$39.99Ashen A wanderer's place in a broken world
Ashen is an open world co-op action RPG about a wanderer searching for a place to call home. You roam bogs, fjords and old palaces in stamina-based combat, and another wanderer can drift into your world Journey-style to fight beside you, join your party, or just walk past.
Is Ashen worth it?
Ashen is worth it if…
- you like slow, careful souls-like combat with a partner beside you
- you like meeting strangers in-game and deciding to team up or move on
- you like dark fantasy that stays atmospheric rather than gory
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Strangers who wander into your fight
You never queue for co-op in Ashen. As you cross its open world you occasionally meet another player, the same way travelers cross paths in Journey. The choice is yours: fight together against whatever is waiting around the corner, invite them into your party for longer, or ignore them and keep walking. It keeps teamwork loose and social, built around whoever happens to be nearby rather than lobbies and invites. For co-op friends, that means shared danger without much setup, two axes against the dark.
Patient fights in a fatal world
Combat runs on stamina, so attacking, blocking and dodging all draw from the same pool. Enemies and wild creatures punish rushing, and even small encounters can turn dire if you stop watching the surroundings. You get rewarded for studying the flora and fauna, learning habits, and planning instead of swinging wildly. Where you are changes the run too, from bog to fjord to pillaged palace, so the same careful fighter faces very different problems depending on the ground underfoot.
What else should co-op friends know?
How do you build your home base?
You find survivors out in the world and can invite them to your Town. They settle there and bring crafting skills such as blacksmithing and foraging, which widens what you can make and upgrade.
How do you get stronger?
There is no grind of stat points. You gain life and stamina by finishing quests and finding certain world items, so progress follows the story and exploration rather than farming.
What gives the story its tone?
The narrative was built with fantasy author Mark Lawrence and the score with the band Foreign Fields, which fits the quiet, light-returning-after-darkness mood and its brief conversations over long exposition.
