Ashwalkers is a post-apocalyptic survival sport. The main focus is on the story and the alternatives you choose, making it really feel extra like a visible novel than a survival-type sport. Whereas the idea is exclusive and the variety of choices permits for a number of totally different endings, the general execution and technical flaws hold this from feeling like a elegant product.
The world that Ashwalkers creates is fascinating, happening sooner or later the place a geological catastrophe occurred, inflicting Earth to turn into a wasteland. You play as 4 adventurers and got down to discover the Dome of Domes, a protected place to your tribe. And as you discover the wasteland, you come throughout others making an attempt to make life work within the harsh atmosphere. You’ll be able to select the way you need to deal with totally different situations and interactions with NPCs. For instance, do you go in with the plan to assault or with a diplomatic method? Every choice has 4 different selections, permitting for thirty-four potential endings.
As you discover, you’ll have to hold monitor of 4 stats of the characters: heat, starvation, sanity, and power. These will deplete as you journey, so that you’ll want to search out provides and arrange camp to maintain the crew alive. You’ll arrange camp to make use of supplies discovered on the planet to extend your heat and starvation. And permitting characters to relaxation and converse will improve their sanity and power.
The sport presents a tutorial, but it surely doesn’t present a lot clarification. As a substitute, it’s a easy walk-through of accumulating supplies and the camp mechanics. I might have appreciated a way more in-depth tutorial in most video games, however the sport is comparatively straightforward, and I by no means felt any of my characters had been ever in actual hazard. There are many assets to search out, and there’s no fight within the sport; as an alternative, the choice you make performs out through textual content, making the sport really feel like a strolling visible novel. Nonetheless, as survival video games go, that is the best one I’ve performed.
Whereas the idea is attention-grabbing, an absence of execution makes the sport really feel uninteresting. Not one of the characters have an attention-grabbing background and no actual character. I by no means felt linked to them. They’re simply faceless protagonists with nothing that distinguishes one from one other. As a substitute, I might have most popular creating characters and choosing their skillset.
I by no means felt like my characters had been in imminent hazard. With loads of assets, I by no means had a difficulty with any of the character’s stats. Even my selections by no means made it really feel just like the characters had been in peril. Each choice performed out with the protagonists strolling away unscathed.
The sport additionally railroads you. Whereas there are areas that give the looks which you could examine, generally, I used to be disenchanted and compelled to take the trail that the designers needed me to take.
Nevertheless it’s the technical points that brought on most of my frustration. First, booting up the sport, it crashed a number of occasions on me. Then, whereas traversing the panorama, the characters would get caught, and I wasn’t positive it was due to a glitch or if I wanted to stroll in a special route. Lastly, the sport is all in black and white, and loads of occasions, the textual content was in white on a white background, making it unattainable to learn. These are issues that ought to have been caught in QA, making it really feel like the sport is in an early construct and never prepared for manufacturing.
