| BRIAN GAME of the week |
| The Ascent |
| DESCRIPTION |
| The Ascent is a solo and co-op Action-shooter RPG, set on Veles, a packed cyberpunk world. Welcome to The Ascent Group arcology, a corporate-run metropolis stretching high into the sky and filled with creatures from all over the galaxy. You play as a worker, enslaved by the company that owns you and everyone else in your district. One day, you are suddenly caught in a vortex of catastrophic events: The Ascent Group shuts down for unknown reasons and the survival of your district is threatened. You must take up arms and embark on a new mission to find out what started it all. You belong to the corporation. Can you survive without it? |
| PLATFORM |
| Xbox |
| DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER: |
| Developer: Neon Giant Publisher: Curve Digital |
| RELEASE DATE: |
| 2021-07-29 |
| VIDEO |
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKJOjyySidY |
| Me Playing – Do you think you could play the audio (at low volume) to the game when we play the video for the stream? It is muted enough that I think the podcast listeners would enjoy it as background music and may help set the mood. |
| AUDIO CLIPS |
| https://studiom80.com/brian/boopshow-297-theascent-part-1.mp3 |
| ^ Launch Trailer Audio |
| https://studiom80.com/brian/boopshow-297-theascent-part-2.mp3 |
| ^ Game Play Audio |
| HOW LONG TO BEAT |
| 12+ Hours |
| https://howlongtobeat.com |
| IS THERE ANY DEALS |
| $26.99 / Part of Xbox Game Pass |
| https://isthereanydeal.com/game/ascent/info/ |
| EXPERIENCE: |
| Started from the Deep Stink, now we’re here. In The Ascent you play as an indentured servant (an indent) for failing Ascent corporation in a cyberpunk world. You will be ascending your way up from the Deep Stink sewers to the high rise corporate offices by completing missions assigned to you by an alien named Poon. He ain’t sure what is going on at the top…but he is sure that we have tasks to complete and so we better stay the course. Those missions usually involve investigating or fetch/delivery quests that take you right into the middle of some twin stick action against hordes of cyberpunk enemies. Your reward? Loot and experience that you use to upgrade your weapons and gear…and since this is cyberpunk…some of that gear is augmentation! Wait..is this a Diablo-Like set in a cyberpunk world. You betcha, but the twin stick shooting means you do your slaying at range instead of melee and provides some cool variety in gameplay in the form of rolling, crouching and hiding behind cover which you can shoot over. |
| Boop’s Patented 10 Point Rating System |
| Art/Animation: In game art and animation is a wonder to behold. The lore stuff looks fantastic. Character chooser is ugly! |
| Music/Effects: Spot on. |
| V/O: Good stuff |
| World Building: The visual world buidling is on point. The story world building is just enough to keep you going. |
| Currency/Loot: Yeah…there is loot. |
| AI/NPCs: Pretty smart AI. The enemies really gave me trouble sometimes. |
| Controls: Love everything but the rolling into stuff. |
| Interface/HUD: Pretty good interface. |
| Replay/Endgame: I think I will play this beyond the 12+ hours…maybe even complete all the sidequests. |
| Pros – The layered visual complexity of this world is a sight to behold. – Shooting stuff feels good. – Tons of stuff to do and upgrades |
| Cons – I can hardly look at the player character. Why so ugly! – Rolling into things and coming to a full stuck is annoying. – Loot control? Where did my loot go? – Game Pass version has issues not seen in the Steam version |
| Score: |
| 8 Sidequests out of 10 Cyberpunk Hordes o Plenty |
| LINKS |
| https://www.neongiant.se/ |
| https://store.steampowered.com/search/?term=The Ascent |
| https://www.igdb.com/search?type=1&q=The Ascent |
| LEARN MORE |
| Tags: Diablo-Like, Cyberpunk, Level Up, Loot, Dual Stick Shooter, RPG, Action, Skill Upgrades |
| SCOTT GUESS MY GAME |
| HINT: |
| BRIAN GUESS MY GAME |
| https://brian.studiom80.com/boop297-thegamename.mp3 |
| hint: 2006 |
| Next Week (optional) |
| SCOTT: Banners of Ruin |
| BRIAN: Cris Tales |
