The Ascent (2021)

Very enjoyable and overall good design. The setting and atmosphere is top notch gritty cyberpunk. The inventory, looting and character system are differnt in ways that are somewhat welcome. However the game has many flaws to it.

First of all, the game is still a buggy mess. All sorts of things stop working: enemies will not spawn, computers won't be clickable, (I managed to get 'stuck' on some piece of clutter in the map) Annoyingly, going back to the main menu and reloading the game seemed to be the only way to fix this.

Second, I'm unsure if this really is an ARPG... Some of your stats clearly matter more than others, and well, what kind of weapon you use and what cybermod abilities (think magic, or summons) is what determines your 'build'

The real meat of this is the shooting. This is essentially a glorified Alien Shooter 2 Vengeance type game with lush backstory elements, voice acting, cutscenes, and character stat points. Also, oodles of weapons that are fun and satisfying and do different things., have different effects, etc.

Also, you can level up your weapon, and need to do it pretty much constantly.

Took me maybe 20 hours to complete all the side quests and do everything. I think some of the RPG elements are a bit questionable... and the bugs stunk, but overall a pretty fun game with one of the best cyberpunk settings i've seen in maybe any game

The Ascent offers an atmospheric experience with its cyberpunk setting and warm color palette, evoking strong comparisons to games like Ruiner. It incorporates a fixed isometric camera and employs twin-stick controls. What sets it apart, however, is its nuanced inventory and equipment system. The game even introduces a novel mechanic where the height of enemies matters; shorter foes require hip fire or crouching shots.

As you progress, you earn attribute points for leveling up, although abilities come in the form of gadgets you pick up. The loot system is reminiscent of Mass Effect, opting for a less random approach compared to Borderlands or Diablo. While there is only one type of assault rifle, its attributes can be enhanced as it levels up.

One minor gripe is the lack of inventory sorting options, making it difficult to organize items based on value. On the flip side, the game is quite forgiving compared to Souls-like titles; dying doesn’t result in any loss of loot, credits, or XP.

I initially started with a gamepad but found that keyboard and mouse controls were more efficient, especially since enemies often appear unexpectedly from behind. That said, turrets are frustratingly overpowered, and enemies tend to spawn in areas you’ve already cleared.

Once you acquire the minigun and spiderbots (which deal damage of all types), these issues become less significant. The storyline exists but isn't groundbreaking; you work for a mob boss, get embroiled in corporate espionage, and eventually discover a secret project that led to the bankruptcy of the Ascent corporation.

The game world expands as the story unfolds, although you might find yourself embarking on side quests in yet-to-be-unlocked areas, leading to wasted time. The initial weapons may seem dull, but the arsenal eventually diversifies, offering interesting choices like a flamethrower and a unique shotgun-minigun hybrid.

One particularly enjoyable skill allows you to summon an exosuit for combat, which is always a win in my book.

The game concludes with a grueling final area filled with enemies and limited healing opportunities, followed by a surprisingly fair final encounter.

In terms of the storyline's resolution, the plot centers around a jump gate and a CEO's betrayal, culminating in an emergency shutdown that throws the world into chaos. The satisfying twist is that this gate is hidden in the game's starting location, bringing the story full circle. The narrative hints at further adventures in a post-credits scene, leaving players eager for what comes next.

All in all, The Ascent is a compelling blend of old and new elements that should appeal to fans of twin-stick shooters and cyberpunk aesthetics alike.

I really wanted to like this game more than I did, but the more I played through it, the more frustrated I felt myself become over its wasted potential. There is one thing that The Ascent does phenomenally well: its presentation is simply stunning. Aside from the dated character models, everything in this cyberpunk-inspired world looks absolutely gorgeous, filled with pungent neon lights from top to bottom, and featuring what is likely the best, most atmospheric backgrounds I’ve seen in recent years. Alongside this, the music is tone-perfect for this environment, with its synth-heavy sounds reminiscent of late 80s / early 90s sci-fi films. These two aspects do a lot of the heavy lifting in the way of realistic world building, with the rest being done via documents or NPC interactions spread throughout the city to flesh out the lore. When everything clicks, The Ascent feels like an unbelievably accomplished universe creation, and it’s hard not to be in awe of it.

Sadly, there isn’t that much else that feels great about it. Gameplay wise, this is a twin stick shooter with an emphasis on RPG mechanics, and it’s precisely in the shooting department that the problems begin. Combat is punchy, the destructible environments are awesome and there’s a welcome amount of gore. At its best, it evokes this alternative Streets of Rage-esque vibe that looks and feels great. But the aiming itself doesn’t feel all that tight and camera restrictions often make gunplay a frustrating affair. Couple that with absurd difficulty balancing and a mediocre checkpoint system, and the cracks start to show fairly early on your playthrough.

