The Ascent is an indie isometric twin stick shooter RPG, one that has stunning graphics and is built for coop. It’s a great idea with some questionable execution. I attempted the coop aspect first but the game had many issues connecting, some freezes, and the way this game handles save files for online is horrendous. Only the host gets to have the save file, everyone else if they want to play alone they have to start all over. It makes it very difficult to play with others so I gave up on that and played it alone. For this reason I maybe missed out on the best aspect of the game but hey how about make a better online setup.
Ascent takes place in a cyberpunk future where most folks live deep in a massive structure, the lower the floor the poorer the people. And as you make your ascent you reach more affluent areas with power players all vying for control of a massive corporation that mysteriously went under. The world is well constructed with tons of lore you can explore with in game logs. The graphics are beautiful, might be the best looking isometric top down game I have ever seen. That said as stunning as some moments are a lot of the environments are drab concrete jungles of nothing. The city areas are bustling with NPCs, only a few that can be interacted with (well you can shoot at innocents and get scolded by your employer but ultimately means nothing), this makes the world feel very much alive.
The story aspect of the game gets the job done in that it serves as motivation to get you from point a to point b. It never feels like there are fully developed characters though, your avatar is a voiceless blank slate and almost everyone you interact with is a generic quest giver. There are no relationships the grow, no real getting to know any of these NPCs, everyone just serves as a way to send you out to a mission. The main story has a few twists and turns but never really reaches any highs.
I was kind of surprised to see the RPG elements be so robust, there are different categories of stats to put skill points into which will give you better health, faster grenades, faster powers, more evasion, higher criticals and so on. Guns come in a wide variety of types and there are four bullet types, all can be individually upgraded using components found around the world. And then there are the skills, of which you can have two at a time, again I was shocked at how many there were then it dawned on me that there are so many because it’s meant to be a game with four people, all with different skills working together. It has all the elements that makes building a character in an RPG work, once again I only experienced solo so I was a Jack of all trades basically mixing and matching for the situation.
Those situations are what makes the game shine. As a twin stick shooter it’s a fluid, sometimes chaotic shooter that has a unique cover system that gives this game an identity of its own. Your character can crouch and hold the gun at two different levels, hip level or head level, crouch in cover and use the high level aiming to shoot safety. Enemies won’t let you stay in one place two long with loads of enemy types many that can jump right behind you, some come rushing, some having homing bullets, this means movement is always happening. Because this is an RPG you can be under or over leveled for a situation. When severely under level it’s impossible, everything will one shot you. When overleveled the battles become a tedious waste of time as you can just shoot indiscriminately with no real fear of death. When the difficulty is just right the combat shines, and I am shocked that this is an RPG where side quests are needed to be at proper levels for the main quest so it’s at the right difficult level for most of the missions.
The deeper you get in the game the more fun the combat options become. Guns get more interesting, from homing energy guns, to flamethrowers, rocket launcher mini guns, and some fun surprises. The skills are really where a battle is won or lost, I loved trying them all out and finding the right mix for me. Highlights include spider bots that run around and explode, a super energy beam, the ability to do a super punch, summon dragons and tentacles. When enemies are coming at all sides, the battlefield is a bullet hell obstacle course but you unleash the right powers at the right time to clear it all it feels so great.
I wish the combat was always at a high level, sadly the structure of the game plays defense against having fun. The game world is rather spread out with four major “floors” that can only be traveled through by a central elevator. In that floor there are two options for fast travel, find a train to travel free to another train station or call a taxi at any moment for a fee. Even when you arrive at a section that section is usually large with lots of ground to cover, these areas aren’t just flat with many levels of its own meaning you can run into a wall as your goal is underneath you, so you wander around looking for stairs or a platform to take you down. A lot of the game is simply slowly running from point a to point b, while this happens enemies will randomly spawn all around you. When you are overleveled this is a minor inconvenience but when you are at the level of slightly under their level any moment of travel can become deadly and when you die you start all the way at the fast travel point. Pretty much every mission in the game is some derivative of go there, kill/get that then travel somewhere else, then travel back to the quest giver. if this mission is on different floors you will have to fast travel to the central elevator area, run to the elevator, load the new floor, fast travel to the closest place for your quest, run through bunches of mobs to do the quest, fast travel back to the elevator, load the floor, fast travel back to the quest giver… so yeah you get the idea. I was left wondering if this game wouldn’t have been better as a set action game with stages rather than this RPG overlay that isn’t all that great.
This game is somewhat buggy, certain chests wouldn’t open even though I had the hacking skills to open them. One side quest bugged so I couldn’t finish it. And coop has a bunch of issues, shame because it’s clearly designed for a group. It’s decent sized game, 15 or so hours, I think it could have been a little shorter but it was large enough to develop all the skills and builds.
