The Ascent

Outstanding cyberpunk visuals and fun top-down shooting make The Ascent worth playing in single-player. But it could have been even better with less tedium, tighter pacing, and fewer...

There’s loads of potential in this setting for straight-up better stories to be told, and I think The Ascent itself is kept from greatness from a lot of jank, technical issues, and weird design decisions. All that said, I think once I get my hands on a Steam Deck, I’m absolutely going to treat that as an excuse to go back for more. Hopefully, by then, they’ll have a lot of the technical issues addressed.

The Ascent is an atmospheric power fantasy, a cinematic cyberpunk escape where you can disengage your brain and indulge in copious virtual violence. If you’re a Game Pass subscriber, it’s worth a try – at $25, it’s harder to recommend.

A twin-stick shooter that looks and feels great all the way through, but doesn't do enough new to keep your attention as you invest more time in its RPG systems and world.

Capturing the cyberpunk aesthetic perfectly, The Ascent is a fantastic example of twinstick shooters with a few tricks of its own. There are a few rough edges, especially with online multiplayer, but the RPG elements and gorgeous graphics and voice work...

The Ascent is about the seedy, low-level doings of the planet Veles, a sulfurous stack of towers, where tongues of fire lash the air and holographic advertisements ghost through the rain. And it isn't really about much else. Its skyline is happy to...

The Ascent’s satisfying gun-tastic action-RPG gameplay loop mixes with its beautiful cyberpunk aesthetic to create an overall enjoyable experience. Neither its story nor its characters are all that memorable, and its enemy encounters can stumble toward the end, but its gunplay and ultra-violence in a neon-soaked world combine to craft a co-op-friendly game you don’t see every day.

A lovingly crafted action RPG with challenging, satisfying gunfights and an extraordinary cyberpunk setting.