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. Nite4awk
    Jun 13, 2023
    8
    I asked for a game like this for so long... and this game delivers. A real gem.
  2. somovbiu
    May 7, 2023
    0
    Most of the game is tedious, but sometimes the difficulty suddenly spikes. This means the developer put zero effort into balancing the game. Don't give this kind of developer any money.
  3. fastoch82
    Mar 18, 2023
    8
    Deserves way better than the actual Metascore of 73. Great visuals, great gameplay, average story, very nice game in the end. Made by something like 12 people, it's outstanding to see what such a small studio can accomplish. Can't wait to play their next game.
  4. 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.
  5. KenniG
    Nov 14, 2022
    1
    I really wish designers would quit focusing so much on “graphics.” Graphics don’t mean crap if the game is more or less unplayable or not fun. There are plenty of free games out better than this with lesser graphics but infinitely more fun and playable. One can easily tell that this was made as kind of a look what we can do game so that they can move onto something more lucrative which isI really wish designers would quit focusing so much on “graphics.” Graphics don’t mean crap if the game is more or less unplayable or not fun. There are plenty of free games out better than this with lesser graphics but infinitely more fun and playable. One can easily tell that this was made as kind of a look what we can do game so that they can move onto something more lucrative which is what the industry has become nowadays. Such a waste of what could be a potentially great game if it wasn’t for the poor quality in the actual gameplay. Only reason I gave this more than a 0 is because of the graphics and potential which I believe is all they really cared about anyway.… Expand
  6. EVIL_UJIN
    Oct 15, 2022
    8
    + Стрельба супер
    + Детализация супер
    + Дизайн локаций просто офигенный, хочется делать скриншоты каждые 20 шагов + Проработка мира супер + Сюжет норм + Система развития норм + Спецэффекты огонь В общем, это больше киберпанк, чем Киберпанк 2077)    + Стрельба супер
    + Детализация супер
    + Дизайн локаций просто офигенный, хочется делать скриншоты каждые 20 шагов
    + Проработка мира супер
    + Сюжет норм
    + Система развития норм
    + Спецэффекты огонь

    В общем, это больше киберпанк, чем Киберпанк 2077)
  7. Satanski666
    Oct 2, 2022
    4
    First it was way too easy so i had to set hard difficulty, until it became ridiculously hard even on normal. Game is really beautiful, too bad **** balance made me drop it.
  8. KinimodYunmi
    Sep 18, 2022
    8
    Bester Laufsimulator!

    Hätte ich so nicht rausgebracht, leider noch einige Bugs drin, weswegen man des öfteren mal neustarten muss. Vom Gameplay her ist es aber wirklich interessant und macht echt Spaß, eine Story ist gerade eben so vorhanden. Manche Kameraperspektiven sind etwas unübersichtlich und Games unter 30 Stunden Spielzeit sind auch etwas kurz, gerade lieb gewonnen und auch    Bester Laufsimulator!

    Hätte ich so nicht rausgebracht, leider noch einige Bugs drin, weswegen man des öfteren mal neustarten muss. Vom Gameplay her ist es aber wirklich interessant und macht echt Spaß, eine Story ist gerade eben so vorhanden. Manche Kameraperspektiven sind etwas unübersichtlich und Games unter 30 Stunden Spielzeit sind auch etwas kurz, gerade lieb gewonnen und auch schon wieder vorbei. Für den fairen Preis kann man dann aber auch wieder nichts sagen.

    Insgesamt hat es sich gelohnt, hat Spaß gemacht und ich musste mich nicht ernsthaft aufregen.    … Expand
  9. PetyaBiszeps
    Aug 25, 2022
    4
    For me The Ascent became a controversial game. It contains BAD plot, grind system, boring characters, but at the same time interesting cyberpunk setting, interesting and not typical gameplay, amazing aesthetics.

    I won't lie, for me this game didn't gift nice emotions and i won't comeback for this one, but it has it's own pluses. Summing up the pros and cons i would give it 5/10. Average    For me The Ascent became a controversial game. It contains BAD plot, grind system, boring characters, but at the same time interesting cyberpunk setting, interesting and not typical gameplay, amazing aesthetics.

