The Ascent Reviews
Despite difficulty spikes and a few odd design choices, The Ascent is an enjoyable, and gorgeous, sci-fi blaster.
The Ascent delivers on every promise. The combat is fast-paced, challenging, and explosive. The environment is gorgeous, gritty, and dark. Everything about the cyberpunk theme screams out for attention. If you're a fan of twin-stick style shooters and the thematics of the cyberpunk universe, The Ascent offers an exciting and rewarding adventure that is worth every second.
The Ascent strikes the right cyberpunk and action-shooter chords to make a strong impression as Neon Giant's debut title.
The Ascent is a bloody good time that combines addictive twin-stick shooting, a spectacular cyberpunk world, and a rocking synth soundtrack that elevates every moment to the next level. I never wanted to put the game down, despite some shortcomings.
Diablo meets Cyberpunk 2077 on the set of Ridley Scott's cinematic masterpiece in this action-packed RPG gem
The Ascent is a true homage to the classic top-down shooter genre that adds some modern features without disrespecting its main inspirations.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The Ascent is a fast-paced twin-stick shooter immersed in an impeccably designed cyberpunk world, yet its plot fails to fully take advantage of this wonderful setting. Luckily, the shooting mechanics are quite satisfying, while the many different character customization options guarantee a fair range of approaches to the shootouts. There are also a bunch of technical issues that can be easily circumvented, but are still annoying.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The Ascent is a tough game to recommend for solo players in its current state. Its buggy, tedious at its best and utterly frustrating at its worst. While I’m sure playing with friends will resolve some of my chief complaints, more fundamental issues like a rather boring overworld can’t be fixed with a few laughs with friends.
Whether you will explore it alone or with friends, Veles is incredibly immersive. The Ascent is an incredible audiovisual achievement that is not without issues, but they are not as big as to be unforgivable.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
The Ascent’s ambition is often the most surprising thing about it. I went in expecting a decent, simple cyberpunk top-down shooter. Instead, I got a compelling action game that feels great to play, and an introduction into a world I can’t wait to see expanded in future sequels. The Ascent is the type of indie superstar game you bring up to prove how much can be accomplished by a small team today.
The Ascent picks up the glove to become the "Diablo with guns" and the result is a game with astonishing action and a superb design.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
A grim, dystopian future shock, The Ascent is an action-packed ARPG brimming with guns and ultra-violence. It's enormous fun, especially in co-op, but bothersome bugs and repetitive quests unfortunately put a dampener on things.
A deeply disappointing co-op shooter that squanders its excellent graphics on a bland and repetitive attempt to make a sci-fi Diablo.
Story isn't its strong suit, but the rest of The Ascent delivers a wonderfully realized cyberpunk world mixed with satisfying twin-stick gunplay to create an enjoyable action-RPG.
The Ascent is an ambitious work, which fascinates with incredible atmospheres and visually breathtaking scenery. Unfortunately, the exceptional production effort made on the sets and modeling of the game world does not hide some problems related to the balance of the gameplay and the quality of the script.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The Ascent is for the most part a polished experience that's tons of fun to play and behold. The narrative will carry you along to many interesting places with different baddies to fry, though a few encounters feature enemies that are pure bullet sponges. You will need to pick the right equipment and keep up with leveling, but these issues can be overcome. Hardware requirements shouldn't hold you back too much, and glitches are few and far between. The overall quality makes this one a must play for cyberpunk and isometric shooter fans.
Setting aside it coming from such a small team, I think The Ascent is miraculous in a couple of ways. First, the detailed world-building, environmental storytelling, and atmosphere are maybe the best expression of the cyberpunk aesthetic I’ve ever seen in a game. Second, the developers have seemingly cataloged every annoying mechanic in RPGs and action games — from death to rapid travel to inventory management — and found a way to make them less onerous or disappear altogether. The Ascent is not an easy game, either mechanically or thematically, but it is completely engaging if for no other reason than to see into a very convincingly realized future.
The Ascent combines excellent worldbuilding, satisfying role playing, exciting combat, and stellar visuals to deliver an astounding action RPG.
The Ascent is a love letter to dark, gritty sci-fi that feels like a marriage between Dredd and Syndicate. Dripping with atmosphere and Sweet Justice’s Carptenter-esque score, all backed by intense tactical shootouts and next gen visuals. The Ascent is easily one of this years best games.