SKATE LIMBO

Despite neat visuals and tricks, SOLAR ASH falls short of its influences

- Samantha Greer

NEED TO KNOW

WHAT IS IT? An action adventure skating hybrid from the creators of Hyper Light Drifter

EXPECT TO PAY £28.80

DEVELOPER Heart Machine

PUBLISHER Annapurna Interactive

REVIEWED ON 64-Bit Windows 7, Nvidia GeForce GTX-970, Intel i7-4790K, 16GB RAM

MULTIPLAYER No

LINK bit.ly/3lVxtMX

Style and substance feel opposed in Solar Ash, Heart Machine’s follow-up to the acclaimed Hyper Light Drifter. It has an abundance of the former but a vacuum where the latter should be. Visual novelty and slickness keep it skating along but it never manages to fill that void, no matter how many outlandish set pieces, stylish transitions and beautiful landscapes it conjures.

You play as Rei, a ‘voidrunner’ who plunges herself into a blackhole to activate a MacGuffin called the ‘Starseed’ which we’re told can save her planet, which is currently caught in the singularity’s grasp. Inside this black hole is a dreamlike landscape rendered in soft clouds and goopy surfaces, all of it in bold colours. This is the ‘ultravoid’ as the game calls it. It’s delightfully tactile, with Rei plunging into the candyfloss-like hills as she lands, or pulls some of the sticky mass behind her as she jumps. Even the collectibles, plasma, are rendered as blobs of liquid. The world feels ephemeral, as if it’s doomed to be washed away. It’s a palpable mood, enhanced by sheer scale and verticality – a world of massive planetoids suspended in space, clinging to each other via clouds or thin rails.