The creators of Hyper Light Drifter have a brand new experience coming to the PlayStation 5 with Solar Ash.
Visually striking in a metaphysical, surreal sort of way, Solar Ash showcases a ton of what looks like interdimensional creativity on display. The trailer itself doesn't give away anything about what Solar Ash is, though there seem to be some elements of an 3rd person action-adventure thrown into the mix. All we do see is a player character travelling between various worlds, meeting up with a glowing goddess who warns them to be afraid, as they are transported to an unknown environment afterwards in a stylish display of color and sound.
"In Solar Ash, the player journeys through the Ultravoid, a ravenous rift in space swallowing worlds," states Alex Preston, lead developer of Head of Heart Machine. "It’s a place of incredible danger and surreal spaces – a dream none can escape. Familiar though alien, lush but grotesque, peaceful at times, and supremely violent in others. Our characters must find solace in each other to make it through the spiral of despair they find themselves trapped in."
Gameplay-wise, players will traverse worlds with wild gravity, slay massive monsters, and meet other lost souls to the void across your journeys. Most of the time players will be blasting through worlds in high-speed, with the game's challenge coming from the environment and the enemies within in how they navigate it. One other thing to worry about are the remnants, mysterious creatures that "bristle with hunger" across the ultravoid, who may best be avoided by the player as they travel the worlds.
Solar Ash will also be utilizing many of the touted features of the PlayStation 5. "PlayStation 5 gives us power previously unavailable in a console," states Preston. "we can push more lush, high-quality visuals at a much higher framerate, we can load seamlessly due to the wild speed of the SSD, and the DualSense can even provide feedback in the controller we had not known was possible. Power is all well and good, but the most exciting part is the suite of tools for more direct engagement with our audience."
Solar Ash is scheduled for a 2021 release exclusively for the PlayStation 5.
