The Ascent

 Xbox Series X
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 453 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 346 out of 453
  2. Mixed: 40 out of 453
  3. Negative: 67 out of 453
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  1. franjau
    Sep 7, 2023
    8
    Amazing atmosphere, best Cyberpunk game by far in it's kind, colorful world and great game design, you will not be dissapointed, one of the, if not the most immersive game of 2021 to this date.

    I do recommend it for the Xbox Series X
  2. carlm332
    Jul 25, 2023
    9
    Every review has subjective side, it's acceptable. But this game is really a great one. I always doesn't care what editors says because their tastes and my tastes not common with them. But for this game I don't know :/ must play
  3. Prometheus495
    Aug 3, 2021
    10
    This game is amazing I had a blast in my 50 hour play through. The Ascent is dripping with cyberpunk Atmosphere and really good music that sucks you into the cyberpunk world. The world is Breathtaking and stunning and the explosions and Send me encounters or fun. I’d recommend this game to anyone Who likes Bladerunner or top down shooters or people looking to try something new.
  4. Mindurbidniss
    Apr 12, 2023
    3
    More Isometric dribble to utilize the all powerful Xbox Series X teraflops. Another game that feels like it released in 2009. Sure the graphics look decent with the whole cyberpunk theme, but it's not doing anything Shadowrun didn't already do. I guess this will appeal to someone out there, it just didn't do it for me
  5. forgedsledge
    Feb 25, 2023
    7
    From Night City to the grimy alien planet of Veles. While both Cyberpunk 2077 and The Ascent are forms of cyberpunk fiction, involving intense gunplay, hacking and upgrading your player character, that's where the similarities end. Veles feels grim and oppressive, built on the backs of slaves, such as yourself, fighting each other for scraps whereas in Night City you feel like you'reFrom Night City to the grimy alien planet of Veles. While both Cyberpunk 2077 and The Ascent are forms of cyberpunk fiction, involving intense gunplay, hacking and upgrading your player character, that's where the similarities end. Veles feels grim and oppressive, built on the backs of slaves, such as yourself, fighting each other for scraps whereas in Night City you feel like you're rising through the hierarchy of the criminal underworld to make a name for yourself. Make no mistake, grim doesn't mean better. Cyberpunk 2077 allows you to tell your own story but the atmosphere of The Ascent is what really sold me.

    I will not pretend, I suck at twin-stick shooters, yet I welcome the challenge. Right from the get-go, you're thrust into this immersive, story-driven world and asked to survive and my lack of skill only amplified the story. Overall, the game feels oddly familiar, like NES games of old with a fresh new coat of paint. While I struggled at first, I started to get the hang of the game and it became far more enjoyable.    … Expand
  6. Lt_Maverick
    Feb 16, 2023
    10
    Easy recommendation. Great graphics and performance. Great 3d sound in “indent” audio mode on a home theater. Story is actually interesting. The combat is phenomenal. The enemies are interesting. The quests are all fully voice acted and the actors sell it well. The world is more cyberpunk than cyberpunk. Easy 10/10.
  7. tom974
    Dec 31, 2022
    5
    This is my 2022 disappointment of the year. The game has a solid base, oustanding environments, nice gameplay, average scenarios, reasonable variety of loot/weapons/equipments, a classic RPG based character building and coop should be the base on such a game. Well past a few hours, the game is severely bugged : the game may randomly and frequently crash, bugged quests (including the mainThis is my 2022 disappointment of the year. The game has a solid base, oustanding environments, nice gameplay, average scenarios, reasonable variety of loot/weapons/equipments, a classic RPG based character building and coop should be the base on such a game. Well past a few hours, the game is severely bugged : the game may randomly and frequently crash, bugged quests (including the main one, can stop you progression or make you replay a mission you took hours to succeed in), character behavior (shooting in the ground thus not damaging any enemy for example), you cannot speak to the same merchant at the same time with another player because it may block the game and make you restart your session, at least two bugged achievements.. The whole thing totally waste my experience on what could have been a nice game.… Expand
  8. Awanka
    Nov 10, 2022
    8
    Excellent run and gun twin stick shooter similar to arcade games like Smash TV. Game looks fantastic, and really gives the feeling of being in a giant vertical urban center. The environment here does some heavy lifting, and swings between hi-tech and a slum aesthetic like something between Coruscant and a hive city from W40k.
  9. ImYrHuckleberry
    Sep 15, 2022
    8
    Surprisingly fun, great gameplay and a beautiful world that keeps you wanting to come back for more. The story is ok, but the gameplay and visuals are what shines.
  10. Menacing-Fish
    Jul 22, 2022
    1
    No updates for Xbox it's buggy and didn't save my progress avoid this game until they show more motivation and update Xbox version
  11. 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.
  12. Filmanwalt
    Feb 3, 2022
    6
    11 hours and 675 gamerscore in a beautiful looking cyberpunk action roleplaying game with some gameplay flaws.