Then, there’s a bunch of smaller things that on their own don’t make much of a dent but which, when combined, suck out a lot of the enjoyment: 1) mediocre story, characters and ending; 2) convoluted maps (I don’t think I would have been able to find my way without the Dead Space-like waypoint system); 3) zero sense of permanence (generic loot and enemies respawn almost immediately); 4) inconsequential systems (the way the game treats health and money makes them seem weirdly trivial); 5) a few incomprehensible decisions (e.g. there’s no sprinting, so you have to keep using dodge roll - an upgradable skill - if you want to go faster); and 6) an unhealthy lack of polish (the game crashes and glitches more than it should be acceptable, even for an indie). All of these conspire to make your level of appreciation for The Ascent significantly smaller by the time you’re done with it.

Ultimately, the game suffers from a clear case of budget constraints and bad design choices. A big chunk of this could have been remedied if they had decided on a much tighter focus and not tried to do as much. It’s almost like it attempts to be to aRPGs what Remnant was to the soulsborne genre or what Greedfall was to Bioware-inspired RPGs, while sadly being more flawed than both. In a way, I almost look at The Ascent as a small homage to Mass Effect without any of its polish or charisma (the elevator loading segments couldn’t be more symptomatic of this).

The basis for lore and world building in order to create something unique is there, but everything feels too generic and forgettable precisely because the game spreads itself too thin and tries to do too much. There are moments where you get glimpses of The Ascent’s true potential on several levels - even humour -, but these are too few and far between to generate any level of consistency. It was disappointing in the sense that it didn’t deliver on what it could have, but in a couple of respects, Neon Giant also did just enough to make me interested on what they’ll come up with next. 6.5/10

Unfortunately, during our time with The Ascent, we were constantly experiencing game breaking bugs, glitches, graphical issues. Some examples would include, the UI HUD disappearing so you wouldn’t even know how much health you had, audio completely cutting out, people getting stuck in an area and not able to progress forward, and of course the game crashing completely. I don’t think there was ever a single play session where we didn’t experience a bug or two in the game.

This sucks.

I really liked this game. But as I told you in a previous post, it crashed a lot and eventually corrupted my save data. My biggest problem was giving it a rating, because the gameplay and setting were great but it was a technical mess. Well my editor in GamerFocus solved that for me. We can't give a good rating to a game that just stops working randomly. I checked with other people online and it seems that is a very common issue. The subreddit is full of comments about crashes and corrupted saved data.

Anyway, here's the review in spanish.

I'm gonna miss you, cyberdude. I hope the devs can fix this mess soon.

A short but sweet trip through some cyberpunk maps in ARPG The Ascent, I found this game to be entertaining and only slightly overstaying it’s welcome.

The gameplay is pretty solid with an added modifier to be able to crouch/cover behind obstacles as well as aim for more critical hits but which requires you to stand still, I found the weapons mostly enjoyable and the prodigious gibbing to be hilarious (who doesn’t enjoy seeing a giant fly backward, on fire, from a fiery cyber fist?).

The style is unoriginal and copied from other established designs out there in cyberpunk lore, but I’m not complaining, because the team did spend a lot of time building a world that has a lot of interlinked relationships on different levels (corp v corp, species/racism). I especially found the cheesy bloodthirsty AI to be a hoot because it’s always good to have a cheerleader in this otherwise over-serious storyline.

There were some problems though and mostly around the lukewarm deployment of some of the action loops: there’s rares to kill with special bounties but the bounties amount to ‘more gold’ and also some components to upgrade your weapons and since they’re rare grinding them is not fun if you need a weapon that, say, works well on robotics BUT NOTHING ELSE.

Also multiplayer is an after thought as there’s no lobbies and the game’s not much more fun with more people slagging baddies.

So while everything is a mix of other things you’ve already played, they did a pretty good job. If you’re wanting a quick diversion and not something to spend 40+ hours on go through the main story and shoot for non-platinum fun.

I give it a 4/5 (I would recommend to people I think would enjoy it but not everyone)

PC Notes: Using RTX3090 / Ryzen3 / Apple XDR

This has been the perfect co-op ARPG for me and my bro to play. There have been some weird bugs -- especially related to the map and tracking of quest objectives -- and I had the game softlock at a merchant once, but nothing has been particularly game-ruining, and the gameplay itself is so fun I don't really mind it.

I'll admit I haven't been paying the most attention to the storyline, but when I have, the characters have seemed fun enough, and the individual quests are what you'd expect from crapsack cyberpunk. It's fine. There's also a decent amount of work put into having a codex with additional lore info, which I always appreciate in a game.

Combat is engaging and just challenging enough, with a good variety of abilities to choose from. It's nice to be able to change activated abilities and 'tech' more-or-less on the fly between fights, meaning I can change my approach based on the sort of enemies I'm up against.

Also, the graphics and aesthetic are far more gorgeous to look at than I was expecting, going in. This game is weirdly scenic, and I wish it had a photo mode or at least a way to hide the UI so I could take some screenshots of the areas and vistas as I explore, especially when the camera angle changes to one that's a bit more cinematic.

If you can stand some jank, this is a great one to play with a couple pals.