    I won't lie, for me this game didn't gift nice emotions and i won't comeback for this one, but it has it's own pluses. Summing up the pros and cons i would give it 5/10. Average game, but sadly, not more.    … Expand
  10. 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
  11. 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.
  12. boltron
    Aug 6, 2022
    4
    Slick graphics, amazing world design, deeply flawed and infuriating gameplay. Abandoned.
  13. RGNS
    Jul 9, 2022
    0
    extremely difficult. i am glad that hacking exists. i go to playlist stupid game for free. stupid mouse aim does not work. do not buy this game. i say again do not buy this game. stupid story difficult combat boring stupid game. the stupid character doesn't even talk. eight zero stupid idiot devs.
  14. MisterF
    Jun 23, 2022
    0
    This game is such a wreck. It doesn't deserve the praise it's gotten. It crashes constantly, the gameplay and progression is more shallow then a wading pool and the story is the laziest most predictable pieces of Pablum I've seen in ages. The best thing I can say about it is it looks pretty and some of the voice acting is good. Development team also supported the game with plenty of freeThis game is such a wreck. It doesn't deserve the praise it's gotten. It crashes constantly, the gameplay and progression is more shallow then a wading pool and the story is the laziest most predictable pieces of Pablum I've seen in ages. The best thing I can say about it is it looks pretty and some of the voice acting is good. Development team also supported the game with plenty of free cosmetic DLC. But don't believe the hype! You'd be better off playing Path of Exile, Diablo 3, Torchlight or hell I'm gonna say it! I had more fun hate playing Diablo: Immortal for 4 hours then the 20 i sank into this.… Expand
  15. vigilanteOito8
    Jun 14, 2022
    9
    Joguei no lançamento achei ruim demais a mira.
    Um ano depois voltei a jogar e to achando magnifico o game, porem to jogando o teclado e mouse, nisso eu acho a mira precisa.
  16. katonglaksa
    May 21, 2022
    10
    Just phenomonal.

    Great world building.

    Very satisfying combat.

    Amazing, immersive graphics. This was ten times more fun than cyberpunk. And the voice acting was great too.

    Don't understand why this isn't getting better reviews.
  17. Zeneko90
    May 7, 2022
    8
    Ein wirklich tolles Spiel. Optik, Gameplay, Balance, Welt, Immersion, Charaktere alles wirklich top.
    Es machte so viel Spaß in dieses Spiel und dessen Welt einzutauchen. Die Optik ist auf alle Fälle über alle Zweifel erhaben. Das Gameplay schön wuchtig. Die Welt sieht einfach richtig klasse aus (Cyber Punk). Ob nun jede einzelne Kleinigkeit ausgereift bis zum Ende ist? Bestimmt nicht. Der    Ein wirklich tolles Spiel. Optik, Gameplay, Balance, Welt, Immersion, Charaktere alles wirklich top.
    Es machte so viel Spaß in dieses Spiel und dessen Welt einzutauchen. Die Optik ist auf alle Fälle über alle Zweifel erhaben. Das Gameplay schön wuchtig. Die Welt sieht einfach richtig klasse aus (Cyber Punk). Ob nun jede einzelne Kleinigkeit ausgereift bis zum Ende ist? Bestimmt nicht. Der Loot könnte mehr Vielfalt und Kreativität vertragen. Die Charaktere tiefgreifender. Die Quests mehr ausgearbeitet und das zum Teil unnötige umherlaufe nervte auch ein klein wenig. Das sind aber alles nur kleine Punkte im großen Ganzen. Das Ende lassen wir vorerst raus, da ich das Gefühl hatte, dass es definitiv zu einem 2. Teil kommen soll bzw. wird. Je nachdem wie erfolgreich das Spiel am Ende geworden ist. Ich habe das Spiel erst im Januar 2022 "nachgeholt", also knapp ein halbes Jahr nach Release. Und ich muss sagen, dass ich weder Glitches, Bugs, noch Abstürze oder sonst was. Es lief auf meiner mittlerweile betagten 1080 auf 1440P mit Ulti/Max Einstellungen mit flüssigen 80-90 FPS. Außer bei einigen Boss Gegnern mit vielen Projektilen gingen die FPS drastisch runter.

    Fazit:

    Aber alles in allem ein richtig gutes Game, dass ich jedem empfehlen kann.
    Also auf alle Fälle jeder der den Gamepass schon abonniert hat. Wer es noch nicht gemacht hat, dann tut dies und holt das Spiel unbedingt nach.

    Meine Wertung sind 8,5 von 10 Punkten.

    _____________________________________________________________________________

    A really great game. Looks, gameplay, balance, world, immersion, characters are all really great.
    It was so much fun to dive into this game and its world. In any case, the optics are beyond all doubt. The gameplay is pretty massive. The world just looks really great (cyber punk). Whether every single little thing is mature to the end? Definitely not. The loot could use more variety and creativity. The characters more profound. The quests were more elaborate and the sometimes unnecessary walking around was a little annoying. But these are all just small points in the big picture. We'll leave out the ending for the time being, because I had the feeling that there should definitely be a second part. Depending on how successful the game ended up being. I didn't "catch up" on the game until January 2022, almost half a year after the release. And I have to say that I don't get any glitches, bugs, crashes or anything else. It ran on my now aged 1080 on 1440P with Ulti/Max settings at a smooth 80-90 FPS. Except for some bosses with lots of projectiles, the FPS went down drastically.

