I went into Ashen with certain expectations. Not of quality, but of mood. It sets out its Dark Soulsbut stall right away, with talk of disasters and darkness and god-level menaces, and so I shifted my brain into the familiar gears of isolation and doomy solitude. These, experience has taught, are lonely adventures in hostile places only the broken corpses will ever witness my successes and failures, and the world will not care if I live, die or die and die and die again.
A night drive on a lost highway, no other car but mine. Except… That didn t happen. The expected coldness welcome as it is, for it means I am in a place where my triumphs and failures are mine and mine alone, serving no other agenda did not envelop me. Instead, Ashen makes me feel warm – and makes me feel that I have friends.