The Ascent Review (PS5)

The Ascent was at some point one of the “poster boy” game for the Xbox Game Pass collection of timed exclusive titles, and one of the most pleasant surprises of last year. Now the cyberpunk action RPG managed to make its way on the PlayStation consoles, promising the same journey of redemption: from the bowels of a dystopic megapolis shooting your way through the corporate ladder in order to secure your freedom.

The cyberpunk universe was the tagline of many games in the recent past, following the hype train created by Cyberpunk 2077. The Ascent is part of the same trend, but it feels much closer to the source material than the game developed by CDPR. It has a much more pronounced “from rags to riches” atmosphere, it is darker, filthier and much rawer. It is an action RPG with a minimalist story, that serves more of an excuse to bust open the heads of the punks and aliens you will encounter.

And this is one of the major differentiators of The Ascent: it takes place on a huge alien world. You will explore a big city with streets overflowing with crowds of strange creatures, robots doing their menial duties, huge luminous billboards and holograms. After you manage to escape the tunnels section that serves as the game’s tutorial, you will be assaulted by a visual and acoustic style that screams cyberpunk. It is a pleasantly overwhelming atmosphere that offers a complete immersion and sets the perfect mood for what is about to come.

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Before you are allowed to set foot on Veles though you will have to go through a basic character creator that allows you to customize a handful of basic traits for the hero that you will control. No matter if you go with male or female, green mohawk or purple mullet, you cannot choose a class or a background. You will start as the property of one of the largest corporations that control the game world. After completing a basic maintenance run in the grittiest bowels of the megapolis, you will emerge back in the civilization to be hit by the news that the corporation went bankrupt.

The chaos that rapidly unfold represents the perfect opportunity for rival corporations to show up and take the reins. At the same time, it is the best moment for individuals with initiative to increase their influence and the size of their bank account. You are not this kind of individual, your boss is. An utter sleazeball, he will continue to send you on errands to do his dirty jobs. You are constantly on the wrong end of the stick until mid-game when a change in management promises to change your destiny for the better.

Even after the easily foreseeable plot twist the gameplay will remain the same: equipped with 2 fire weapons and a utility tool you will have to maw through all the opposition you encounter. You will also have the ability to hack terminals, ATMs and vending machines, but this is more a side activity that adds minimal extra flavor for the gameplay. Be upgrading your cyberdeck you will be able to hack more advanced systems that will also result in some backtracking with the promise of finding valuable loot.

By adding two active abilities and some passive bonuses to the mix we get a gameplay that is quite enjoyable for the first couple of hours. The biggest problem is that this formula becomes stale quite quickly. As said the story is predictable, the action in mainly the same and the RPG components do not really shine as bright as one would have hopped. As such going through the first few hours you have already seen everything that is in store for you. On top of that there are numerous bugs and concept issues that take away from the whole experience.

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For example, from the start of the game you will be able to take on side quests that you will be able to do only later on. If you follow them from the moment, you get them you will encounter enemies that will put your out of your misery one shot. Another annoying aspect is that the equipment feels more of a fashion statement, without a clear effect on your abilities. There are plenty of stats to compare, but the real effect of the armor pieces is not as evident as usually is in RPGs.

Actually, the game suffers of an identity crisis: both as RPG and as twin stick shooter, it is found lacking. Another good example for this issue is the cover system and the dual shooting modes, from the hip or aiming high, that in theory should add tactical depth. In fact, they are quite superfluous since the AI is quite limited and you are better off just shooting at everything that moves.

Unless you cheese around your opponents too much action that will result in them forgetting that they were in the middle of a fire fight. As such they will turn on their heels and run back to their initial position. Worse is that while they run away from you, you can barely damage them, although you are emptying full clips in their backs.      

As already stated, the visual and audio style complement perfectly the atmosphere, and the graphics are pretty good, with sharp textures, plenty of details and a very good lighting system. Unfortunately, the aforementioned bugs affect the framerate on numerous occasions.

The issues continue also with the game crashing while loading or the fast travel system going on a strike from the sudden. But the part most affected seems to be the multiplayer. The Ascent has an online multiplayer system, lacking a lobby or matchmaking. Your only chance is to play with people from your friend list who also own the game. The local co-op did not fare any better, being unplayable due to the constant crashes.

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The Good

The Bad

Conclusion