Ashwalkers: A Survival Journey

Ashwalkers toes a fine line between survival and story and does a great job of it. The storytelling is just enough to tease out a unique ashy apocalypse without getting burdened by too many specifics, while the survival aspect is stressful but not impossible to overcome. While playing, I found myself invested in not only the Squad’s survival but the fate of those 250,000 souls back in the Citadel, only satisfied once I got an ending with a hopeful note. If you enjoyed the scouting section of Frostpunk and wanted to see that mechanic expanded upon, look no further than Ashwalkers.

In the end, Ashwalkers is a decent game. It’s simple in nature and there’s a nice reason why. This is a storytelling game above all else. It does a decent job here and offers up some different play styles when it comes to choosing the story the player wants to see. It’s not going to knock anyone’s socks off, but I did enjoy my time with the game even if it did have a few moments where it frustrated me. This one is for the story fans. Not actually the survival players. If you’re looking for a choice driven game, you’ll get it here. If you’re looking for a post-apocalyptic survival game, you’ll need to look elsewhere.

While Ashwalkers has an interesting art style and atmosphere, it does little to capitalize on its survival mechanics, choice based narrative, and is far too easy for what it wants to be. While Ashwalkers may be worth a single playthrough, there’s not much to motivate repeat visits to this wasteland.

Ashwalkers is still a fascinating little narrative experience. There's an interesting and at times surprisingly uplifting world to explore, and it's worth playing through the game multiple times to see where its branching pathways lead. That said, its brevity means that there's not quite enough meat on the bones to really envelop anyone in its atmosphere, which could leave some explorers wanting more.

It will take you 3-4 hours to complete your first adventure in Ashwalkers, and after that you will realize that it should have ditched the out-of-balance survival layer and presented the story as a pure visual novel.