The Ascent

by Mikhail Dec 10, 2021 | 1 Votes | 32 Played | 0 Reviews

10 rate

Genres:

Shooter , Action , Adventure

Graphics:

Labels:

Crime , Cyberpunk , Futuristic Setting

Platforms:

Publishers:

Curve Games The Ascent is a cyberpunk-themed top-down shooter where you get to play as an indentured laborer employed by the Ascent Group. Unfortunately, the corporation has collapsed, and you’ll have to defend your district by shooting down enemies and using augmentations to keep them at bay, all while exploring a dystopian and treacherous cyberpunk world. Play Now Similar Games

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Summary Plotline Gameplay Community Graphics/Sound Conclusion

Summary

The cyberpunk theme has gone mainstream, and apart from the game that shares its namesake, The Ascent fully captures what it provides, albeit in a different setting. This action-packed top-down shooter offers an outstanding experience, whether you’re in or out of combat. Its setting, Veles, looks like a dumpster of a city, adorned by neon lights and living things of ill-repute and intentions scattered lurking in the shadows. Everyone - and everything - is out to get you, and as an indentured worker, your job is to ensure your survival and that of your district.

The Ascent reaches - and even exceeds - the standards set by famous indie titles in the last few years. Players will be treated to frantic moments where they’re chased by dumpster dwellers and gang members, as well as gigantic hammer-wielding aliens that can snap you in half like a toothpick. If you’re not busy shooting, you’ll be treated to deep character creation and customization mechanics comparable to most triple-A titles.

Plotline

Imagine a future where people and other living things can now explore space, create colonies, and live together. Sounds idealistic, right? However, what if these colonies were run by mega-corporations that force people into indentured labor, and the communities themselves are crime-ridden, violent settlements?

Such is the setting in The Ascent. You’ll play as an indentured laborer or indent, tasked with performing menial jobs for the company. You’re under the “leadership” of Stackboss Poone, a bossy, foul-mouthed fellow with a penchant for ordering you around. As you explore Veles, you’ll get to meet other characters like Trummer, Noghead, and M-G Rep, each with their own goals, motivations, and sets of quests to hand out to you.

Gameplay

The Ascent is an action-packed top-down shooter with a sizable world and deep character development and RPG mechanics. You’re not just there to shoot everything in sight, but also try to make your indent as strong and competent as possible. With that in mind, you’ll have a chance to develop his or her skills that affect bullet spread, crit rate, HP, movement, and bionics. Moreover, you can also fully customize your character, changing your hairstyle, tattoos, clothes, and headgear. Also, note that your choice of clothing will affect your character’s stats, so your build and overall look will correlate with each other.

The Ascent’s shooting mechanics are incredibly smooth and explosive, regardless of whether you’re using the mouse and keyboard setup or a controller. Staying stationary while fighting is a recipe for disaster: you need to move around and dodge or crouch behind obstacles, especially when battling against bosses and foes firing off volleys of guided rockets. Plus, there are also melee enemies, ranging from pipe-wielding gangsters to feral aliens living in the waste disposal facility.

Just be careful though, there will always be civilians and innocent robots trying to escape the crossfire, and though there are no consequences to killing them, it just makes you feel bad. Opponent drops vary from weapons and gear (that you can sell) to standard drops like Ucreds (in-game currency), medkits, and augmentation charges. You can also destroy boxes that yield various items, as well as chests and vending machines.

You’ll have access to a massive roster of weapons, ranging from rapid-fire assault rifles and submachine guns to powerful energy hand cannons and close-range shotguns. Apart from the guns, you’ll get to use augmentations that do things like letting you punch the air do deal devastating close-range damage against enemies to gather loot automatically. Finally, you’ll also have access to utility gadgets, like grenades, which can take out groups of enemies all at once.

Traversal and moving around in The Ascent is a bit slow due to limited fast travel options; you can also do so via the Train Stations. Although the environments are beautifully designed and show horrific implications of a dystopian cyberpunk society, it takes a while to navigate across NPC shops. It also doesn’t help that they’re not in a single building, so shopping will always take a bit of time. The same can be said about the quests and quest givers - they're a bit far apart, so traveling can be a bit tedious.

Community

The Ascent can be played solo, or you can dive into it in online co-op mode, as well as couch co-op. We’ve tried a few online co-op games, and it’s almost the same as playing online in an MMO. Alternatively, if you don't have friends to play the game with, you can also visit their Reddit and Steam communities.

Graphics/Sound

The Ascent is on par with most triple-A titles in terms of presentation. The environments are incredibly immersive, ranging from the 80s style neon lights to the trash scattered all across the district. However, the game is a bit GPU-heavy, which means you’ll have to be concerned about stutters and framerate drops. I’m using a GTX 1060-6GB with only 8GB RAM, and though issues are minimal, these occur during tense situations.

With regard to cosmetics, The Ascent impresses due to its large variety of customization options. Apart from existing clothes and armor, you can select weapon skins, and there are also DLCs, like the CyberSec Pack, which gives a pretty destructive grenade launcher and an armor set that makes you look like one of those CyberSec officers.

Conclusion

Overall, The Ascent is nothing short of fantastic. At its core, it’s a terrific shooter set in a rich, detailed environment with an intriguing story. All things considered, it deserves a spot in your gaming library and should be in front of your backlog.

So, give it a shot, and start navigating across the dystopian cyberpunk world of Veles!