A Thug's Ascension

If this game was free, it would still be overpriced. I have played this game for 16 hours. This means I've gone through the effort to thoroughly interact with everything the game has to offer to the best of my ability (I refuse to go back to find the missing coin collectibles), and I can whole-heartedly say I would not recommend this game to anyone. For as much as the trailer and the promotional images manage to portray the game as a grand, action-packed cinematic story, there is very little of that present in the final game. The dialogue is poorly-written and filled with more bloat than substance. The lack of any animation (facial or otherwise) or voicing during cutscenes often makes them play out stiff, awkward and emotionless. Most of the characters are underdeveloped and disposable; soulless boxes with a layer of paint overtop of them. So the game fails at its self-proclaimed primary function: to tell an engaging, dramatic story. Does it succeed at its secondary function: to be a fun and engaging game? Unfortunately, it does not. The shooting sections, used as an action-packed break from the jarring and crawling dialogue, often lack a sense of "juice". There's a wide array of guns, which end up not offering any real variety in playstyle regardless. The enemies are dumb, shoot you through walls, and are often nothing more than bullet sponges. The only sense of challenge in this game, is the fight with the game itself. To keep you in the relevant area of its "open world", the game uses insta-death triggers. Most of the time, these are well-signposted, but when they aren't, it's incredibly easy to move forward too fast and just be shot dead with no warning or rebuttal (The final mission in particular has NO signposting of this whatsoever). (I put "open world" in quotes, because the game doesn't really feature one. While you can (sometimes) explore half of the city at your leisure, there is nothing to do or see, aside from posters that seem strangely targeted in a hostile way.) I've been following this game's development for over three years; I'm in the end credits as one of the beta testers. I wanted this game to be good. I really did. Unfortunately, it failed to deliver in every measurable way.

[b][i]A narrative action-adventure/FPS in the crime drama genre. In the role of a formidable bandit, you must liberate the city from the evil dictator - Dr. Sarkar.[/i][/b] Gameplay: https://youtu.be/EQzxWU4FvQw The game is full of narrative cutscenes, between which you need to complete small missions. In each mission you need to complete certain tasks, kill enemies and return to your gang. + The graphic style is reminiscent of Roblox. + Cinematic camera angles. + High-quality sound design. + Simple, dynamic gameplay. + There is inventory and various types of weapons. + It is possible to use vehicles, machine guns, explosives. + Collectibles (eight coins to find). + Achievements.

While I appreciate the developers thinking enough of me to let me review their game, I wholeheartedly cannot recommend. At all. The writing was child-like and the storyline from the get go was just confusing. The gameplay was fairly simply and repetitive, even for someone who is not very good at shooting games. The animation style for this game seemed to be somewhere between a Legos game and Roblox, and for this genre at first glance, appeared unique. However, the writing and 'action' sequences really brought it down.

It's a unique game for sure,, I dont think I have seen anything much like it but I can confidently say that it does what it wants to do very very well. The story is simple but works very well with the characters , and the dialogue is very organic and engaging. The gameplay is basic but quite fun with the ragdolls during fights and the open world city area. Overall , I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this game. Would recommend!

100% Worth a play for those who appreciate experimental gaming gems. First impressions of A Thug's Ascension will probably turn away the average gamer. It looks like something you'd expect to find out of a random Roblox Directory. But by the time I finished playing, I found the art style had become a key part of the games charm. As the events of the story played out, the rough and tough testosterone filled characters and the progressively darker topics paired nicely with the low poly aesthetic bringing a mismatched cohesion to the game. It created a schoolyard charm to the serious moments and made the endearing moments feel more personal. Like a buff tattooed biker selling wood carvings of house pets at a small town farmers market. Some of the topics that start to come up later on in the story I can see coming across a bit controversial but I don't believe any of them were added with bad intentions. In every moment, it felt like their purpose was to create a more meaningful and emotional story. Please don't let what you are about to read turn you away from the game! The biggest area I struggled with the game was the writing of its dialogue. There's a lot of filler and padding mixed in with the plot and important information. It was often hard to tell what was important or not and resulted in many moments where the game dragged on. There is a difference between a story being slow-paced and a story filled with a lot of extra information that doesn't mean anything. To add more context to the dialogue, I started skimming through large sections of dialogue 40 minutes into playing. It was at that moment I realized how much fluff was in it. It took me 4 hours to complete the game. If I hadn't started skimming through a lot of it, I could have easily added in an hour maybe an hour and a half of the game of just reading the dialogue. And it still felt like a lot of what I read wasn't important. But there were also many moments where I was glued to the screen during moments where things got really good. So different areas are hit or miss. At the end of the day I enjoyed the game and I am happy I pushed through some of it's tedius moments and finished it. [u]For those that do pick this up, there's 1 incredibly important thing you need to know![/u] During a few moments in the game, if you push forward too quickly you will instantly die. You won't know how or why. In those moments, you need to wait until the shooting pauses or more enemies spawn around you. If you try to move forward before that happens, the invisible death wall kills you to stop you from progressing further than you are supposed to. If this sounds confusing right now, don't worry it will make sense when you encounter these moments in the game.

the best storytelling i have ever experienced. god bless

I really enjoyed this game. My biggest critique is no voice acting.

TLDR: Do I recommend this game? Yes, but with some caveats. A Thug's Ascension is an interesting game. It's got some dark, gritty story that takes place in India. We don't get much in the way of customization, sadly, but small things were thought of -- you can shoot certain elements in the game you wouldn't expect (the fans, for example). There's no voice over to speak of, but that's okay. The gun play is pretty point-and click. The driving could use some work, though. I'd like to see the developer put a little more work into some of it. That said some of the scenes are beautiful. It's worth a check if you're able to overlook the graphics, especially if it's on sale.

After checking out this game on stream - I must say its really fun. The poly style works well in this dramatic/funny story and the shooting and small puzzles are actually fun. Haven't gotten super far into it yet - so not sure the length - but I am actually enjoying it so far. Pick it up on sale and check it out!

Huge game, with an awesome story, and lots of action. hopefully we will get a part 2 or spin off. cheers https://youtu.be/vPuhENSMsJY?si=FCGzAIbobCTDvqyU