The Ascent

 PC
User Score
7.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 354 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 249 out of 354
  2. Mixed: 48 out of 354
  3. Negative: 57 out of 354

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  1. Bacher108
    Aug 1, 2021
    6
    Until this game is updated (and game pass version requires additional updates for completely missing features that steam version has) it is simple a fun game that has major issues.

    There is quite a lot of small things that add up to lessening the overall experience. One of the large issue that bothers me a lot is lack of matchmaking. This game would be incredible with some type of    Until this game is updated (and game pass version requires additional updates for completely missing features that steam version has) it is simple a fun game that has major issues.

    There is quite a lot of small things that add up to lessening the overall experience. One of the large issue that bothers me a lot is lack of matchmaking. This game would be incredible with some type of matchmaking and ways to meet people/make friends in game. Not adding ANYTHING like that at all is just plain bad. I know it is a small team but that doesn't change anything. This game needs matchmaking.

    Releasing a product on multiple store fronts, and having different feature sets in them is also just plain bad. This should never be done. The game is not ready to release if you are holding back features on any store front.

    Significant updates could raise this game up to a really fun coop romp. Especially seeing as it is on game pass. Until then. It's ok, but frustrating to play.    … Expand
  2. fnkrjnkie
    Aug 3, 2021
    6
    If you ever played Smash TV back in the day... this feels like an unofficial homage/sequel updated for 2021. Game is absolutely beautiful but the gameplay just feels too pretty simple. Not a whole lot to do in this world aka quests or even npc's to talk to. Barely feels like an rpg. Sadly it feels like the graphics/design is the only thing holding the game together enough to play throughIf you ever played Smash TV back in the day... this feels like an unofficial homage/sequel updated for 2021. Game is absolutely beautiful but the gameplay just feels too pretty simple. Not a whole lot to do in this world aka quests or even npc's to talk to. Barely feels like an rpg. Sadly it feels like the graphics/design is the only thing holding the game together enough to play through it. If you took that away you would be left with an average forgettable game. Play it on game pass till you've had your fill.… Expand
  3. Syrona7
    Aug 2, 2021
    7
    The game has a whole bunch of bugs at release. You got bugged keybinds, weapon skins and stuff just disappearing from your inventory, enemy NPCs being multiplied when you first meet them, including game bosses. Also the game presents a lot of stuttering when explosions happen.

    Ok, now about the content. This game is NOT and RPG. You can kick and scream all you want, but it's not a real    The game has a whole bunch of bugs at release. You got bugged keybinds, weapon skins and stuff just disappearing from your inventory, enemy NPCs being multiplied when you first meet them, including game bosses. Also the game presents a lot of stuttering when explosions happen.

    Ok, now about the content. This game is NOT and RPG. You can kick and scream all you want, but it's not a real RPG, it's just a top-down shooter with some minor RPG elements. If you think this game is an RPG, then you probably think Farcry 3 is an RPG too, so I don't know what to tell you.
    The RPG elements refer only to character creation and the barebones stat allocation system upon leveling up.
    There are no expansive dialogues, no multiple ways to solve a quest, no changes to the world depending on your choices, no relationships with certain characters, no followers, nothing that makes an RPG what it is.
    The NPCs are also extremely forgettable.

    Also this is not a Diablo-like game either. The item drops are very scarce and they don't have randomized stats and qualities. The only thing random about the loot is which NPC will drop that standard gun or armor that all the shops in the game have. Although you can upgrade weapons to epic quality, using a currency in the game.
    Also there are some secret special weapon locations, that give you some stronger than average weapons.

    The game world is absolutely insanely detailed. There was a whole lot of attention put in creating the backgrounds, perhaps too much. Every backdrop is incredibly detailed and atmospheric.
    The sound is right on point as well.
    The story is serviceble, it won't blow your mind but it's not stupid either.

    All in all, this is most definitely above average for an indie game and you should totally get it.

