In Solar Ash, players assume the role of Rei a so-called voidrunner who can skate across most terrain and slash through threats with her sword. Solar Ash seems almost overly whimsical at first as you see this beautiful mosaic of colors thrown at you that encompasses the landscape but this isn’t a very difficult title to pick up and play.

The main premise—and the majority of your time in Solar Ash—is to skate across terrains taking down various enemies and entities. Thanks to the stellar speed of Rei, going from point a to point b on any map feels quick and is truly an entertaining experience. We sometimes would find ourselves getting lost trying to speed across different areas that weren’t even our destination just because of how smooth movement feels in Solar Ash. The same can be said of combat which is very simple—you only have several abilities to use, such as a basic slash and the ability to instantly teleport to specific locations to either attack a boss’ weak point or reach a ledge in the distance. Solar Ash isn’t Dark Souls level hard, but it truly will test your reflexes and quick thinking during some of the meatier boss fights!

Seriously, Solar Ash could just be a moving wallpaper of a game, and we’d still buy it a hundred times over. It's breathtakingly gorgeous, with strong hues and colors that make staring at the screen almost a perquisite to enjoying the game. We had times where we’d put down our controllers, drink some coffee, and stare at Rei’s strange world just wondering how much effort it took to make these environments so colorful.

What is inspired by games like Dark Souls and Nier is the strange lore in Solar Ash. Rei clearly is trying to stop something called the Ultravoid, which threatens to consume worlds via its black hole-like tendencies. As Rei dives into stopping this almost impossible threat, you as the player will need to piece together what really is the Ultravoid and solve the story of Rei’s existence. Exploring the planet and listening to NPCs will help you immensely, as just blazing through Solar Ash would be a big mistake.

Solar Ash looks stunning, plays quite well, and also sounds mesmerizing! The OST in Solar Ash is second to none, and since our words can’t capture the various tunes and songs that play in Solar Ash, we do recommend donning some headphones, looking up the OST on YouTube, and just sitting back to those addicting beats.