    story It's about a corporation "The Ascent Group" that basically controlled everything in a dystopian future and then it came to a collapse, from which factional fights for power and more arose. You yourself are basically a normal person who then struggles through mercenary    11 hours and 675 gamerscore in a beautiful looking cyberpunk action roleplaying game with some gameplay flaws.

    story

    It's about a corporation "The Ascent Group" that basically controlled everything in a dystopian future and then it came to a collapse, from which factional fights for power and more arose. You yourself are basically a normal person who then struggles through mercenary work and tries to find out what happened to the large corporation or which threads are actually being pulled in the background.
    Most of the time I didn't actually understand much because I don't really pay too much attention to the story in this type of game either. But towards the end it clicked and everything was clearer and easier to understand.
    The story isn't particularly spectacular and I personally wasn't really interested in it from the beginning until shortly before the end. A German voice output would also have been nice, even though I have no problem with English at all, but if you only want to be enlightened by the background of the story, then a missing voice output in German makes it more demotivating.

    gameplay

    In a top-down action RPG, this should definitely be the heart and the shining core of the game. Sometimes it is, but sometimes it drove me insane.

    Cyberpunk setting, great and cool weapons, where you can try out a lot and also destructible environment objects. There are abilities and skill points to distribute in order to customize your character's play style. But I had some problems with the character progression in particular: I simply never felt really strong at any point in the game. I didn't notice that I've already completed quest and side quest xyz, distributed experience points and skills and became more and more powerful. On the contrary, I had to lower the difficulty level of the game at times and even had problems on Easy.
    Either I've fundamentally lost my skills here or didn't have or found certain skills and thus spoiled the fun of the game, which definitely comes up when you're in the flow. The opponents, who unfortunately respawn again and again, were sometimes so difficult and the menu jungle of augmentations, skills, abilities was not always transparent for me, I could never really say what exactly brings me something.

    I also found the "cover" gameplay rather obstructive and demotivating, because I don't want to hide in such an action RPG, but rather just shoot away masses of opponents. But there was clearly a lack of the possibility of constantly and reliably regaining life (apparently there is a lifesteal option, I haven't found it) in order to survive longer fights better. Especially when it comes to health objects, the loot for opponents could have been much more generous. Ultimately, I also have different skills, e.g. the life giver, not understood why this but not others, such as e.g. the mech, have such incredibly long cooldowns. I then just played through with the mech and a superhero jump, which worked much better.

    But the weakest thing for me was the map and all the WAY TOO LONG paths and that one is often not simply coordinated to the metro first. The map was sometimes not easy to understand and the metros were far behind quests. Paths that are then completely paved with waves of enemies that have been killed countless times and a character that runs so incredibly slowly. Why don't you get a bike or mech in the course of the game for faster bridging of the whole path? It would have fitted wonderfully and would have been cool on top of that. You should have been a bit careful when driving, because there is already a lot going on in the world!

    Even if there is a lot of nagging in the gameplay, it was still okay overall.

