Ashen TEST

[GiantJoe202]

Hi there, I'm a fellow Dark Souls player so it was only logical that I tried Ashen as it is a simplified copy of the From Software's title. It has very nice graphics, a big and interesting world to explore and some tough fights with huge bosses... but hey, is that all ?

The positive :
>>> The world is very nice and interesting to explore. They have chosen a artistic direction that is very nice and it reminds me of Absolver, Necropolis or the Journey. It's very smooth and not technically demanding.
>>> The character animations. They are very detailed for that artistic direction. The clothes, the idles and all of those are nice. The fights are just good, but nothing impressive (they are copied from Dark Souls, but with WAAAAAAY less moves)
>>> The map. I'm sure a lot of hard core Dark Souls players would see it as a challenge killer, but when the world is that vast, it's really useful. And wait to go to the Matriarch Throne in Ashen, a place that From Software would put a Souls with no hesitaion.
>>> The growing village ! This "firelink shrine-like" place is a very good idea... but there should be more things to do in it.

Now the negatives :
>>> The worst is your IA companion, no doubt with that. That dude is so stupid, so dumb :
- he runs into fights with no HP
- if you are downed, there is a chance that he'll notice it, and if he do he'll wait till he have only a few HP to come and rez you up, but most of the time he got killed while doing so.
- sometimes it vanishes, just like that... sometimes right before a big fight... and you get killed.
- most of his initiatives usually leads to your death... and the loss of your souls.
- one thing that happens everytime to me : each time I got killed with a big load of scorias and i'm teleported back to the stone, you can be sure that I will be alone for the first ennemy pack I encounter and as I approach it, the IA comes back and make so many odd things that it actually make me lose focus and missed my blocks and I got killed... and loose all my scorias.
>>> The stuff you find is actually useless. For me, at my progression state, the two better weapons I found are the very first club you start with and a two handed axe. And the more you find weapons in the world the weaker they get.
>>> There are lots of weapons, but there are actually only 2 types : bladed and blunt available in one or two-handed version. The only thing that changes is the attack rate, the moveset, and the secondary damage (critical strike for blade and stun for blunt).
>>> You can upgrade the weapons just like in dark souls, but there are only one possible evolution for all weapons : broken > forged > ash infused > ash infused +1 > +2 ... > +6... etc etc
>>> One of the Dark Souls gameplay mechanics is not respected, or not working properly : the ennemies respawn. In DS, you could kill every last one of the ennemies in the game and you could run all around again and again, as long as you don't interact with a bonefire, no ennemies will reappear. But not in Ashen ! Sometimes when you go back on your way some ennemies you just killed reappear with full life. It can even block you sometimes and make you die. Happens a lot when you come close to caves entraces, or underground access (surely a data streaming problem, the game has no loading times).
>>> There is absolutely no magic at all. And that's a pity. I love to cast some fireballs around.

So that game is not a bad one... is just a pale (litteraly not very color saturated) copy. There is a lot of things to improve and make this game better. But i think they won't do anything more on this title. There are a future game that looks a lot like a better Ashen that will come out in 2020 (I think...).

So if I had to give it a score : i'd give 3 fingers outta 5... and i'm nice. I could give only 2 (but a good one though).

[Die Zahl]

Fake review. This game isnt even out yet.

[Austrian Painter]

Originally posted by Die Zahl:

Fake review. This game isnt even out yet.

Yes it is. Just on other platforms. You're fake news. Sad.

[GiantJoe202]

I like the way the word "Fake" is over hyped these days...
Of course I played it, so are the hundreds of players that bought it on Epic Store instead of waiting for we don't know how long it may tale to be released on Steam.
And with the details I give, you should figure it out by yourself.

[anaphylactic god]

i think its pretty bad.
i liked it at first but damn, i just hate those forced mechanics devs put down your throat.
coop here is like stealth in sekiro - completely useless, yet devs think its mandatory to have so they force you anyway.
Devs made it with coop at all times so even if you have no one to play with they give you braindead AI ally instead.
All those doors you cant open alone, cliffs you cant climb. Shadow enemy pounce at you ? only your companion can save you, got downed ? only companion can save you.
I tried Amiren dungeon 7 times and AI never managed to reach even to the middle of it, not becouse enemies are dangerous or something - he just guaranteed to misstep somewhere and fall to his death - full hp and just gone, now you have to traverse it all alone and if you get downed thats the end.
and i dont even talk about all the cheesy ways devs trying to kill you all the time - pitch dark locations where enemies are hidden in blind spots so you cant even notice them untill you are dead, cheap ass one shot kills, enemy respawn from behind you, stun locking attacks and so much more.
and game only have 5 bosses -_-
i expected a lot more from this game, good thing i bought it with sale discount.

[Die Zahl]

Originally posted by GiantJoe202:

I like the way the word "Fake" is over hyped these days...
Of course I played it, so are the hundreds of players that bought it on Epic Store instead of waiting for we don't know how long it may tale to be released on Steam.
And with the details I give, you should figure it out by yourself.

so why you dont review it on this other platform?!

[Mad Thumps]

Originally posted by Die Zahl:

so why you dont review it on this other platform?!

I think that's in part because Epic doesn't have reviews - if I'm not mistaken. Lmao.