They can all feel like a genuine friend (or foe) as you follow their journey throughout the game.

Each character is excellently written and voiced, with their tone and timbre fitting the mysterious world A44 have created and each individual’s personality and background. This leads to a gratifying sense of slowly learning organically through your own decisions in-game and is bolstered by the fantastic voice acting. In Ashen you are dropped into a world and given agency over your discoveries, picking up information through the environment and subtle dialogue cues. Ashen’s opening is a striking setpiece filled with gorgeous visual effects showcasing The Ashen in all its glory.īy leaving a lot of the concepts and ideas in Ashen intentionally vague, A44 masterfully emulates what made the Dark Souls games so special in the first place. When the game progresses, small nuggets of information are dolled out every now and again, but the narrative of the game isn’t exactly spelt out in black and white. Much like Bloodborne and Dark Souls, you are thrust into its arms and expected to accept that not everything will be explained to you. Ashen is a game that doesn’t explain much about its world to you initially.

Download ashen ps4 for free