    PS: Perhaps I'm reading too much into it, but considering this is "current year" and the country of origin for the developers, it seems someone went out of their way to avoid any R34 content. The NPCs are...pretty damn ugly to say the least, even Kira, the only NPC who was interesting enough to probably inspire such material, looks like wearing a sumo costume.    … Expand
  4. Ratingss
    Aug 10, 2021
    7
    As good as isometric shooters get, if the environment was destructible as in Hatred and the story had the oomph of Hotline Miami, it would be objectively the best one i played.
    It has some irks, like money and vendors(aside from the one that upgrades your guns) being useless, when you die theres is no punishment at all you just respawn again, and you are just a silent errand boy.
  5. CashMunnie7679
    Aug 2, 2021
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Great gameplay and visuals but it has some boss balance issues playing solo, poor fast travel system and some map issues. Otherwise super fun game.… Expand
  6. tdoberman
    Aug 9, 2021
    5
    The game would be great if it had a balanced difficulty level, on the "easy" level, I often died 20 times. Enemies pop up from every direction, even from the one that has already been cleared. After 5 hours of playing I did an uninstall.
  7. Iffufifdio
    Aug 3, 2021
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Jogo até tem suas partes mas é frango não dá para tirar o jogo porque aparece bug… Expand
  8. Mardithon
    Aug 1, 2021
    5
    My new obsession. Beautiful, brutal and a blast to play. I love this game so much.
  9. ChosenOne
    Apr 18, 2022
    6
    The game looks stunning. Artists did an amazing job! Core gameplay is fun. There is a lot of content. But after a several hours I started to realize that it's pretty repetitive, RPG mechanics are underdeveloped, and there is a lot of bugs.
    I dropped this game after around 8 hours because I was bored. But then started to play in online co-op with 3 friends. There is 4 times more bugs for 4    The game looks stunning. Artists did an amazing job! Core gameplay is fun. There is a lot of content. But after a several hours I started to realize that it's pretty repetitive, RPG mechanics are underdeveloped, and there is a lot of bugs.
    I dropped this game after around 8 hours because I was bored. But then started to play in online co-op with 3 friends. There is 4 times more bugs for 4 players . We beat the game, but aftertaste was pretty bad. Last few levels was a buggy mess (we played after 03.2022 update).
    I definitely recommend to play the Ascent for a few hours, but do not try to beat it.    … Expand
  10. Matt2790
    Aug 17, 2021
    7
    Good enough game. The world design , graphics and the level of details are fascinating. Gameplay and mechanics are wonderful *in general*, despite some inconveniences at some points. Story/narrative is just ok and nothing more. Side missions are just tasks/chores and nothing more. And there are plenty of bugs, some are just irrelevant, but others do screw your playing session or yourGood enough game. The world design , graphics and the level of details are fascinating. Gameplay and mechanics are wonderful *in general*, despite some inconveniences at some points. Story/narrative is just ok and nothing more. Side missions are just tasks/chores and nothing more. And there are plenty of bugs, some are just irrelevant, but others do screw your playing session or your entire mission for good.
    I've had no freezes/crashes at all though. Took me 18 hours to complete the main game plus 16 side missions.    … Expand
  11. Rawnchie14
    Mar 26, 2022
    7
    The Ascent brings one of the best depictions of a futuristic cyberpunk environment with an interesting take on class structure and looting. The world design is certainly the highlight of this game, often drawing you into how impressive some of the areas can be with tons of detail.

    Gameplay is solid enough with fairly good pacing. Playing alone kinda sucks, solely because the majority of    The Ascent brings one of the best depictions of a futuristic cyberpunk environment with an interesting take on class structure and looting. The world design is certainly the highlight of this game, often drawing you into how impressive some of the areas can be with tons of detail.

    Gameplay is solid enough with fairly good pacing. Playing alone kinda sucks, solely because the majority of the challenge in the game is a steady diet of positioning, clustering enemies and periodic cover shooting - which is a hit/miss mechanic in the game. Playing MP is where the game shines as the sheer chaos multiple players brings makes for a bombastic blast that pales in comparison to the SP experience - in my opinion.

    So is the game good? I'd say yes, it certainly is - given the genre and style. However there are quite a few aspects I wish were done differently. There are often stretches where you are seeking your next point of reasonable progression, given while the world is open - traversal is time consuming. Also each encounter, can feel very similar to the last one? Some variations of enemies give a little spice, but more or less each encounter will feel very honed in, which can be a good thing for some. For myself, it was what made me eventually tire of the game. But I certainly enjoyed what I did play and am sure many others will continue to do so.    … Expand
  12. cottandy
    Oct 4, 2021
    7
    "The Ascent" is an isometric top-down shooter in a cyberpunk setting made by a team of 11 people.
    You are a mercenary in a futuristic world who does whatever job he/she gets. And what you do is kill anything that stands in your way. And if you wish also read dialogs about where you need to do this or about the world you play, which is interesting. But if you don't like reading anything    "The Ascent" is an isometric top-down shooter in a cyberpunk setting made by a team of 11 people.
    You are a mercenary in a futuristic world who does whatever job he/she gets. And what you do is kill anything that stands in your way. And if you wish also read dialogs about where you need to do this or about the world you play, which is interesting. But if you don't like reading anything you can skip this part and just destroy.

