I don’t particularly like trends in genres all that much. They’re much too relied upon, and don’t really tell me much about a game outright. Even still, I do like to think about why a particular genre might be trending. More than that, I love a twist on a trending genre that actually seeks to reckon with said genre. Like, say, Ambrosia Sky, one of those cleaning sorts of games except instead of muck or leaves, you’re cleaning up a cosmic contamination on a dead asteroid colony. And its first act is out today!
First, some more details. In Ambrosia Sky, you play as Dalia, a field scientist whose work involves trying to make human immortality a thing. The aforementioned colony is actually part of Saturn’s outer rings, having left it at some point only to discover alien fungi has overrun it and everyone she knows is either dead, MIA, or potentially responsible for this catastrophe. So, she must get to cleaning, and figure out the mystery.
The first act gives you a chemical sprayer and grappling hook to play around with to dissolve and extract the fungus, and fling yourself about the place. Ambrosia Sky is also an immersive sim, one of those impossible to define games that isn’t one until it is one. There are different species of alien fungi to deal with, and you can even whip up different ammo types that can copy said fungi’s abilities.
I’m always a bit cautious, if not outright pessimistic when it comes to cleaning sims because they often don’t deal with the fact that they romanticise labour. I’ve not dived into Ambrosia Sky just yet, so I can’t say for certain, but I am quite excited at the prospect of playing such a game that does something different with a tried and tested format. Even if mushrooms creep me out a bit.
Ambrosia Sky: Act One is available to pick up now with a bit of a launch discount on Steam.
