Among Ashes

About Among Ashes

Among Ashes is by Rat Cliff Games, released on Steam and PS5 on 9 December 2024 and on Xbox Series X|S on 6 June 2025 (the Xbox version is published by Dojo System). Its idea is a game within a game: you play a first-person horror game inside another first-person horror game.

It is a stormy night in the early 2000s. You sit at your old computer, chatting with a friend on an instant messenger, when he sends you a forum post about a supposedly haunted game released by a lone developer: Night Call. In it you play a police officer sent to check on strange noises at an old house, the Stoker house, where your partner is attacked as soon as you arrive. From there you explore its labyrinthine halls, solve puzzles for keys and fight the monsters that have infested it.

Night Call looks and sounds like early survival horror: blocky PS1-style models and stiff voice acting. You begin with a baton that can also block, and later find a pistol and a shotgun, but ammunition is scarce and the main enemies only go down for a short while. Some puzzles reach outside the game, sending you to the in-game web browser or to message your friend, and TheSixthAxis's review mentions a retro top-down game inside Night Call and a chase through caves from a creature that kills in one hit.

Between sessions you are in your dim apartment, with snow on the windows and a little lit tree on the desk, where strange things begin to happen and the game seems to be reaching out. TheSixthAxis's reviewer finished it in four or five hours. The store warns of frequent violence and gore and themes of abuse and suicide.

It suits players who like haunted-media horror and retro survival horror, and anyone curious about a creepypasta told from the chair in front of the screen.

How to play Among Ashes

1. Read the forum post your friend sends on the messenger and launch Night Call on your computer.
2. Explore the manor in first person, fending off enemies with your baton and blocking their attacks.
3. Find keys and solve the puzzles that open the way deeper into the house; some need the in-game web browser or a message to your friend.
4. Step away from the screen when the game lets you, and look around your apartment as strange things begin to happen.
5. Keep playing to learn the truth behind Night Call and its creator, and survive the night.

Tips

• Save pistol and shotgun ammunition for the fights you cannot avoid: the main enemies get up again after a short while, so the baton and its block are often enough.
• When a puzzle in Night Call seems to have no answer inside the game, check the web browser on your desktop or message your friend.
• In the cave chase the creature kills in one hit; keep moving and watch the way ahead rather than looking back.

Questions