    Certainly devs put their soul in "the Ascent". A lot is done great, but some gameplay mechanics just leave a bitter aftertaste.
    So a huge plus for the whole picture, beautiful little details, music, design, etc, but also little nasty holes of negative appear here and there.
    Most of the time game is brilliant and fun to play. There are many pros in little details and huge visible moments. The most important is neat gameplay and nice plot.

    More detailed cons and controversial points:
    Camera - the most important, seems like a little one, but it ruins too much of the hardwork of the devs. It's uncomfortable and uncontrollable at the same time. Lacks a simple possibility to zoom out/in, nothing more. Sometimes you don't even see your enemies, but they see you. It not such a big deal to add a little zoom feature from the devs, which will fix quite a lot.

    Bad navigation. Both mini-map and main map are a confusing when it comes to multilevel system, which is present in the game, but doesn't show enough info about levels on maps.

    Not a con, but a warning. You will die often, which doesn't spoil anything.
    It may be a little hard for beginners on normal difficulty when you face your first enemies with gun.
    You will have to use game mechanics not to die too often and master the game. But from the other side game doesn't punish when you die. You start from the last checkpoint and these are literally everywhere. No matter where you die, you won't lose your progress. It's certainly good if the game crashes. And there is a possibility for it to happen. Hard to say how often, but sometimes it will in the current state of development.    … Expand
  13. pcapinheiro
    Mar 30, 2022
    5
    Um tiroteio bem cativante, numa cidade enorme e envolvente, mas com uma trama bem chata e repetitiva. Pareceu ser mais divertido com amigos, mas joguei solo.
    A versão analisada é a do gamepass de PC.
    PONTOS POSITIVOS: + Gameplay bem bacana, tanto no teclado/mouse quanto no controle, responde bem; + Visual e som muito envolventes, capricharam muito na ambientação desse jogo; PONTOS    Um tiroteio bem cativante, numa cidade enorme e envolvente, mas com uma trama bem chata e repetitiva. Pareceu ser mais divertido com amigos, mas joguei solo.
    A versão analisada é a do gamepass de PC.

    PONTOS POSITIVOS:
    + Gameplay bem bacana, tanto no teclado/mouse quanto no controle, responde bem;
    + Visual e som muito envolventes, capricharam muito na ambientação desse jogo;

    PONTOS NEGATIVOS:
    + instabilidade técnica, com travamentos e jogo fechando e instabilidade na taxa de quadros, com alguns congelamentos mesmo em ambientes pouco movimentados;
    + Tradução das legendas incompleta, com parte do texto em português e parte em inglês;
    + A cidade até que é grande, mas você fica muito tempo indo e voltando aos mesmos lugares.
    + A história no geral é bem sem graça e esquecível.    … Expand
  14. mykechapman
    Aug 15, 2021
    6
    **I had to come back and change my review from a 9 to a 6 sadly. I'm about 12 hrs into the game and I've run into what might be the last difficulty spike I'm willing to put up with. Difficulty spikes can be fine. Sometimes it's just to tell you 'HEY! Stupid! Don't go that way yet' and then you go do some grinding and eventually return after beefing up your character. So I returned to the**I had to come back and change my review from a 9 to a 6 sadly. I'm about 12 hrs into the game and I've run into what might be the last difficulty spike I'm willing to put up with. Difficulty spikes can be fine. Sometimes it's just to tell you 'HEY! Stupid! Don't go that way yet' and then you go do some grinding and eventually return after beefing up your character. So I returned to the area at the VERY BEGINNING of the game for some grind time only to be met with characters that can now kill me in one hit. Hell, now EVERY area now has characters that are one hit kills. OK, not a big deal... I'll drop the difficulty. I've already dropped it from hard to normal about 6 hours in. I set the difficulty to easy and BAM... I'm still getting killed in one hit by what I assumed were the easiest enemies in the game. I know they put that little red dot above them so you go RUN, RUN NOW. But come on, with the difficulty set to easy and in the very first area of the game enemies can kill you with one hit? And not just a few times... CONSTANTLY. Anywho, maybe I'm just bad at videogames. But this is a real shame considering how much I was enjoying this game.
    Now back to my original naive review...
    Twin stick shooters... honestly, I could take um or leave um. I've enjoyed me some Z-Nation back in the day but never am I 'I CAN"T WAIT TIL THE NEXT TWIN STICK SHOOTER COMES OUT!' I tell you what though... that might change after The Ascent. First everyone is shouting about how good this game looks... and f*ck it, they're right. It looks amazing. Sometimes I find myself shimmying up to a guard rail to just gawk at a vista of the city. Massive structures stand with no discernible bottom or top and filled w a level of detail that's insane. The sense of scope and scale of the world is nothing short of impressive. ESPECIALLY knowing this game was made by a small team. The game's sound design and music are also super well done. The dystopian/cyberpunk synths play and echo a sort of isolation and when battles kick in it's suitably intense. This thing is just firing on all cylinders. The game also plays great. The gun fights are fast and stressful, but the satisfaction you get from taking out a gaggle of thugs, barely surviving yourself... is super rewarding. The RPG elements give this game a depth I didn't expect. My ONE complaint are the menus are awkward to navigate and A LOT of what makes up the RPG elements are not explained. So you just have to kinda figure it out yourself. Thank god I'm so smart. It's not an easy game however, prepare to die a whole bunch. But at not point did I feel like giving up. Sometimes i would just respawn and go 'maybe I'll go this way this time...' This game has been a pleasant surprise, and kudos to the team that made this game.    … Expand
  15. ProfAmateur
    Dec 4, 2021
    7
    + Cool graphics & drawing style
    + Cool setting / atmosphere
    +/- Missions + sidemissions take about 20 hours to play. You could get a bit more out of the world. - The game is sometimes too difficult on level "Normal", even as an experienced player. You should be at least 1-2 levels above the mission recommendation. Towards the end it suddenly becomes too easy. - A bit much running    + Cool graphics & drawing style
    + Cool setting / atmosphere
    +/- Missions + sidemissions take about 20 hours to play. You could get a bit more out of the world.
    - The game is sometimes too difficult on level "Normal", even as an experienced player. You should be at least 1-2 levels above the mission recommendation. Towards the end it suddenly becomes too easy.
    - A bit much running around on the map
    - Still many bugs
    - Various "quality of life" features are still missing, such as all missions being displayed on the map (not just the active one).    … Expand
  16. Traxillion
    Aug 24, 2021
    7
    Very cute ARPG with gorgeous graphics and a very interesting world.

