Even walking the streets I’d be accosted by gangs of thugs trying to warn me off their territory. Each time you engage in a gunfight, you’ll inevitably take on far more enemies than you’d expected. It’s the combat in The Ascent that really stands out. When you’re busy just exploring the world, you’re left with these chill synth tracks that perfectly transition into that harder-hitting bassy beats when the bullets begin to fly. All your weapons can be upgraded if you have the right components, and once you’ve upgraded a specific weapon, all variants of that weapon you then pick up or purchase will remain at that upgraded level.ĭeveloper Neon Giant has really leaned into its cyberpunk setting here, from the aesthetics of the world, right through to the thumping cyberpunk techno that ups the ante while you’re firing off round at thugs and alien enemies, delivering hammer blows with your fist augmentation (read: special ability).
#THE ASCENT LOST AND FOUND UPGRADE#
Others upgrade your weaponry with crafting components scattered throughout the world with their tell-tale glows. Littered throughout the world are NPCs looking for a blood-soaked helping hand, or vendors selling new Cyberware, augments, weapons and armor.
It really took my breath away the first time I entered Cluster 13, my character’s home area of sorts. It’s easy to just get lost, roaming the streets to find chests with upgrade materials or new weapons hidden in dark corners, or just doing a spot of shopping to upgrade your wares.
#THE ASCENT LOST AND FOUND FULL#
Streets are crammed full of civilians both alien and human, offering you words of advice on ‘the orange stuff’ that makes you see a lifetime in a heartbeat, or casually asking if you have anything to sell or want to buy as you pass markets. Veles is a massive, sprawling city of buildings stacked on top of one another, an overdose of neon lights, chrome and winding pathways. The good news is that The Ascent’s world is, initially, fascinating to simply exist in. Some characters spoke with believable emotion and plight, while others sounded over-the-top or just straight-up out of place. The voice acting here feels a little all over the place, too. The mystery surrounding The Ascent group’s sudden collapse does keep you on tenterhooks right until the end, but the general busywork you’re doing for 圜orp initially is largely forgettable. Some of this you can quiz characters on in conversations when first accepting a quest, but this isn’t always an option. But The Ascent buries a lot of its interesting information between abbreviations and technical jargon that went straight over my head. It’s an interesting take on the cyberpunk genre, with the societal ‘layers’ of Veles feeling not too dissimilar from the Snowpiercer train’s hierarchical carriages. This often involves a bit of hacking, traversing the world, killing a bunch of incoming rival grab team members, and then reporting back to your superiors. These teams are tasked with acquiring the assets of recently shut down corporations before another corporation’s grab team manages to acquire them. With your (and many others’) life on the line, you embark on a new mission to find out what caused this sudden downfall.įrom there your story evolves, you’re eventually recruited into 圜orp’s Corporate Grab Team (CGT). Corporations battle it out for control of technological assets across Veles, and it just so happens ‘The Ascent Group’ has recently shutdown for unknown reasons, putting the survival of your district at risk. The more affluent and ‘free’ people live at the top, and both your affluency and social standing are lower the further down you are. Essentially a slave to a corporation with little to no rights, you live your life down on the lower levels of this towering, layered world. Taking place in the cyberpunk world of Veles, you’re an ‘indentured’ citizen. As such, the opinions and criticisms shared in this review are largely based on my time exploring Veles solo. The game does allow for co-op multiplayer both with friends and strangers online, but due to low player numbers during the review period, playing online multiplayer proved to be incredibly difficult. I’ll note now that, for the vast majority of my time with The Ascent, I played in single-player. Seven months later and the dust has settled, and now it’s the turn of Neon Giant’s The Ascent to try its hand at satiating our cyberpunk cravings. Performance problems aside, it somewhat delivered on this vision, but it still left many with a bitter taste in their mouths. CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 promised us a futuristic, cyberpunk universe, teeming with things to see and do. December 2020 brought with it one of the biggest disappointments in recent video game history.
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