[Review] Ash Of Gods

[R e i]

Ash Of Gods Game informations

PLATFORML:PCPlayStation 4Switch
DEVELOPER:AurumDust
PUBLISHER:Ravenscourt
REVIEWED ON:PlayStation 4

 

 

I always find it a little bit odd in fantasy stories like the one in Ash of Gods: Redemption that people who deal with dragons and magic and curses on a daily basis steadfastly refuse to believe in very specific things like, I don’t know, the resurrection of an ancient evil, for example. “The Bogmonsters have returned? Pull the other one – they’re not real!” they cry, whilst literally using magic to clean the dragon blood off their mithril underwear.It’s for the audience’s benefit, of course, in that it gives us something to relate to in our boring old, decidedly enchantment-free, world. But it’s still trite. If just once one of these vaguely Western European-slash-Dark Age British civilisations was actually prepared for the second coming of the Bogmonsters, we might get an original story.Ash of Gods: Redemption, based on the works of Russian author Sergey Malitsky, has its own version in the Reapers, former angel-like beings who have turned on the mortals of the world of Terminus in the absence of an overseeing God. Quite surprisingly to the people of this world, the Reapers have returned – which is a bit weird as everyone talks as though such a return was inevitable and they’ve all been waiting for it.As the Reapers lay waste to the land with fire and sword, they also spread a lethal plague, identifiable by a black mark on the back of the neck, that eventually sends common people into a homicidal rage. The story, split into three narratives, isn’t too bad at all as a concept. The issues arise due to how its told. It could be down to the translation from Russian novel to English-language video game, but there are certainly problems with delivery. Some of the lines are noticeably clunky, and some are just plain cringeworthy, not least due to the exposition clumsily shoehorned into even the most pedestrian of conversations.Thats an exaggeration, but not an overly facetious one. Oftentimes the exposition is incredibly ham-fisted, which isn’t helped by the unnatural way characters talk to each other. Each of the three narratives follows a different character: Captain of the Guard, Thorn Brenin, whose daughter is infected by the Reaping sickness; troubled Immortal Hopper Rouley who seeks redemption for failing humanity; and the brooding badass assassin Lo Pheng. There are multiple branches leading from each, some of which are heavily signposted but some of which you can’t possibly plan for, and so feel a little cheap. For example, a seemingly insignificant choice made as Thorn in the opening moments directly decides which character dies later in the act and there’s no possible way to know that at the time which, while oddly reflective of the chaos of real life, makes the choice meaningless because you don’t know it has stakes at all. It’s almost as if AurumDust were trying to outdo a certain other game that Ash of Gods is worryingly similar to.Which it is, quite blatantly. I’ve avoided talking about the big curly-horned giant lurking in the corner of the room, but there’s no way to nonchalantly sidle past it anymore: Ash of Gods is very much like The Banner Saga. And by “very much like”, I mean “almost exactly the same as”. There are differences, which we’ll get to, but in terms of the aesthetics and the combat mechanics, they could be part of the same series. The art style is almost identical, using 2D rotoscoping and identically directed dialogue scenes. The combat is so similar I actually double-checked who developed Ash of Gods during the tutorial to be sure it wasn’t Stoic.

 

 

Ash of Gods attempts to one-up The Banner Saga’s branching interactive story, offering more decision points, some of which have severe consequences (almost everybody, even major characters, can die in this game). Sounds fine in theory, but the game provides very little context to base your decisions on and no way to track the outcome of your choices. For example, the gift you decide to buy your wife near the very beginning of the game will decide whether a completely unrelated character lives or dies several hours later. It doesn’t feel like there’s much point in trying to choose the smart or morally right/wrong answer when the outcomes are often so arbitrary. Ash of Gods’ devs claim this is an example of intentional “roguelike storytelling,” which is cute branding, but a tad disingenuous. Randomly-generated dungeons are fine, but randomizing storytelling just results in incoherence.Ash of Gods’ battles are, like everything else in the game, nearly identical to The Banner Saga. After choosing a party of up to six characters, you take to a grid-based battlefield for turn-based combat. Characters come in several classes (basic swordsmen, tanks, archers, healers, and so on) and possess a variety of abilities that unlock as the turns pass. Kill the bad guys before they kill you – basic stuff.Unfortunately, Ash of Gods unthinkingly replicates some of The Banner Saga’s worst mechanics – your characters, annoyingly, block each other on the battlefield, and the turn system is a mess. You and your opponent take turns moving your fighters and you can only return to a character once everybody else on your team has moved. There’s no speed stat or Active Time Battle system that lets faster characters act more often. This means it’s actually a disadvantage to field a full team – you’re often better off sending only one or two strong characters into battle, as they’ll be able to get more attacks in and won’t get beaten up on when waiting for their turn. Ash of Gods exacerbates this exploit with its poorly-balanced roster (seriously, never use anybody but Lo Pheng during his chapters) and by removing Banner Saga’s 
Ash of Gods does tweak battles in a few small ways. Banner Saga’s armor and willpower (used for extra movement and activating abilities) stats are combined into the single “energy” stat. This simplifies things, and adds a new strategic layer – unlike Banner Saga, where you pretty much had to chip away an enemy’s armor before taking them down, you can directly attack your opponents’ health in Ash of Gods, but reducing their energy will make them more vulnerable and limit their ability use. It feels like a more meaningful choice. Ash of Gods also adds a card-based magic system, but it’s too simple to make much difference. It feels like Ash of Gods’ developers wanted to add a bullet point to their game, but 
Despite all the issues, Ash of Gods’ battles have their gratifying moments. The smooth animation and splashes of gore make scoring kills undeniably satisfying. Ultimately though, this is, in almost every aspect, a slightly paler version of a battle system that had its issues to begin with. Serviceable, but a far cry from truly great strategy RPG series like Fire 
In between battles and story bits, you’ll have to deal with some light party management and survival elements. 