    What stops it from being a fantastic game is polish and a bit of repetetiveness.
  17. Oshiri_Maeda
    Nov 28, 2021
    5
    The most average game I played recently. Looks pretty good, but the gameplay is so boring. Want a good top down shooter? Go Helldivers
  18. S3XU4LH34L1NG
    Aug 14, 2022
    6
    This isnt what i expected. The game looks nice and the shooting is decent i guess. But its boring af. The location variety is so low you often forget where you are. The story is boring and the walks from a to b are sooooo long its insane. Even later on with taxi and train is still way too long. Well i guess i recommend this if you wanna see an immersive world. But the rest is subpar.
  19. jarvitom
    Nov 15, 2021
    7
    Gameplay is really awesome, the design and graphics are very unique, I deducted -1 points because the last bossfight.
  20. 3t3rnal
    Jan 9, 2022
    7
    A lot of high octane fun in a very beautiful package held back a bit by some bad design choices (map looks cool, but is useless, etc.), some technical issues, and could do with a balancing pass.

    Gameplay: - top down open world twin stick shooter – some rpg / rpg lite elements, some rogue-lite aspects - the mission design is pretty one sided, tbh – go here, shoot this – some minor    A lot of high octane fun in a very beautiful package held back a bit by some bad design choices (map looks cool, but is useless, etc.), some technical issues, and could do with a balancing pass.

    Gameplay:
    - top down open world twin stick shooter
    – some rpg / rpg lite elements, some rogue-lite aspects
    - the mission design is pretty one sided, tbh – go here, shoot this – some minor variety, like you get a timer here, you get a couple main targets which summon minions there, etc. not a complaint, but an observation – despite the setting and some of the tacked on features, this is a game that is primarily focused on combat, and there is a lot of it. You want some quiet moments in between? Not really a game for you, in my opinion.
    - too grindy, after you get halfway through the game, leveling becomes a chore, even when killing equal or higher level enemies and doing all of the side content, it will feel slow – would not be as much issue if the combat wasn’t so damn stats based, but it is and leveling up sufficiently is a requirement, forcing you into a repetitive, slow going, boring grind. As you approach level 30, it starts feeling like a free to play gacha MMO where trying to progress anything by gameplay takes ages
    - combat itself feels great, fast paced, visceral, a lot of fun, even has some vertical elements which is unusual for this type of game
    - has a couple issues – often you get shot / attacked outside of your view because of camera placement, and even outside of your minimap/radar, feels a bit unfair.
    - the world is pretty complex in places and can be hard to navigate – the map is bad, the GPS is okay but far from perfect, but you can’t place your own markers on the map, so it can only lead you to active missions
    - as mentioned before, combat is heavily reliant on stats, higher level enemies take much less damage from you, and do much more damage to you, to a point where they can pretty much one-two shot you if they are 5+ levels above you, at least in the early game. It’s not really possible to discern them from equal or lower level enemies, making early game exploration hit and miss and unnecessarily frustrating, not to mention the GPS that leads you to missions will sometimes lead you through parts of the map occupied by these high level enemies, just for lulz, I guess?