    Graphics/Presentation/Bugs

    The graphics, presentation and atmosphere just blew me away. This looks phenomenal from front to back and is optimally implemented, especially in the cyberpunk setting. The lighting effects, reflections, everything around it in individual sections of the city, the stacking of the city levels on top of each other or the effects in combat were made with a lot of love and a lot of development time was certainly spent here. The world that has been created is really very pretty to look at and you keep getting lost in it and marveling at the splendor of it all. I really have to say, even though this aspect of games isn't the most important thing to me, The Ascent graphics etc. let me go through with the game in some annoyed moments.

    Conclusion

    Long story short: The Ascent does some things right, is impressive for an indie developer and unfortunately weakens in the core area of ​​the gameplay. Nonetheless, a recommended game and not very long either, 6/10 medipacks.    … Expand
  13. fredda
    Jan 7, 2022
    9
    Been playing this 2 player co-op with my girlfriend the last few days. We are having a blast. The game looks nice, and manages to create an unique steampunk atmosphere with the neon and the very fitting soundtrack. I played it first on XOne, then on XsX. The loading times are shorter and thing looks abit nicer on the XsX, but overall I would give this 8 on XOne and 9 on XsX. (Loading timesBeen playing this 2 player co-op with my girlfriend the last few days. We are having a blast. The game looks nice, and manages to create an unique steampunk atmosphere with the neon and the very fitting soundtrack. I played it first on XOne, then on XsX. The loading times are shorter and thing looks abit nicer on the XsX, but overall I would give this 8 on XOne and 9 on XsX. (Loading times steals a point from the XOne score)… Expand
  14. Nataraja
    Dec 27, 2021
    9
    This is a time when the critics just don't get what makes a good game. While the story is okay, the gameplay loop, exploration, the setting and atmosphere, sound (except for a few sound bugs in isolated locations) and music are all top notch. It's challenging to play but so worth the $30 price tag. The game has a lot more going for it than games from much larger and better fundedThis is a time when the critics just don't get what makes a good game. While the story is okay, the gameplay loop, exploration, the setting and atmosphere, sound (except for a few sound bugs in isolated locations) and music are all top notch. It's challenging to play but so worth the $30 price tag. The game has a lot more going for it than games from much larger and better funded studios. As the first game from this studio, I for one really look forward to what they do next. The amount of polish and smoothness of this game is amazing for a dev team of only 12 people.… Expand
  15. JasperThorn
    Nov 14, 2021
    8
    Having fun playing this game with friends I wanted to wait because of all issues but the game is in a very good state
  16. rubensmiranda
    Nov 11, 2021
    10
    I really enjoyed the game. The cyberpunk design is amazing. The effects of shots and explosions in the scenarios were also amazing.
  17. LouiseVictoire
    Nov 7, 2021
    8
    Aesthetically it's perfect. The gameplay is very good. The story is suite linear and has nothing exeptionnal.
    A really good moment.
  18. nigh5
    Oct 23, 2021
    10
    Great game. The map and travel system like others have said, is such a burden, but when the game finished I wanted to play it again. A game worth its price, and no question if you have gamepass.

    It's unfortunate that you don't get an extra aug/mod towards the end.
  19. 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
  20. madwolf81
    Sep 16, 2021
    10
    great good looking game that gave me a lot of fun. I love this game and i suggest to not look at critics and go play it
  21. TheMoil
    Sep 13, 2021
    9
    Impressive game, was unexpected. Played this on both PC and Xbox with play anywhere. Highly recommend it.
  22. Bghse52
    Sep 13, 2021
    9
    I'm playing with Gamepass, what a great scenario setting. I was waiting for this game and I liked to see the level of details that the guys managed to put in the game, the sounds of the weapons and the game in general are amazing. I would love to see a remake of Future COP ps1 with this atmosphere it would be fenomenal.
  23. Corchaump1010
    Sep 8, 2021
    10
    The world in this game is amazing the shooting mechanics are excellent the gameplay loop is fantastic.. could have done slightly better with the story but it didn't matter this game is super fun and the attention to detail is second to none great job by a small team on their first endeavor I recommend
  24. LazyWolf0
    Sep 2, 2021
    9
    Fantastic game, great fun. I don’t even like twin-stick shooters, but here the gameplay and gunplay is so satisfying. World design and atmosphere are simply brilliant. Visuals are stunning, and performance was rock solid on Series S.

