Video Game Review: The Ascent

Developer: Neon Giant

Publisher: Curve Digital

Genre: Isometric Shooter RPG

Reviewed On: PlayStation 5

Also Available For: PlayStation 4, Xbox, PC

Cyberpunk is a weird genre for me. Thematically, I absolutely ADORE the themes it commonly explores – transhumanism, capitalism’s impact on government and the lives of private citizens, the impact of capitalist overreach on the concept and possibility of transhumanism and the control that potentially gives corporations over the lives of anyone with cybernetics – but I cannot STAND its aesthetics most of the time. The excessive grime, the urban sprawl, the overwhelming cynicism hard-baked into the settings – it all just makes me deeply, viscerally uncomfortable. I recognize that this is in many cases probably part of the point, and I’m not even saying it’s a bad thing, it’s just a matter of personal taste that I do not care for it. For me to enjoy a piece of cyberpunk media, then, means that it must be doing something right, and boy howdy do I enjoy The Ascent.

The Basics: The Ascent is a twin-stick shooter in a grungy cyberpunk setting where the player is an indentured servant in the “employ” of one of several mega-corporations constantly warring with one another for control of a planet that is essentially one giant city. At the very beginning of the game, the corporation the player is indentured to, The Ascent Group, very suddenly and mysteriously goes under despite being one of if not the largest megacorp around, leaving everyone scrambling to either snatch up what used to belong to them or just stay alive amidst the chaos. The player’s role in all this is that of an enforcer, working for a series of said figures vying to fill the power vacuum as the muscle making it happen.

What makes The Ascent stick out (well, one of the things that makes it stick out anyway) is that it is just as much isometric ARPG as it is isometric shooter. The player can equip two different guns out of a couple dozen available models, each with their own array of properties that makes them variably useful both situationally and according to the player’s tastes. Any of the guns can be upgraded, and in order to have any real chance of surviving further into the game it is mandatory to do so. The upgrade system admittedly does admittedly make things feel somewhat limiting, as having invested a bunch of materials into one model can be discouraging of trying something new you stumble across later, but who cares: number go up. In any case, the gunplay is satisfying enough on its own that you’ll have fun mowing down baddies no matter what you decide to roll with – firefights (or even just firing wildly at nothing to test out a new piece) are very punchy, especially thanks to the inclusion of grenades and a simple but nevertheless really cool cover system. I never got the chance to dive into the co-op, but I have to imagine the game is just as (if not more) fun with friends.

In addition to firearms, the player gets to customize their gameplay with stats, skills, perks, and armor all filtered through a flavor lens of cybernetic augmentations. You can equip up to two skills at a time, with fun effects ranging from spiderbots that hunt your enemies down before exploding, saving your health level at a given moment to be restored to upon re-activating the skill, or even a simple yet powerful and delightfully meaty robo-punch. Playing around with skills and finding the right ones to complement your playstyle is a ton of fun, especially when combined with the stat system where certain skills are made more effective depending on how you allocate points into four attributes. You don’t even have to min-max them, as the game is generally pretty easy and forgiving with what loadouts will work, occasional difficulty spikes notwithstanding. The player also has two slots for passive boosts (which are much, much rarer) and three for armor, which can also passively increase attributes. Additionally, different pieces of armor actually show up on your character cosmetically, and yes, you can fix it so your appearance is independent of what you actually have equipped. Not everyone may care about that, but I most certainly do number among those who appreciates game designers making it easier to Fashion Souls (Fashion ‘Scents? Whatever).

The Ascent is no slouch when it comes to its writing either. The world it presents is both very interesting and feels genuinely lived in, with many different kinds of people (hailing from seven different species if you count humans, plus robots) to both interact with directly and overhear bits of conversation from while walking around the non-combat zones. For the most part only the NPCs you directly interact with have proper voice acting, which is very well done and really brings the characters to life, and the quality of the snippets-in-passing makes up for them being audibly gibberish. Not all of them try to be humorous, but those that do frequently hit the mark – the more central goings on have occasional bits of humor as well, which I was surprised by albeit in a very pleasant way. Even the game’s loading screens add to the game’s personality, being elevator or subway rides that let you move and mess around in a little bit. They’re not the most fun part of the game by a long shot, but they’re definitely one of those little touches that make the game a delight.

I’ll admit, the presentation isn’t perfect – I encountered a few graphical glitches here and there and a whole lot of typos and syntactical errors, particularly in the game’s (rather extensive) codex, but considering how good the game looks as a whole coming from a team of twelve people I’m willing to mostly overlook the odd unpolished nook and/or cranny. I mean heck, the developers even went so far as to have all kinds of cool, situationally-appropriate little sound effects come out of the controller speaker in the PS5 version, and while it was occasionally a bit distracting or annoying, it was mostly just a cool touch.

Whether you’re like me and aren’t a huge fan of cyberpunk or a junkie for the genre that slurps down every last bit of it you can find, The Ascent is a game with a lot on offer. Fun mechanical design helps to make up for any discomfort you may or may not occasionally feel at the game’s aesthetic choices while a compelling story full of wacky and interesting characters alike holds your attention enough that you can power through the somewhat boring travel segments. It’s a strong debut showing from Neon Giant, and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on them to see what they can do next.