Review by Jon Donnis
Ayasa: Shadows of Silence is a dark, surreal puzzle-platformer with an impressive visual style, an eerie atmosphere and a world that immediately sparks curiosity. Drawing comparisons with Little Nightmares III and Inside, it combines environmental puzzles, platforming and exploration with a story told through imagery, music and character movements. Unfortunately, while the presentation is often excellent, the gameplay is let down by poor controls, technical problems and some incredibly frustrating platforming. There is a good game buried somewhere beneath these problems, but finding it requires considerably more patience than it should.
The adventure takes place in the Inverted World, a once-balanced place where light and shadow existed in harmony under the watchful presence of Tas, the Absolute. Following a devastating war, darkness has spread across six symbolic lands representing Faith, Hope, Love, Greed, Indifference and Betrayal. Playing as Ayasa, you must explore these corrupted environments in search of the remnants of Tas's light. Your actions and how you treat the world around you can also influence the outcome of your journey.
There is no spoken dialogue, with the story unfolding through surreal imagery, character movements and environmental storytelling. I actually like this approach. It encourages you to pay attention to your surroundings and piece together what is happening rather than having everything explained. The strange creatures and unusual environments also maintain a sense of mystery, making exploration one of the more enjoyable aspects of the game.
Visually, Ayasa is easily at its strongest. The graphics are very good, with imaginative environments, distinctive character designs and a wonderfully unsettling atmosphere. The restrained colour palette works particularly well, while the use of light and shadow gives each location its own identity. There are some genuinely impressive scenes, and I regularly found myself appreciating the creativity behind the world design.
The soundtrack and sound effects deserve similar praise. The music complements the surroundings beautifully, while the various environmental noises help create an unsettling atmosphere. Combined with the visual presentation, they give the game a distinctive personality that makes exploring its strange world genuinely appealing.
Gameplay combines platforming, environmental puzzles and stealth, with light playing an important role in revealing paths, activating machinery and overcoming obstacles. As you progress through Faith, Hope and Love, you unlock additional abilities that introduce new ways to interact with the environment. These powers are a welcome addition, providing some variety and allowing you to approach certain obstacles differently.
Unfortunately, the actual gameplay is where my enjoyment starts to fall apart.
The biggest problem is the jumping mechanics. There is a noticeable delay between pressing the jump button and Ayasa actually responding. It might only be a fraction of a second, but when attempting precision jumps, that delay feels like an eternity. Platforming requires accurate timing and responsive controls. Unfortunately, neither is particularly reliable here.
What makes this especially frustrating is that the problem has reportedly existed in the PC version for at least six months. To see the same issue carried over into the PlayStation 5 release is simply unacceptable. This isn't a minor technical annoyance that occasionally gets in the way. It affects the very foundations of the gameplay and regularly turns otherwise straightforward sections into exercises in frustration.
The camera makes matters worse. Angles frequently make it difficult to judge distances and positioning, while character movement and collision detection lack the precision needed for a platformer. There were several occasions when repeated failures felt less like mistakes on my part and more like the game simply wasn't responding as it should.
Other problems include technical glitches, inconsistent stealth encounters and puzzles or interactions that don't always provide enough guidance. Loading times are another irritation, particularly when repeated deaths force you to sit through them again. When the controls are already making progress unnecessarily difficult, having to wait before attempting the same section again does little to improve the experience.
And that is what makes Ayasa so disappointing. I genuinely enjoyed exploring its strange environments, appreciated the visual design and found the soundtrack particularly effective. The developers have created an intriguing world that deserves to be explored, but too often I found myself fighting the controls rather than enjoying the adventure.
Games such as Little Nightmares III and Inside demonstrate what can be achieved with this style of atmospheric puzzle-platforming. Ayasa has similar ambitions, but it lacks the polish, responsive controls and technical consistency needed to deliver the same level of enjoyment.
Ultimately, Ayasa: Shadows of Silence feels like a game that should still be in beta testing on PC rather than receiving a full console release in its current condition. I would genuinely like to revisit it in a year's time to see whether the developers have addressed the problems, because the visual presentation and underlying concept deserve a better game. However, given how long some of these issues have apparently persisted on PC, I am not particularly confident that meaningful improvements will arrive.
For now, I cannot recommend Ayasa without significant reservations. It has the atmosphere, creativity and visual identity to be something special, but the poor controls and technical problems constantly undermine those strengths. Fix the jumping mechanics, improve the overall responsiveness and address the loading times, and I would happily reconsider my score. Until then, this is a disappointing experience that falls well short of its potential.
I score Ayasa: Shadows of Silence a disappointing 6 out of 10
Out Now on PS5