    Don’t expect branching quests or deep story/RPG elements here, the game is simple at its core. But this core is extremely well done, and various character    Fantastic game, great fun. I don’t even like twin-stick shooters, but here the gameplay and gunplay is so satisfying. World design and atmosphere are simply brilliant. Visuals are stunning, and performance was rock solid on Series S.

    Don’t expect branching quests or deep story/RPG elements here, the game is simple at its core. But this core is extremely well done, and various character builds are very different.

    I had one crash during the playthrough, and experienced couple of unpleasant bugs. And some elements like how you can get sidequests before the areas they take place in unlock are rough, that’s why I score it 9 and not full 10.    … Expand
  25. naora2035
    Aug 28, 2021
    10
    Отличная игра! Ничего подобного давно уже не видел. Поразительное внимание к деталям. Есть некоторые проблемы с исполнением заданий, но не критично.
  26. Tomoncio
    Aug 27, 2021
    7
    The Ascent es un buen juego, pero necesita arreglar muchos bugs que posee: ascensores que no se activan, indicaciones en el mapa erróneas, traducción al castellano parcial, desconexiones espontáneas en multijugador... Por esos bugs el juego no se puede disfrutar al máximo, y es una lástima, ya que es un juego de acción con una buena jugabilidad, una estética cyberpunk genial y donde elThe Ascent es un buen juego, pero necesita arreglar muchos bugs que posee: ascensores que no se activan, indicaciones en el mapa erróneas, traducción al castellano parcial, desconexiones espontáneas en multijugador... Por esos bugs el juego no se puede disfrutar al máximo, y es una lástima, ya que es un juego de acción con una buena jugabilidad, una estética cyberpunk genial y donde el componente multijugador es esencial. Es más, es un juego que se disfruta mucho más en cooperativo que en solitario. Eso sí, la historia en mi opinión es un poco compleja, por lo que es necesario prestar mucha atención si no quieres perderte en los detalles.… Expand
  27. ResidentWeazel
    Aug 26, 2021
    10
    Love this game visually it's absolutely stunning & the soundtrack is amazing.Combat is fun & engaging
  28. Soobinnie
    Aug 25, 2021
    9
    Scenario is amazing, story is also very nice, gameplay as well, I have no complains about this game. But only that would be amazing to play it on First/Third person, that would make the game so dope.
  29. John_Remix
    Aug 24, 2021
    9
    Una de las sorpresas del año, un juego de accion super divertido con graficos excelentes
  30. Spencersboy
    Aug 24, 2021
    5
    Very simple and easy twin stick shooter disguised as an RPG. No HDR, no Ray tracing, buggy acheivements and poorly implemented coop.
    Once the wow of the graphics wear off, you'll be glad it was on gamepass and you didn't pay for it.
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Awards & Rankings

70
#70 Best Xbox Series X Game of 2021
7
#7 Most Discussed Xbox Series X Game of 2021

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
68

Mixed or average reviews - based on 34 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 19 out of 34
  3. Negative: 1 out of 34
  1. CD-Action
    Oct 12, 2021
    85
    Style over substance – I bet Neon Giant has this cyberpunk principle printed above the office entrance. The design of their game is absolutely breathtaking, with huge, vertical, crime-infested cities and masterful use of lights and shadows. Add a pulp-style story and good dialogues (or rather monologues, as the protagonist is silent) immersed deeply in the cyberpunk lore, and you’ve got a pure gem for anyone who enjoys this setting. The shooting mechanics and progression system might be overly simple, but they get the job done and make it easier to catch the game’s flow. [10/2021, p.56]
  2. PlaySense
    Aug 19, 2021
    75
    A visual feast that, along with the great audio design, makes for a very atmospheric experience. It's not perfect, though. Navigation leaves a bit to be desired and some technical shortcomings put a damper on the fun.
    Read full review
  3. Meristation
    Aug 18, 2021
    75
    The Ascent offers cyberpunk lovers a setting where they can unleash their dreams of steel and neon.
    Read full review
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