The Ascent Reviews

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME IT IS A FLAMING PILE OF BUGS AND BAD DESIGN DECISIONS. Seriously, don't be fooled into buying this game based on the good art direction and deceptive video previews, it is an unmitigated disaster of poor game design. From a camera that constantly moves, and frequently glitches out giving the player a completely useless or just generally confounding visual perspective (often zooming in so tight that the player has no line of sight, or angling such that horizontal position and angle of direction is impossible to judge), to the constant swarms of boss level mobs that attack you when you are simply trying to walk around town. And the non-random mission fights and boss fights are actually quite random, varying from play to play between stupidly easy to completely impossible. And all that is just the really bad choices the design team mad, and doesn't begin to cover all the straight up game breaking bugs, and the too numerous to count minor glitches that make ordinary things like movement a tear your hair out frustration. In addition to the flat out terrible game mechanics, and way to common bugs, there is a total and complete lack of any QOL features, like an explanation of anything anywhere; instead there are lots of icons with numbers that you will have to memorize what they mean, because the developers where too lazy to put in the UI text that explains anything.

A fun top-down shooter, good for mindless wind-down time when you just want to shoot stuff up. There's nothing particularly novel in the gameplay - you shoot baddies who tend to come at you in waves, you have a couple of equippable power up moves like launching micro missiles from your augs or (somehow) summoning spider robots to chew through more chaotic fights. You generally keep one energy and one ballistic weapon equipped to tackle different enemies. Beyond that, generally you pick your favourite weapon and keep on upgrading it. Thematically it's a pretty standard Cyberpunk faire with the expected themes of corporate over-reach, exploitation of the worker and corruption. Setting it in a far future with alien races present creates some opportunity for satire ( e.g. the Aphorans known for their cold logic, lack of imagination and empathy tend to be senior managers and C-suite at corporations), however this is not thoroughly explored. Your AI assistant sliding into psychopathy as the game goes on (and the body count goes up) is also quite entertaining and a clever device. Be aware that there's no replayability here. The story is entirely on rails, you can't even pick dialog options as your character is very much the silent protagonist. Combat is fun, but fights don't really require much nuance or critical thinking, so it's not like there are loads of different playstyles to pick from. I trialled a few weapons but just defaulted to assault rifles. I did encounter a few crashes, and a glitchy bit of floor near the end which really irritated me, but didn't have the same issues others are reporting. Overall, if you're up for about 25 hours of not-particularly taxing fun to take the edge off after a stressful day, pick it up steeply discounted (50% or more preferably). Don't pay full price. If you're looking for something deeper, skip this one.

The game literally will not start, what a shame. Tried everything, but nope waste of time.

I think, I owe this game a review. After all, all achievements completed. And it was a ride to remember. For this I will adapt my answer in the general discussion to the remark that this game has "The Horrible map": I understand way too well what are you talking about. That was my first nightmarish experience with the game. But, the atmosphere, the level of details, the music, the sounds, the game-play, that echo of an old games I played many years ago. It's ages since I tried something like this, so I forced myself to play it. And I am glad I did that. The modern games hold your hand all the time, making it comfortable? for us, but this beast just make you feel like you are there, in that post-apocalyptic world, rude, violent, broken, dominating, forcing to think... Same like the map :) I am an older gamer, you know. Still was able to adapt to it's abrasive charm. Doing it on Hard, slowly, exploring, experimenting, delving into the story, listening to npc conversations, taking lots of screenshots and without any guides. And like it more and more. It is unique, it is mesmerizing, it is working. So, if you'll give this one a fair chance to play with you, who knows what will happen?

Really wanted to enjoy this because I really appreciate the theme and tone - but unfortunately found myself not enjoying the game. I'd say my biggest complaints are that I just constantly felt lost trying to get to my next mission, it was hard to tell if I was truly going in the right direction, but even worse you feel like you're constantly just slogging through seemingly endless amounts of enemies to get there, almost as if the gameplay sequence wasn't really designed - but rather there is just hundreds of people placed on your traversal path and you're expected to kill all of them - many of which will start shooting at you from off screen, adding to the frustration of it all. Positives + Beautiful graphics and presentation + Truly lived in feeling to the world, with really interesting an unique characters Negatives - Missions feel like a slog - Constantly getting lost and having to kill hordes of enemies when you just want to travel somewhere - Was hard to ever tell if I was taking the right path toward a goal or objective

2021 game that runs like a 2013 Diablo 3 game, but has soft lock issues and bugs. Solid 6/10.

The game regularly freezes after 40-60 minutes of play. This together with the lack of manual saves makes for a frustrating experience. I cannot recommend this game in its current state.

buggy, especially in coop, and the level layout was confusing

Great potential but riddled with game breaking bugs and entirely abandoned by devs

The game is not bad at all, but [b]don't buy it[/b]! Just trust me and don't waste your time and money on this. The game is riddled with game breaking bugs, flawed multiplayer logic, the devs have completely abandoned it long ago and they don't respond to any messages or inquiries. They've been bought by another company and moved on to another project. I've had my progress blocked and erased 4 times - blocked twice because of the same game breaking bug and erased twice because of poorly designed (i.e. flawed) multiplayer logic. I don't have the nerves or patience to start over and play until the game decides it won't run anymore past a certain point. Really disappointed in these "developers", never gonna play anything from them ever again.