Ashen is a stylistically captivating dungeon crawler that channels Dark Souls

Ashen was one of the many, many (so very many) games shown at the E3 2017 Microsoft press conference today, and it seems to be coming along rather splendidly. 

The open-world survival title from Aurora44 has been known about for some time now, revealed back in 2015 as part of the ID@Xbox program, but today’s trailer gave us a thoroughly impressive glimpse into what’s to come.

The first thing worth noticing about Ashen is its impactful art style. None of the playable characters have any eyes, noses or any facial features other than the grandiose moustaches which can be found on one of the starring heroes of the trailer. Such design choices, all of which are dressed up in a muted, moribund colour palette, leaves a haunting impression, and evokes the exact kind of mystery that leaves us begging to dive in and explore. 

It’s best you bring a friend into Ashen, too, as the game places a focus on co-operative play as much as it does exploration and combat.

Sadly, no release date was given for Ashen, but we know that it’ll be playable in 4K on the Xbox One X and Xbox One, plus Windows PC for any mouse and keyboard fans looking to gear up and take on the challenge.

Make sure you check out our full E3 2017 schedule to stay tuned for all the details as they arrive, and check out our roundup of all the E3 2017 trailers.

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Alex Avard

I'm GamesRadar's Features Writer, which makes me responsible for gracing the internet with as many of my words as possible, including reviews, previews, interviews, and more. Lucky internet!