This is part of the reason why the limited draw distance helps to give the world a grander sense of scale than it actually has. Because of this, it’s not a particularly offensive trope, but it would have helped if Solar Ash had more going on at a ground-level. This is likely because it makes designing a level easier when it doesn’t need to be connected to anything. And its obsession with iconography relating to the void and disconnected floating islands is similarly overdone in indie games. Every enemy in the game is a monster made of black sludge, which is the most common creature trait in video games. Solar Ash’s trite design choices don’t help, either. ![]() But when the view distance reveals a little too much or the surrounding land masses are flat, that ethereal illusion is shattered. When the skybox, shrouded distant objects and destroyed environment mesh perfectly together, Solar Ash evokes the quality of a vibrant post-apocalyptic painting. While this makes sense in accordance with the game’s story, it results in a few underwhelming visual moments. ![]() But at certain points, the game can look unfinished rather than wrought by destruction or chaos.įrom this angle, these floating islands seem out of place and disjointed. It also looks nice when the player is in the middle of an area, as it provides the brief illusion that your surroundings are larger than they actually are. As a result, Solar Ash’s short draw distance was a smart choice, as the game looks at its best when things are too far away to notice the chopped up level design. These destroyed lands are bolstered by an excellent use of color, but they only provide snapshots of a world rather than one that feels wholly constructed. Much of the game is structured this way, having the player parkour along flying islands littered across shattered environments. Solar Ash uses a motif of floating debris to decorate many of its zones. I would’ve preferred if it escalated to this point sooner, as regular battles against enemies lack intensity for most of the game. Even then, most of these battles aren’t particularly exciting until the final area puts a bunch of them in one place and expects the player to survive. After a while, the game escalates and introduces enemies that snipe you from a distance, charge at you and create shockwaves that rupture the ground beneath you. However, their presence doesn’t add much until later, as players can slash at these creatures while sprinting around without much thought. ![]() While running around Solar Ash, the player will come into contact with troublesome monsters. ![]()
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