Ambrosia Sky: Act Two combines the relaxing feeling of a cleaning sim with the ambient sadness of a fairly distressing sci-fi story. Navigation can be a bit unclear, and a couple of objectives could be a little more straightforward, but for the most part, the spraying and movement mechanics make this an incredibly satisfying game with plenty of lore for those who get totally engrossed.
After previewing Ambrosia Sky: Act Two last month, I wanted to get my hands on the title to see what spraying scary fungus in space would feel like. As I had hoped, the main gameplay loop for maneuvering through empty space stations and spraying down dangerous growths scratches a strange part of my brain, even if figuring out your way around some of the missions can be a little bit frustrating.
The primary gameplay mechanic of Ambrosia Sky: Act Two is the same as the first act, though with a few small additions. You spend most of your time figuring out how to get through space stations filled with dangerous fungal growths and roots. These can be electrically charged, flammable, or, as of Act Two, corrupted and nearly impenetrable. Using your spray gun to cut away at these growths gives off a satisfying feeling, especially as you run (or float in zero gravity) around to try to find the main bulb that’ll neuter the roots. There’s an almost puzzle-esque vibe to figuring out how to proceed at some points, which makes you want to keep playing each stage to see how everything is laid out.
This time around, there are also some unique zero gravity sequences to contend with. A few times throughout Ambrosia Sky: Act Two, you’ll be soaring around in space – in some cases, to try to re-align a satellite relay or bring specific seeds to little planet-like orbs. It gets interesting when you’ve got to juggle the gravitational pulls that each area has, pulling yourself about with the incredibly useful grapple and trying to keep your head straight while going upside down and all around.
Then there are areas that push gravity in a specific direction and can be changed with a button press, requiring additional environmental awareness and planning to navigate each area. Throughout the 3-4 hours it took me to go through Act Two, I found myself enjoying the crazy gravity sections, as they introduced new mobility challenges that further complicated the process of avoiding/destroying the rampant fungus.
Ambrosia Sky: Act Two does struggle a bit with navigational cues, however. At times, I felt it wasn’t too clearly communicated how you proceed in certain situations – one of which had a time limit, making it challenging to experiment with how I needed to proceed. On a couple of occasions, I had to replay decently large swaths of a stage due to a lack of healing/saving stations between that part and wherever I was stuck, which could be a bit frustrating.
Much of the narrative, as in Act One, is conveyed through text logs you can find throughout each level. I’m a bit split on this, as I do love additional lore details being expanded upon through optional collectibles, but I sort of wish it was narrated as it often is in comparable immersive sims. Being able to hear the lore in audio log form whilst cleaning a station would have been a wonderful way to combine the laid-back aspect of the gameplay with the story, rather than having to stop and read numerous messages per console to take in the full narrative background. Its presence is appreciated, but I do wish it were presented just a bit differently.
The vibes of Ambrosia Sky Act Two are both relaxing and distressing.
The main story is interesting and well portrayed through Dalia’s monologuing. The environmental storytelling is probably the best part, as stumbling upon corpse after corpse – many of whom Dalia knew prior – in the fungal tangles that have taken over each area provides a distinct sense of melancholy that works remarkably well with the large-scale sci-fi setting. The ending is memorable, too, with an impressive set piece that takes full advantage of the aforementioned gravity mechanic.
Good
The Final Word
Ambrosia Sky Act Two is a fitting conclusion that introduces enough new twists to set it apart from the first act. There are a couple of navigational issues, but the oddly relaxing sensation of spraying down fungus combined with the many mechanics surrounding that central conceit are certainly worth experiencing. If you want to power wash some dangerous growths in a melancholy sci-fi world, I think Ambrosia Sky: Act Two will be right up your alley.