    Conclusion:

    But all in all a really good game that I can recommend to everyone.
    In any case, everyone who has already subscribed to the game pass. If you haven't done it yet, then do so and definitely catch up on the game.

    My rating is 8.5 out of 10 points.    … Expand
  18. 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
  19. 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
  20. 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
  21. Depmaster
    Mar 25, 2022
    9
    Ambientação cyberpunk incrível!! pra quem é apaixonado pelo gênero, mais RPG compra garantida !
  22. CptAhnungslos
    Feb 6, 2022
    8
    Came for the graphics, stayed for the atmosphere. The world is so dense with details ,the music is superb, everything just fits and creates an fantastic cyberpunk atmosphere. The gameplay is solid and fun, the story does its job. Pleasant surprise.
  23. Yougod
    Feb 5, 2022
    9
    Great game! Very nice graphics
  24. borla
    Jan 30, 2022
    9
    A real cyberpunk game with great graphics and gameplay mechanics. The only thing that it is quite bad it is the story, but this does not interfere the quality of this masterpiece.
  25. Gorehound
    Jan 29, 2022
    9
    I only come across this game month ago on game-pass and I have for game that was made by first time developers this is one of the best looking games I've seen this year and the gameplay is pretty good as well looking at the world the game it is set in it give me Blade Runner/ Altered Carbon vibes to it the only minor issue I have with the game is that it might crash but apart from that II only come across this game month ago on game-pass and I have for game that was made by first time developers this is one of the best looking games I've seen this year and the gameplay is pretty good as well looking at the world the game it is set in it give me Blade Runner/ Altered Carbon vibes to it the only minor issue I have with the game is that it might crash but apart from that I have no major issues with game and to me this is how Cyberpunk 2077 should have been so give this game a shot… Expand
  26. Nomax
    Jan 26, 2022
    10
    Довольно динамичный геймплей, саундтрэк и атмосфера в этой игре заслуживают отдельной похвалы, сюжет конечно такой себе но это не мешает играть вместе с другом и получать удовольствие.
  27. 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.
  28. 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
  29. Nick111
    Dec 26, 2021
    9
    Кайфовая игра для того что бы посидеть вечерком и часик расслабиться, в геймпасе вообще кайф такие игры получать.
  30. DGPonyh
    Dec 20, 2021
    10
    What a fresh breath of (toxic) air. I've been playing this game for the past few weeks and I'm really very impressed with The Ascent.

    The artwork is so friggin' detailed, inspired and believable it's uncanny. I just love it to bits and I think the people responsible for the world design should win a few prizes. It's simply ART with a capital A in my book and they must have invested an    What a fresh breath of (toxic) air. I've been playing this game for the past few weeks and I'm really very impressed with The Ascent.

    The artwork is so friggin' detailed, inspired and believable it's uncanny. I just love it to bits and I think the people responsible for the world design should win a few prizes. It's simply ART with a capital A in my book and they must have invested an incredible amount of passion, time and effort into it. The writing and characters really complement that art-style and I love the overall idea behind the setting.

    Game play grows on you quickly too, and though quite simple, it is highly compelling and more engaging than the average hack-and-slash action rpg. Another thing this game does well is the pacing of its rpg elements like loot and upgrades: valuable upgrades at the right intervals, appealing chests to hunt down, interesting abilities to unlock, cool guns, etc. Not much filler stuff here and you won't be overburdened either.

    The game doesn't hold your hand much, it can be quite challenging here and there and at times explains very little. Eventually things work out though, doors get unlocked, locked out chests become available and the high level enemies that one-shotted you earlier, will be destroyed.

    Only downsides so far: the map can be confusing at times and I encountered a bug where a door in the Morgue wouldn't open for me for some time but I think they fixed that with an upgrade.

    Performance is excellent I think. I'm playing this at 1440p on my old GTX970 and I have most of the settings (that are available to my set-up) maxed out, except for shadow quality as I saw a yt vid on that being the biggest resource hog.

    Conclusion: If you like action rpgs and if you like an inspired cyberpunk setting it's simply a must buy. For around 20 bucks on Steam this really is kind of a steal. I'm really looking forward to see what these people will be working on next.    … Expand
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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 »