This image is the representation of the pinnacle of fun that I had with this game, which is bad.
The Ascent~.
The Ascent, is a cyberpunk themed twin-stick rpg videogame. which meant you are expected to play with a gamepad with the left analog stick for the movement and the right analog stick for the aiming, but you can still play it with the mouse and keyboard.
It looks so good, you end of being overwhelmed by the particle effects and explosions that happens on the screen.
This game is beautiful. Just look at those details, the lighting, the shadows, EVERYTHING!.
I also like this detail where your character slowly transforms to a 'chromed-up' cyberpunk entity as you level up and distribute skill points.
Sadly that's where my praises for the game ends.
Let's start with Combat.
You may think that this game, as a twin stick shooter, would be based on player skill. Partially.
You see, this game's combat primarily scales with level difference. if your character's level is higher than the enemy you take less and less damage, on the other hand, if your character's level is lower than the enemy, expect your character get one shotted by enemies off-screen.
Does that sound bad?, Yes, it is.
It is so bad that you end up grinding levels before proceeding to continue the storyline.
And there I was mindlessly grinding on the sewers over and over again. login, walk, kill, relog, and repeat.
They have this thing that I thought at first was fine until it became very troublesome very fast. There are two ways to shooting your weapon in this twin stick shooter, there's hip-fire and there's aim-fire. now you may think that is is simply an accuracy thing, but no, it's not.
Above is a screenshot me shooting at small robot spiders using aim-fire. It misses, it missed because aim-fire means to shoot at a higher elevation (the head). so for me to actually hit these small robot spiders, I need to use hip-fire, which shoots at a lower elevation.
So yes, it's all about elevation, so in this picture, The enemy is on a lower elevation, and even my hip-fire can't hit it, but he can hit me if he uses aim-fire. this is stupid. it's gameplay, but it's stupid.
Now, in the above picture, I am using the container as a low wall, it covers me from hip-fire attacks, and when you crouch behind a low wall, you are pretty much invulnerable, you can aim-fire while in this invulnerable position which you can damage enemies, assuming they are not crouching lol.
Now there are healing items, but not the ones where your character carry and use when they are needed the most.
These healing items are dropped from enemies as you slay them, you can also buy at or hack a dispenser/vending machine for these healing items.
You also get to choose and carry two abilities, one of them is shown in the picture above, let's you mark enemies in an area and make them heal you as you damage them. Look! I just stand there and shoot the boss with a shotgun at pointblank as all of them shoots me, others abilities include summoning companion robots, foot stomps, missiles, aimbot, and etc.
And with each level up you get points to allocate on stats that increases health, 'mana', critical chance, and others.
and as I have stated above, your character makes a visual change until you get a black eye look as you pump those stats up. could be better.
Weapons and Armor in this game is static with tiered upgrades. while there are many weapons to choose from, there's no "looting the same gun with different stats.", the game incorporates damage types, from physical and fire, to digital damage that is effective to robots and mechs. they also have this 'transmog system', which is how my character wore the same clothes as I blaze through the game.
That's pretty much it for gameplay stuffs.
Now for the story.
It's okay,
Our protagonist is someone who got here in hopes of a better life, admission isn't free however, and thus doing odd jobs to pay it back. that's when our protagonist will attain true freedom in this place. something big of a crisis happens and our protagonist ends up to being the guy or gal who does the dirty work.
It's pretty linear with no player choice whatsoever.
Unreal Engine looks really beautiful, no need for cutscenes or cinematics.
What I though of this game.
It's a game where you walk.
Shoot enemies on the way.
Admire the scenery.
Walk again.
Contemplate on what's life is about.
Contemplate that the future might not be as bright as we could hope.
Contemplate on what's life is about while walking. I love the companion A.I. (top left of the screen).
More walking.
Getting tired of walking so you hire a taxi.
sometimes ride a train.
or just stare at this holograph of a woman dancing as you get tired of everything which mostly consist of walking.
When I rate things, I always use a three-point system.
1 for Bad
2 for Okay
3 for Great
I must point out that I have very low standards and is easily impressed.
so it's very hard for me to give a score of 1,
and very easy for me to give a score of 3.
The Ascent, 2021, 2/3. It's Okay.
Even if it's very beautiful that I can even call it a masterpiece, it can't compensate that it's a dull game.
THE PROS:
- Has Multiplayer. If you know you are going to suffer, might as well invite a friend.
- Graphics.
- The Scenes
- The Ambience
- The Atmosphere
- The Sounds
- The Music!
- The dialogues of the companion AI.
- Voiceovers.
- the small details, like when alien npc(s) talk by themselves, they talk in alien dialects, unless talking with directly (communication device?).
THE BAD:
- Everything else. Seriously.
- It's not fun.
THE NEUTRAL:
- I did not have lingering sentiments and was happy to have uninstalled it.
That's about it. I have nothing more to add.
December has been so far... Hectic.
Happy to help my cousin ascend to PC MASTER RACE THO. hahaha.
Cheers~