Ambrosia Sky: Act One Review
Ambrosia Sky: Act One is a beautiful, strange, and haunting game to experience. It mixes a cozy cleaning simulator with sci-fi investigation and a complex narrative. I've had my eyes on this game since I first heard about Soft Rains' ambitious sci-fi cleaner at VGLX 2025 in Toronto. I even got the chance to interview with a team member live on stream for the Eh! Game Showcase. Since then, I have followed the updates and have been eager to see how the tether mechanics and colony story would develop. After the busy holiday season, I finally got the chance to play it on Steam for PC.
The game begins with a bold idea: a deserted farming colony in Saturn’s rings, once a vital food source and now a graveyard of past mistakes. Feeling similar to No Man’s Sky or Metroid, this game plays with isolation and log-based world-building, but adds a more emotional, ritual-focused approach than either one. Instead of playing as a typical space marine, farmer, or explorer, you become a Scarab, which in this game is a mystical field scientist and undertaker who cleans up both biological (and emotional) messes.
This setup works well in theory. The colony’s history of corporate negligence, scientific overreach, and the slow collapse of a hopeful community gives Soft Rains a lot to explore. When the game focuses on the feeling of a lost, close-knit place instead of just another space station disaster, it stands out.
You play as Dalia, a Scarab who returns to the colony where she grew up, years after a fungal disaster called The Crisis. Her job is to collect DNA, perform last rites, and support the immortality project that employs the Scarabs (aka The Ambrosia Project). While on missions, she deals with survivor’s guilt, old relationships, and family issues as she explores and logs the dead bodies of the people she once knew.
Act One is just the beginning of a bigger story, and that’s both a strength and a weakness. On the positive side, each recovered body, email, and memory gives a brief, touching look at who these people were and why they stayed. The downside is that just as the storylines about cult beliefs, corporate negligence, and Dalia’s past become interesting, the act ends suddenly without closure, making it feel more like a prologue than a full chapter.
Ambrosia Sky’s main gameplay loop is a unique style of scanning and the satisfying cleaning of PowerWash Simulator. Missions send you through different parts of the colony, like labs, farms, and tight corridors, where you clear fungus, collect samples, search for seeds, and find the dead who still need Scarab rites.
The cleaning itself hits a familiar, cozy nerve. Your chemical sprayer has multiple nozzle types and element-infused sprays that let you burn, shock, or simply wash away the invasive fungus. The game also lets you tether/fling yourself through zero-G spaces in a way that feels surprisingly joyful. This game absolutely nails that meditative “one more patch, then I’ll stop” satisfaction that every cozy gamer, like myself, looks for.
One issue is that the game hints at a deeper, more complex immersive sim but doesn’t deliver any of the payoff in Act One. The levels look great, but are mostly linear, guiding you along one main path. However, I did discover a few neat vent routes that kept the exploration fun. There are alternate sprays and upgrades, but many feel optional or underused, so the gameplay can become a bit repetitive, especially when you notice you’re facing the same types of fungal threats repeatedly. I’m looking forward to hopefully encountering more complex enemies in later parts.
Ambrosia Sky’s art and sound design are for SURE standout features. The colony is rendered in painterly purples and maroons, with unusual shapes that give it a mix of an oil painting and a lo-fi sci-fi dream. I am definitely a little biased here, as my favourite colour is purple, but I think many cozy-game lovers would also agree... the vibes are immense. Character portraits in the logs are expressive and memorable, connecting each email to a real person and making the station feel like a lost community instead of just a collection of nameless bodies.
When it comes to character exploration, the game's narrative and investigative style shine. I really enjoyed getting to learn more about the people in Dalia’s life that shaped her as a person - for example in past relationships with Maeve, or who got her to leave the colony altogether, like her step-mother, Hale. I hope to learn more about Maaz, our Q (James Bond reference), in the later parts of the game. My favourite bits of the game were giving the last rites to certain characters and getting those voice-acted comic book sequences. I really loved the look, feel, and sound of this game.
Overall verdict
Ambrosia Sky: Act One is a beautifully strange game about grief, ritual, and the small acts of kindness we can give the dead, all within a sci-fi cleaning loop that is both calming and uneven. When the tether works well, the sprayer feels satisfying, and you’re uncovering the lives of a doomed community, the game is truly special. But where it can still shine brighter is its linear design and limited need to upgrade your tools. Act One was definitely an appetizer, and I hope that Act Two gives us a whole meal.
If you like melancholy sci-fi, story-driven games, and the idea of being a space mortician with a power washer... Ambrosia Sky: Act One should definitely be on your list.
