Ashen

 PlayStation 4
User Score
5.9

Mixed or average reviews- based on 31 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 31
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 31
  3. Negative: 10 out of 31

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  1. Subject98
    Jan 7, 2021
    5
    Not a bad souls-like, not a great one either. It has great music, atmosphere and artistic vision but the gameplay mechanics feel kinda cheapo and the enemy designs are mostly just cavemen and crabs. Or ghost cavemen.

    I probably would give the game a 7 if not for the fact that it's technically a multiplayer focused game. When I play souls-likes I prefer adventuring on my own, but the    Not a bad souls-like, not a great one either. It has great music, atmosphere and artistic vision but the gameplay mechanics feel kinda cheapo and the enemy designs are mostly just cavemen and crabs. Or ghost cavemen.

    I probably would give the game a 7 if not for the fact that it's technically a multiplayer focused game. When I play souls-likes I prefer adventuring on my own, but the sheer number of enemies that hoard you make it feel like you're playing it wrong by not having at least an AI helping you. On that front I enjoyed it less than I would have had it been designed better for one person.

    While the main game is mostly a pleasant enough experience, do yourself a favor and don't buy the Nightstorm Isle DLC. It's the worst designed area I've ever experienced in a souls-like, and I've played a lot of them. The boss fight has a massive health bar, seemingly unlimited stamina and never gives you room to breathe so you need your companion's help to beat him. Unfortunately they decided to give this particular boss fight a long run back packed full of enemies, many of which snipe-grapple you from across the room unless you painstakingly kill everything on your way through every time.

    If that's not bad enough, the worst part is that your AI companion is too stupid not to jump into the lava and die 90% of the time you try to make it to the boss with her anyway. There's always some reason she ends up in that lava one way or another, to attack an enemy that fell in, to get across a chasm she easily could have jumped across, to stand still and stare blankly ahead until she dies, or my favorite was when a ghost grappled her and they slid for absolutely no reason like a gravitational pull right into the lava. Again, save yourself the money and frustration. XD    … Expand
  2. ZXSth
    Sep 1, 2022
    5
    Despite its pretty, unique art design and relatively enjoyable gameplay premise, Ashen was an unfortunate disappointment for me. It is something I find to be exemplary of publisher Annapurna Interactive's arguably "arthouse" brand of game design - most often, they have been known for their eclectic and critically-acclaimed games like Kentucky Route Zero, Sayonara Wild Hearts and severalDespite its pretty, unique art design and relatively enjoyable gameplay premise, Ashen was an unfortunate disappointment for me. It is something I find to be exemplary of publisher Annapurna Interactive's arguably "arthouse" brand of game design - most often, they have been known for their eclectic and critically-acclaimed games like Kentucky Route Zero, Sayonara Wild Hearts and several other well-received titles. However, I believe that while critically and artistically appealing, I have found many of their games to lack in departments that matter to me subjectively. As such, Ashen was a letdown - not because it was mechanically lacking, or because it fails spectacularly in some way - it simply doesn't possess the same grip that its Souls-like peers maintain to help you push through some confusing and astonishingly difficult sections of its gameplay.

    Ashen foregoes many of the genre conventions that are typical of the Dark Souls games it is borrowing from - it does enough to differentiate itself, but is still familiar and comfortable. However, some interesting artistic decisions were made regarding its gameplay that caused it to seem less appealing to me: There is a complete lack of any bladed weapons (i.e. swords and daggers), and character customization is rather minimalist. Some people will appreciate the slant the developers took with their decisions - others, like myself, will find themselves baffled and annoyed.

    Behind all these lengthy descriptions of the game's faults, however, is an honest truth that is really the big push behind this review: I got stuck at a shockingly difficult section of the game, got immensely frustrated, and said "There is not enough here to make me want to play more of this." Frustration would sometimes similarly take hold of me in the Dark Souls games, but there was enough there to make me push through - in Ashen, however, there just isn't anything compelling enough to get a player like me to push through these bumps in the road.