    Story:
    – has some interesting elements, some pretty memorable characters as well, interesting lore as well. It’s not super high quality and deep, but it’s good enough to give you some background to all of the slaughter and mayhem.
    - side missions have a bunch of pretty funny and wacky stuff in them, but they still remain pretty well grounded in the world of the game, interesting quest givers as well, I recommend doing the side content as well, not just rushing through the main story – you kinda will have to for the XP rewards unless you want to endlessly grind the same respawning encounters

    Graphics:
    - great overall
    - technical side is okay, but there are some minor issues– some misaligned textures, some floating object, in loading screens and when entering new locations sometimes character T-pose for a moment before their animations load, etc.
    - the style is great, the design of the world, the peds, everything looks awesome - just stayed still sometimes just looking at the beautiful designs, the lively and moving backgrounds, etc.

    Sound – great sound design and direction, weapons sound great, a lot of intricate ambience, music is awesome, gets blood pumping in combat

    Notable bugs:
    - Enemies did not load in a main story mission, or spawned inside inaccessible building / in a wall where they were stuck, or killing them did not trigger mission completion – basically, every couple missions, something will break, forcing game restart and redoing the mission.
    - Sometimes after a cutscene, movement gets stuck for 10-20 minutes and no matter what you do, your character automatically moves in one direction – only appeared after a couple hours into the game.
    - Game randomly crashes during loading screens when moving between the world tiers, no progress loss as the game saves before changing the locations, but still annoying
    - When enemies get too far away from their “turf”, they get into a “flight” mode and try to return to their base location, while taking considerably less damage (something like 90% damage resistance) and can also regenerate health, but do not attack. However, they do so without rhyme or reason. The distance is random, their remaining HP is random, whether you are actively fighting them or running from them does not matter. Sometimes, it also glitches out, and they stay in flight mode when they reach their base location, you can literally stand in a place shooting a glitched out enemy for 2 minutes.
    - not really a bug, but the game is a bit underoptimized and has some framerate drop issues, even in non intensive situations    … Expand
  21. Bushido95
    Sep 28, 2021
    5
    Одна из тех скучнейших игр которые облизывали и будут облизывать на фоне в каком-то смысле провалившегося Cyberpunk 2077.
  22. JackPlack
    Jan 11, 2022
    5
    Boring.
    Nice graphics, physics.
    Too slow walking, transport, map etc.
    Little wrong mechanics and presentation. Top down shooter isnt good idea with off screen shooting range.
    RTX - enabled looks worse and much slower. Simillar to other RTX games.
  23. bokarsh-z
    Aug 20, 2022
    7
    =========
    worth it
    =========
    -eye candy graphice and rebitive fun gameplay
    -ruined by freezes ur pc, bad story and bad characters design -disappointment final boss only fight mobs and bad open ending
  24. crangus
    Mar 1, 2023
    5
    I tried to enjoy it twice, as did my friend, but it felt like nothing we haven't already done before many times. Graphics seemed above average for sure, but little else in my opinion. I would describe it as pretty, yet somewhat janky and unexciting. May be worth it for you, I think mostly if you really like gritty twin stick shooters.

Awards & Rankings

25
#25 Most Discussed PC Game of 2021

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
74

Mixed or average reviews - based on 51 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 25 out of 51
  2. Mixed: 26 out of 51
  3. Negative: 0 out of 51
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Feb 17, 2022
    100
    The Ascent provides you with a unique opportunity to visit the not-so-distant dystopic future of our world in an action-packed manner and also in a graphically astonishing way. Its various possibilities of character creation allow for a unique playthrough and replayablity.
  2. Gamersky
    Dec 20, 2021
    76
    The Ascent has an excellent shooting experience and is great for playing with friends. However, apart from "shooting another wave of enemies", the game can bring very limited fun. The dull story and gameplay will easily bore you in this cyberpunk world.
    Read full review
  3. Game World Navigator Magazine
    Oct 22, 2021
    79
    Many games go for the cyberpunk vibe lately, but few can live up to this style as good as The Ascent does. [Issue#255, p.44]
See all critic reviews »