Ashen

Ashen is a Souls-like that succeeds despite its lack of originality. The simplified progression, tracked quest objectives, and a persistent companion make it a great way to get into this challenging...

Solid and definitely has an audience. There could be some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun.How we score:  The destructoid reviews...

Announced in 2014, Ashen for Xbox One and Windows PC is an action role-playing game developed by New Zealand-based indie studio A44 Games. And like a fair few indie games this year, it's a souls-like, which is sub-genre of titles inspired by Dark Souls....

Ashen is a very good action-adventure game sporting interesting lore, good character development, and solid gameplay features like combat and exploration. Unfortunately, the game does almost nothing to separate its gameplay loop from the one seen in the...

Ashen, a new Dark Souls-inspired action RPG, made a surprise arrival. Going in, expectations were high — but did Ashen meet them? Was Ashen the holiday gift we were all hoping for or was it a lump of coal in our stockings?After slashing, dodging,...

Ashen is at its best when you and a stranger are standing victorious over the corpse of a giant creature. You want to say “thank you,” or exchange a high five, but the only thing you can do is spin around in a circle or jump frantically to simulate a sense of glee. Even with so much of the experience feeling similar to something else you’ve played, Ashen delivers a great sense of wonder in its world, and ends up being a fun journey to undertake.

Ashen takes liberally from Dark Souls when it comes to combat and progression, but it's a very good take on the formula that delivers satisfying, strategic combat and progression that rewards careful play. Thanks to a gorgeous, varied open world and...

Ashen contributes more hits than misses to the Souls formula, though the overall experience may feel too familiar to fans of FromSoftware's trendsetting...