    Unless you have a distinct appreciation for this game's intriguing art style and potentially compelling (and vague) narrative, it would be hard for me to recommend this game. Those who are drawn in by its artistic elements will likely find its difficulty off-putting; those drawn in by its Soulslike features may find it mechanically lacking and/or strangely frustrating.    … Expand
  3. Chefssgame
    Jan 16, 2022
    7
    Good game, but the playstation port has massive input latency, would have given it a 8.
  4. TheDukeNukedEm
    Feb 20, 2022
    6
    A somewhat fun experience that has many flaws that, by the end of the game, will convince you not to play through it again.

    The artistic style and music are the highlights of the game with some really relaxing music that meshes well with the exploration aspect of the open world. Some of the locales are beautiful and there are some very impressive parts of the game where you will just    A somewhat fun experience that has many flaws that, by the end of the game, will convince you not to play through it again.

    The artistic style and music are the highlights of the game with some really relaxing music that meshes well with the exploration aspect of the open world. Some of the locales are beautiful and there are some very impressive parts of the game where you will just stand around for a few moments to take it all in.

    Enemy designs are decent enough but, like with many things in this game, don't change much and quickly overstay their welcome. Combat can feel quite unbalanced with enemies being able to attack faster and sometimes even fly through walls to hit you with attacks that were impossible to see coming. The stamina refresh speed feels too slow, as does the normal walking speed. The weaponry is incredibly simplistic and unvaried to the point that I didn't bother even checking out many of the new weapons after a while. There are only a few weapon types and regardless of when you find them in the game, each weapon type moveset is identical. By the end of the game you'll have a ton of upgrade materials, but hardly any of the last upgrade material (making experimenting with other weapons to increase your max damage a generally unrewarding experience).

    While there does seem to have been an effort to have a varied amount of items to utilise, often they just don't offer enough to warrant picking them up. In a later section of the game there are more chances to use them to craft potions, but most of the potions have drawbacks that can dissuade people from using them. There is storage in the game, but by the end of the game you're throwing things away to fit others in the chest (although I tried to keep every weapon - which I realised was utterly useless by the end of the game).

    The AI for your companion is pretty bad, often they will walk off of ledges or just stop moving entirely. Though I liked their individual characters and side stories.

    Overall, this game has a soulslike appearance but little of the actual "soul" of these types of games. It's by no means a bad game, if you can hit your stride with it and get around some finicky combat mechanics. It does have some strange decisions with its design and it feels like some potential wasn't explored. To explain what I mean by the "soul" I mean: replayability, many different items and weapons that you may need to try a new build in order to try out (there's basically just one build in this game), difficulty is haphazard and can feel very easy and repetitive at times and others it feels flawed and unbalanced against your favour. Overall the experience is very shallow in comparison to what it attempts to pay homage to.

    If it's cheap, pick it up. You'll probably like your first go through for the most part, but afterwards you'll most likely forget about it and not play it again.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
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No score yet - based on 3 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. PlayStation Universe
    Dec 31, 2019
    85
    Ashen is one of the best souls-likes around and its quality matches that of the games that gave birth to the genre. The mystery and lore help to build a fascinating world that excellently complements the open and varied environments and strange, contorted creatures you will fight in them. A44 have provided a big breath of fresh air in a genre desperately in need of reinvigoration.
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  2. Push Square
    Dec 18, 2019
    80
    Bringing a friend along can make one or two fights feel a bit too trivial, but then it’s worth having someone with you to appreciate the stunning vistas Ashen manages to capture. From superb shots of the sea to underground caves illuminated by the crackling fire of your torch, uncovering a new area is an utter pleasure. It might be a year late, but Ashen still manages to carve out its own space for greatness.
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  3. Metro GameCentral
    Dec 15, 2019
    80
    One of the best Dark Souls clones so far and while some things are near identical the co-op features help distinguish it as something more than just a straight copy.
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