AsHes Review (PC)

If you’ve ever fancied a dip into the dimly lit boroughs of a desolate region that’s predominantly malevolent and ill-natured, then wait till you get a mouthful of AsHes—a co-op survival-crafting sandbox that, if you can believe it, takes center stage in the darkest depths of an Underworld inspired by Chinese mythology. That’s right, the undead domain is knocking, and it’s calling for those who share a sturdy heart for mindless hacking, scavenging, and building to take a dive into its blood-smothered waters. And if that sounds like your idea of a good time, then you may want to consider onboarding a few of our words of warning before slipping into a comfortable pair of shoes and rolling with it.

To make it absolutely clear, AsHes hasn’t long arrived in its Early Access state, which means, while we are able to touch base on a significant portion of its active materials, we won’t be able to develop a complete picture until after the developer has finished tidying up the last-remaining loose ends. Even still, if you’re curious to learn a bit more about the recently released hell-centric sandbox-survival sim, then be sure to read on.

Ashes to AsHes

At its core, AsHes is a single-player and multiplayer survival-crafting game, and one that, for the most part, relies on Chinese folklore and fantasy to create its web of stories and general ambiance. The game, while predominantly coated in various layers of opaque elements and shadow-trodden colors, takes place in the seemingly barren biomes of the Underworld—a disturbing place that just so happens to house an entire network of fallen spirits, both good and bad. And it’s within this world that you, the curator of lost stories and legacies, must unravel the secrets of the past, all whilst learning how to survive in the underbelly of the forsaken purgatory.

In a similar manner as, say, Valheim, the journey you embark upon in AsHes sees you gradually carving through a selection of fascinating story-driven beats and monochrome regions, all of which pay tribute to the ancient folklore of Chinese mythology in a strange but oddly compelling way. Sure enough, it is a horror, and it does wear such tropes on its sleeve for all to see. However, to say that it’s a scary sandbox ordeal wouldn’t be totally accurate, as it does frequently conjure some rather laughable scenarios—wobbly trees, shoddy AI, and a significant lack of context for the game, in general. But one could honestly argue that this is me merely nitpicking for the sake of finding something to slate — and I’d be willing to agree with that sentiment, if not for the fact that the game, in spite of all its positives, does feature some half-baked moments.

Crafting for Corpses

As a typical survival-crafting game with a heart for cliches, the quests that you encounter in this world are mostly driven by the choices you make along the way. Thankfully, there is a sense of linearity between the custom plot points and makeshift scenarios, though I wouldn’t say that it’s an essential piece of the puzzle, so to speak. No, AsHes is, for lack of a better word, a sandbox game, warts and all, and so, while there are several tales to unfold as you progress through the twisted biomes of the Underworld, the story, really, is whatever you want it to be. And to be fair, that sense of freedom is partly the reason why I immediately felt drawn to it; it gave me an option, and, like Valheim, it allowed me the opportunity to explore at my own free will. Well, sort of.

To expand on the above, AsHes can be a mixture of things, whether it’s an open canvas for you to paint your wildest creations onto, or an excuse for you to go toe-to-toe with the ghosts that populate its vast open corridors. With all of this, however, comes one major issue: the lack of context, or simply, the fact that there isn’t always a goal for you to work towards unless you’ve already established one right from the get-go. And that’s the thing with these sorts of games: you sort of need to have a vague understanding of how each cog in the wheel works, otherwise you might just find that, waypoint or not, progressing can become a little tricky. But again, there is a story to grasp here — so it isn’t quite as convoluting as its adversaries. *cough* Valheim.

Life Underground

AsHes is a very, very dark game—to the point of it being almost impossible to decipher what’s more likely to hurt you, and what’s more likely to cause you some minor physiological trauma. Needless to say that, for a game that centers its premise around an underworld of sorts, darkness is, unfortunately, the day and night cycle in its entirety, meaning, you’ll struggle to find a glimmer of light even in the highest quarters of the world. Is that a major issue? Not really, though it is worth pointing out here that, like it or not, everything operates from the shadows; it’s merely the case of learning how to navigate them as you forage for enough resources to establish your first safe haven, that’s the issue.

Dimly lit crags and crevices aside, AsHes is still a good place to call home, as it not only provides a generous amount of buildable blueprints to work through, but also a series of wearable armors and accessories—bracelets, necklaces, and belts, for example—to collect, too. As this is indeed a crafting game, a lot of these relatively fashionable cosmetics can only be unlocked through extended periods of play. In other words, to physically make a dent in the game’s ever-evolving catalog, you first need to be willing to embark on a plethora of fetch quests and other risky activities. But that is pretty much expected when it comes to these sorts of crafting-survival games, to be fair, as does the cliche of having to keep tabs on general needs such as hunger, for instance.

Verdict

AsHes, despite being drawn to its adolescent roots, has an impressive collection of materials to call its own—a clean and simple mechanical design, and not to mention an enormous array of incentives for those with the patience to stick around and unravel its mysteries, layer by layer, thread by thread. Its also thanks to its inclusion of a multiplayer mode—a feature that, while largely redundant given the game’s relatively low player count—that you could easily squeeze quite a few additional hours out of an otherwise lonely and often monotonous experience.

It’s a shame that Yanmo Games hasn’t been massively active since AsHes first lifted its head from out of the sand, as a few well-placed tweaks would certainly do a lot of good to the game’s reputation right about now. Again, we’re still in the dawning stages of its full release, so who knows? Perhaps, with the right amount of TLC and dedication, AsHes might just go on to blow Valheim right out of the water and give it something to quake about. The rest, as they say, is in your capable hands, team.