Ashen + Below review — misguided allegiance

Ashen and Below are beautiful, but are they beautiful games?

As Aurora44’s first foray into game development, Ashen is a triumphant achievement. It’s a complete, beautiful game, and its on the shelves. It will stand as a backbone for future works from Aurora44. Below, coming from esteemed developer Capybara, is one we’ve been waiting for, for years. When we first had a taste of Sword & Sworcery we could not get enough of its unique aesthetic, its out-of-this-world soundtrack and atmosphere that is most certainly from another planet, that is until now. Below, as is Ashen are downright beautiful, but they share another characteristic — they have pled their allegiance to none other than the coveted holy grail of gaming that is Dark Souls. However, is their allegiance misled? Are they betrayed by such loyalty? Is their direction foolish? Did they choose a path that they thought was righteous, but in fact led them astray? In trying to be Dark Souls, have Ashen and Below lost their identities? When it comes down to it, a game should be interesting, challenging, rewarding — fun. Ashen and Below do not bare well in such categories, and its no wonder that is where it all falls down for them.

So let’s do it — let’s talk about is Dark Souls. Dark Souls is a game of small victories, small steps. The victories don’t come easy, but when they do, they bring with them a feeling like no other — a rush of adrenaline, euphoria, relief. That is the core of Dark Souls, and it is a core so many that want to emulate Dark Souls just seem to miss. But that’s not all it does. Dark Souls wants you to be curious and it wants to draw you along, such is the carrot on the stick. You want to find out more about its world — you just do. That’s why we bother in the first place — we want to know the secrets; and for every victory it gives us a little taste, a little more of that sweet sweet mystery. That’s definitely not Ashen in any regard; and so, just because it’s got similar combat to Dark Souls, and it’s punishing, it just doesn’t have any of the goodies that make it worth it. And a clean aesthetic artsyle, beautiful soundtrack, and visceral atmosphere will not save the game if playing said game is just not worth it.

In a similar vein, Below follows aims to be challenging, unforgiving. But again, it never really ends up being worth it. Below is beautiful, majestic even. The world is alive, the atmosphere electric, as is the music. You really do feel like you are all alone on an unknown and mysterious island. Sure there are secrets to be found, but here Below misses the first aspect that makes Dark Souls so great — the triump, the adrenaline, the relief of victory. How many times will you persevere, when the prize beyond the veil, is another veil to be unveiled? The allure of continuing on becomes ever so sour when it is a steady, boring slope, with no indication of something awe-inspiring ahead, without any break or plateau. It is made worse by a number of other not-so-nice design decisions — which you will find out about should you choose to play. Dark Souls is difficult, but it is fair. As 1UP said of Dark Souls in its review: “if you’re ready for it, it’s ready for you.” Below and Ashen are still putting their socks on in the changing room, and, when they’re finally ready, their fathers are running the race anyway, so they win by default: first and second place — you were never even in the running.

So where is this going? Well other than to say Below and Ashen definitely do not step up to the mark where the mark as been made — in an unavoidable comparison to Dark Souls — lets ask, what could they have done differently? Would they have been wise to change tact, in realising they would not fill the boots they were taking on? Would Below have been better off as a role-playing puzzler, more akin to Zelda or even Fez? Perhaps a survival rogue-like in the stormy seas, exploring islands and their caves — cutting its allegiance to Dark Souls altogether? Would Ashen have been better off refining its identity so it came off as its own individual experience, such as Absolver did, without piggy-backing off the fact of being a cousin of Dark Souls? Especially when its the cousin Dark Souls teases and throws cake at at Christmas parties?

Make this be a note for any future game developer wanting to be inspired by Dark Souls: its core gameplay is not punishing, not unforgiving, not obtuse — it is, rather: challenging, rewarding, intriguing. Those are the qualities you must find in your own project, those are the things that make Dark Souls great. If you want a truly ‘Souls-like’ game, then those are the atrributes that will make it so — not disproportionate health and damage between you and the enemy, not ridiculous and unwarranted and cheap deaths, not nails-on-a-chalkboard tedious re-tracing of steps, and not an utter lack of world-building in the attempt of being aloof and mysterious.

Ashen and Below are both beautiful projects in their own rights, if half-finished, misled, or ‘we knew it wasn’t really going to work like we thought, but we stuck it out anyway’ (and a pat on the back for doing so) kind of thing, but to call them games, that is to imply they play so — such as Dark Souls does — would be a disservice to games that are fun, that are challenging and that are rewarding — a discourtesy to the game they try to emulate, their forerunner, Dark Souls, itself.

Beautiful, mysterious, boring.

That is not to say they are both not triumphant works of art, which they indeed, at times, are; but they are most certainly not games — or at least do not have a place in a future of gaming that I would like to be a part of, as a gamer.

That all being said, you can pick up Below and Ashen for free on the XBOX One gamepass, and, on PC, Ashen is available on the Epic games store and Below on Steam and you can see for yourself.