Ashwalkers is an open-ended survival simulator set 200 years after a massive volcanic disaster has ravaged the planet, leaving it barren and blanketed in blizzards of gray dust. On a journey to the Dome of Domes, a post-apocalyptic utopia at the edge of the world, players manage a party of four explorers: Petra, the fearless leader; Sinh, a skilled fighter; Kali, a young scholar; and Nadir, the ever-observant scout.
Ashwalkers features crafting, resource management, survival systems, and a plethora of interpersonal and moral judgement calls, all of this leading to one of 34 possible endings. Player choice is the game’s core mechanic.
“It’s more a laboratory for us than a dystopian story, actually,” Ashwalkers creative director Matteo Gaulmier said.
If that’s true, Ashwalkers is the grimiest lab this side of the apocalypse. The game is covered in clouds of ash, constantly swirling and layered on the screen like an…