 

Lots of games borrow from others, but the problem with lifting the battle mechanics from The Banner Saga in such a wholesale way is that they’ve carried over the faults, too. The occasionally fiddly, turn-based clumsiness of Stoic’s game is fully present in Ash of Gods, which tries to make up for aping everything down to the animation style by inserting a superfluous battle card system that even the characters don’t seem to understand. That said, the array of skills and abilities possessed by each character offer some variety, and the fact that nothing is based on luck makes for some decent tactical challenges. It’s also fair to say that Ash of Gods’ dual stat system is better implemented, replacing Armour and Health with Strength and Energy, and having the former suffer when the latter is damaged. It adds a little more depth to combat than simply hacking at armour before hacking at 
If you’ve never played The Banner Saga, chances are very few of Ash of Gods’ shortcomings will bother you. The laboured dialogue can be forgiven, as can the expositiom, to a certain extent, and the combat is genuinely good. But because its so similar to Stoic’s game and because Stoic’s game is so beloved, the imitation actually does it harm. Despite a similarly grim setting, The Banner Saga’s writing is emotive and often strangely beautiful.For its low price (£25, even on Switch) Ash of Gods is a decent game with plenty of story and incentive to run through it a few times and make different choices. Howewer, unless you’re really enamoured by the story set-up, I’d still recommend The Banner Saga to genre newcomers as it remains the better choice. But if you’ve already played Stoic’s trilogy and are looking for a similar experience, AurumDust have produced the next best thing.Then, there's the card element. Instead of attacking or moving, you can also play a card (from a hand that you choose) during combat. These cards contain options such as restoring health or upping your defence. While it did add something unique to the experience, the game would have worked just fine without it. We're not complaining, but it felt like just another 
So, now we've had our little moan, let's get back to talking about something more positive. Ash of Gods: Redemption is stunning. Graphically it has a lot in common with The Banner Saga, and a lot of people have pointed out the visual similarities. For our part, we were also reminded of Dungeons & Dragons, the po[CENSORED]r animated kids show from the 1980s. The cartoon style worked perfectly for us, though, and not just the characters that look good, the textures and backgrounds are also well done. The visuals perfectly set the scene for this tale of a land cursed by the reaping, yet it seems only right that we also offer a nod to the amazing soundtrack. At times it sounded like Enya had made an apocalyptic themed 
So, to sum up, this story-driven adventure has a beautifully written narrative, and if story games are your thing, then cast your eye here. It can be a little heavy at times, but there's plenty of a reply value if you get into things. For those who just want some quality turn-based combat to mull over, this might not be the best option because even if the combat works well it can feel clunky and uninspired. All in all, Ash of Gods: Redemption is a stunning game with a great soundtrack that tells some interesting stories, but it's not a tactical masterpiece and it tries to do just a bit too much for its own good.

 

 Ash of Gods System Requirements (Minimum)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz
CPU SPEED: Info
RAM: 1 GB
OS: Windows 7, 8, 10
VIDEO CARD: Nvidia GeForce 9600 GS / ATI Radeon HD 2600
PIXEL SHADER: 4.0
VERTEX SHADER: 4.0
SOUND CARD: DirectX9 Compatible
FREE DISK SPACE: 5 GB
DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 256 MB
Ash of Gods Recommended Requirements
CPU: Intel Core i5 3.0 GHz
CPU SPEED: Info
RAM: 2 GB
OS: Windows 7, 8, 10
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 / AMD Radeon R9 280X
PIXEL SHADER: 5.0
VERTEX SHADER: 5.0
SOUND CARD: DirectX9 Compatible
FREE DISK SPACE: 5 GB
DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 2048 MB