Among Ashes was provided by Rat Cliff Games for review. Thank you!
When I first saw the pitch for Among Ashes, I was completely sold on the concept. The idea of a video game that was made and affects the real world, which you can go in and out of, captivated me. I remember getting the email about it and responding quickly because I wanted to see what it would be like. I had a lot of hopes for it, and while it reached some of them, there were some quirks and some difficult sections that stopped me from fully enjoying it.
The whole idea behind Among Ashes is fantastic. On a stormy night, you are sitting at your computer when your friend sends you a new game to play. However, as soon as you start the game, which is named Night Call, something goes wrong. You start to notice some strange occurrences happening around your apartment and realize that it directly correlates to the game itself. So now you must finish the game to get out of this nightmare, all while experiencing the horrors this game creates.
I enjoyed the story a lot, and like the way developer Rat Cliff Games utilized the different mediums in-game to tell it. Being able to easily switch between your computer and your apartment to walk around and see how everything is unfolding on multiple fronts is cool. You will consistently switch between Night Call, navigating the computer, messaging your friend, who is also experiencing strange occurrences from the game, and your apartment, and I like this angle.
However, I wish the game didn't rely on jump scares as much. Among Ashes is a horror game, and I understand what comes with that territory, but I wished they relied more on psychological and atmospheric horror instead. They set it up well with the apartment's lighting, ambient noise, and the small effects in the game you are playing on your computer. Still, random quick events cheapened the fantastic circumstances Among Ashes had created.
I also like the visual style and variety. Night Call has a PS1-style polygonal style with some creepy monster designs, while the computer is clearly inspired by Windows XP's interface. Then, we have the apartment itself, which utilizes much more realistic 3D visuals. It's interesting seeing the switching between all of these, and the contrast between them all sells the fact that Among Ashes takes place in 2001.
This all helped create a stunning atmosphere that always kept me on my toes. The way the lighting of your room and apartment mixes with the ambient noise is just fantastic. It also mixes well when you are playing Night Call. One moment stuck out to me when I had to open a ballerina box, and the music started playing, but it didn't sound like it was coming from the crackly speakers on my computer. So, you have to get up and go to your living room, walking down a hallway encased in darkness to find the ballerina box on the coffee table. It's creepy and unnerving, and the execution was perfect.
The actual gameplay has some layers that work well, but some jankiness makes it hard to fully enjoy. The bulk of Among Ashes occurs in Night Call, a PS1-era first-person shooter. You will solve puzzles and walk around a giant manor investigating a disturbance that was reported. The puzzles are very intricate and require finding specific items or codes to unlock more parts of the mansion to hopefully escape. You will also have to deal with these zombie monsters and will find guns and ammo to use to dispatch them.
Imagine if the newer first-person Resident Evil games had the same look and controls as the original PS1 Resident Evil games. You have to aim first before attacking, which forces you to stand still, you have to go through a clunky inventory menu to use items and change which weapon is equipped, and it just feels a bit awkward to move around. However, this isn't a negative. It captures the era really nicely, and feels great to play.
Some of the puzzles do require going outside of the game and accessing "web pages" to give you clues to solve some of these puzzles. The puzzles range in difficulty, with most requiring moderate thinking that makes you feel really smart after and others being a bit too difficult. There is one in particular that I just could not figure out for the life of me, and while I did in the end, it was not easy. Some of the "web pages" are interactable too, like the one pictured below being able to play those sound files, which is a nice touch.
I had no issues with Night Call otherwise, but moving away from the computer was a bit much. You don't do a lot when moving around, with most of it walking to and from the front door and living room area of your apartment, but it is slow and a little bit clunky. While you can run in Night Call, you can't outside of it, making the slow walk to and from a bit obnoxious. There are also some minor confusing moments, like when I died after acquiring the lighter and trying to re-acquire it, and it wasn't straightforward about how to do it. I figured it out in the end; I had to leave the computer, walk out to the ballerina box, and come back, but it took a lot of trial and error.
At least, for the most part, it is playable on the Steam Deck.
I went into Among Ashes with the thought that this would be a relatively easy game to run. Sure, there is the more detailed 3D room you are in, but a lot of the game is played through a PS1-era video game. However, I was sorely mistaken. The game is pushing the Steam Deck hard at most times, and it means we need to make some compromises to keep everything as stable as possible.
I realized it was hard to keep 60 FPS while playing, and there were regular dips down to the 40s with some extremely high battery drain. I did try lowering the settings as well, which didn't really help as much as I would have liked. It saved around 2-3 FPS and made the game look considerably worse. So, I recommend keeping the quality at the default but setting the framerate to 40 FPS and the refresh rate to either 40 or 80Hz.
This does work, and there are only a couple of spots that will still drain the battery heavily, but it works for the most part:
You can change the language, controller sensitivity, rebind controls, invert camera rotation, and change audio sliders, but that's about it for the settings.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions and controllers. There are no HDR settings or cloud saves.
Among Ashes is an intriguing horror game with a fair share of hits and misses. The atmosphere, story, and general premise are all fantastic, and I like the variety of gameplay elements and how they interact to create a compelling tale. There are a couple of nuisances with controls and jankiness. Some puzzles are a bit too hard, and I wish there were fewer jump scares, but it's still an enjoyable experience.
I wish the performance on the Steam Deck was a bit better, though. This game should run better due to its confined spaces, but it is still playable.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Among Ashes is an intriguing horror game with great atmosphere, but it suffers from too many small issues, including mediocre Steam Deck performance.
