The Ascent

Here's my detailed review of The Ascent in July 2026. I will put pluses and minuses on the points that matter most. ++++ The environment is extremely beautiful and full of detail. It's amazing just walking around and viewing the scenery. - Just as well... since you will be spending a lot of time walking around. There are subway links but only between (some) locations on [b]that same level[/b]. Likewise the taxi service will only take you somewhere you could otherwise walk without using an elevator. For 1000 credits I deserve a flying car! - Similarly, it can be difficult to navigate the 3D environment since elevators and stairs do not always connecting areas in an understandable fashion. In particular, some collectibles seem impossible to reach. This is never actually the case but is sometimes the result of elevators not showing up on the map. - There is a built in ping guidance system that helps direct you to quest locations. But this often misdirects as it doesn't seem to understand subways. Note that sometimes you need to progress the story to unlock an area. That is as normal for such games. - You cannot set goals on the map and so must remember how to navigate the maze of twisty passages if you want to go somewhere that is NOT a quest step. Come on! Let us place an objective marker on the map. The game progression is more linear than it looks. You can get guns, augments, etc. only as you progress the story. It's not fully open world but that's OK. - Though the view is isometric and your viewpoint changes, you cannot rotate the camera yourself. Sometimes the way the camera changes is arbitrary and annoying. This also means your perspective on the beautiful scenery is limited. Particularly confusing is how to unlock improvements to your cyberdeck. As it turns out you will find upgrades at defined points in the story (assuming you are thorough in your searching). These slowly give you more capabilities in each of several deck categories. So every time you get an upgrade go to the cyberdeck and see what has unlocked. Really this should be flagged more dramatically with a popup. "ICE 2 unlocked for chests!" That sort of thing. Line of sight is often screwy. You can be behind cover shooting at someone and never hit them despite it appearing like you should. The enemy AI is not terribly smart but good enough. - You can aim up over objects but you cannot aim down! So enemies below you, even on a few stairs, cannot be hit. I mean, WTF! -- Some enemies are (figurative) tanks, so you need to kite. But if you go too far from their spawn point they will reset and magically heal! This is the most frustrating part of the entire combat system. You cannot carry heals so must find drops. Often these are too plentiful but when you really need them, they are nowhere to be found. This starts feeling like artifical difficulty. ++ The gunplay is fun with several cool effects like explosive bullets and a flamethrower. Later in the game you even get a mech you can bang around in for a while. However I only really used about four guns since some just seem overpowered compared to others. Once I got the Overwhelmer I only used that plus the Chrome Puncher for robots. Later in the game you get continuous warnings about shredding civilians but nothing ever comes of this. How about if you kill too many you are actually tracked down by a bounty hunter? Guns are supposed to reload automatically but if you keep holding down the trigger, some get confused and crap out. This happens to the Overwhelmer. So stop firing and let the darned thing reload! There is a fairly early boss (the arachnoid) that represents a huge spike in difficulty. This is bad design. Mitigate by doing every side mission you can find first and levelling up. Take tons of fire protection and shoot from afar. It is still insanely difficult (on Hard) but can be done. It's not the boss so much as those stupid jumping spiders. - But the big design problem is that once you encounter this boss unexpectedly, there is no way to backtrack without manually walking through the previous rooms of enemies as they respawn. And they are even more difficult as you traverse backwards. So expect to die a lot even while trying to avoid a fight in which you will die a lot. -- The game implicitly saves when you get to certain checkpoints. But you can force this by simply going into the menu. However, resuming after a death doesn't always respect the saves. And this system often strands you in a place where you have fewer resources than the last time you tried! This happens at each boss fight, for example. Every attempt is harder than the first because you've exhausted certain resources like heal machines. Or need to kill enemies to recharge the grenade. Ugh. IMO there should always be a way to fast jump back home from anywhere. This would avoid several of the limitations listed above. - The story is boring average cyberpunk stuff that failed to pull me in. The main problem is that there's zero character building for your protagonist. Even though I have a capable computer, I experienced regular lockups that would not respond to Ctrl-F4. I don't with any other game. Ok, so that is [b]way[/b] more negatives than positives. However, The Ascent is still recommended if, like me, you enjoy walking around shredding everything in your path in a beautiful cyberpunk world. I do hope the developers try again and think more about quality of life. System: Ryzen 9 5900X, 64 GB RAM, GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, WIndows 11 Pro

The game is terrible for co-op. All my friends had controller issues and could not control their character fluidly. We really wanted to play the game but co-op is not great, maybe I will try to play it alone.

A lot like the Descent, but in the other direction.

cyberpunk77 + star wars vibe. shooting is nice, not complaining. gimme a sequel.

TIRANDO OS bUGS EM ALGUMAS CUTSCENES É UM OTIMO JOGO! tem uma vibe bem ghost in the shell, jogabilidade boa e muita ação, achei bem curta a campanha principal

Bom jogo