The Ascent has some promise as a unique twin stick RPG hybrid but the story and quest design really needs some work. They actually nailed what I think is the hard part, the combat is fun, it’s exciting and I bet with a full team it’s a blast. It’s a shame other aspects are holding it back. I think this game will find an audience, for me it’s just a fun indie game that’s playable on gamepass.
Overall Score: 7.0
Ascent takes place in a cyberpunk future where most folks live deep in a massive structure, the lower the floor the poorer the people. And as you make your ascent you reach more affluent areas with power players all vying for control of a massive corporation that mysteriously went under. The world is well constructed with tons of lore you can explore with in game logs. The graphics are beautiful, might be the best looking isometric top down game I have ever seen. That said as stunning as some moments are a lot of the environments are drab concrete jungles of nothing. The city areas are bustling with NPCs, only a few that can be interacted with (well you can shoot at innocents and get scolded by your employer but ultimately means nothing), this makes the world feel very much alive.
The story aspect of the game gets the job done in that it serves as motivation to get you from point a to point b. It never feels like there are fully developed characters though, your avatar is a voiceless blank slate and almost everyone you interact with is a generic quest giver. There are no relationships the grow, no real getting to know any of these NPCs, everyone just serves as a way to send you out to a mission. The main story has a few twists and turns but never really reaches any highs.
I was kind of surprised to see the RPG elements be so robust, there are different categories of stats to put skill points into which will give you better health, faster grenades, faster powers, more evasion, higher criticals and so on. Guns come in a wide variety of types and there are four bullet types, all can be individually upgraded using components found around the world. And then there are the skills, of which you can have two at a time, again I was shocked at how many there were then it dawned on me that there are so many because it’s meant to be a game with four people, all with different skills working together. It has all the elements that makes building a character in an RPG work, once again I only experienced solo so I was a Jack of all trades basically mixing and matching for the situation.
Those situations are what makes the game shine. As a twin stick shooter it’s a fluid, sometimes chaotic shooter that has a unique cover system that gives this game an identity of its own. Your character can crouch and hold the gun at two different levels, hip level or head level, crouch in cover and use the high level aiming to shoot safety. Enemies won’t let you stay in one place two long with loads of enemy types many that can jump right behind you, some come rushing, some having homing bullets, this means movement is always happening. Because this is an RPG you can be under or over leveled for a situation. When severely under level it’s impossible, everything will one shot you. When overleveled the battles become a tedious waste of time as you can just shoot indiscriminately with no real fear of death. When the difficulty is just right the combat shines, and I am shocked that this is an RPG where side quests are needed to be at proper levels for the main quest so it’s at the right difficult level for most of the missions.
The deeper you get in the game the more fun the combat options become. Guns get more interesting, from homing energy guns, to flamethrowers, rocket launcher mini guns, and some fun surprises. The skills are really where a battle is won or lost, I loved trying them all out and finding the right mix for me. Highlights include spider bots that run around and explode, a super energy beam, the ability to do a super punch, summon dragons and tentacles. When enemies are coming at all sides, the battlefield is a bullet hell obstacle course but you unleash the right powers at the right time to clear it all it feels so great.
I wish the combat was always at a high level, sadly the structure of the game plays defense against having fun. The game world is rather spread out with four major “floors” that can only be traveled through by a central elevator. In that floor there are two options for fast travel, find a train to travel free to another train station or call a taxi at any moment for a fee. Even when you arrive at a section that section is usually large with lots of ground to cover, these areas aren’t just flat with many levels of its own meaning you can run into a wall as your goal is underneath you, so you wander around looking for stairs or a platform to take you down. A lot of the game is simply slowly running from point a to point b, while this happens enemies will randomly spawn all around you. When you are overleveled this is a minor inconvenience but when you are at the level of slightly under their level any moment of travel can become deadly and when you die you start all the way at the fast travel point. Pretty much every mission in the game is some derivative of go there, kill/get that then travel somewhere else, then travel back to the quest giver. if this mission is on different floors you will have to fast travel to the central elevator area, run to the elevator, load the new floor, fast travel to the closest place for your quest, run through bunches of mobs to do the quest, fast travel back to the elevator, load the floor, fast travel back to the quest giver… so yeah you get the idea. I was left wondering if this game wouldn’t have been better as a set action game with stages rather than this RPG overlay that isn’t all that great.
This game is somewhat buggy, certain chests wouldn’t open even though I had the hacking skills to open them. One side quest bugged so I couldn’t finish it. And coop has a bunch of issues, shame because it’s clearly designed for a group. It’s decent sized game, 15 or so hours, I think it could have been a little shorter but it was large enough to develop all the skills and builds.
The Ascent has some promise as a unique twin stick RPG hybrid but the story and quest design really needs some work. They actually nailed what I think is the hard part, the combat is fun, it’s exciting and I bet with a full team it’s a blast. It’s a shame other aspects are holding it back. I think this game will find an audience, for me it’s just a fun indie game that’s playable on gamepass.
Overall Score: 7.0
Ghost_Of_SAS
2 years ago