The Ascent

The Ascent stands out by making a twin-stick shooter feel like a crowded cyberpunk city rather than a simple arena run. By our assessment, it does best when its isometric gunfights, neon streets, and loot-driven character builds are all pushing the same way, because the action has a strong sense of place and a steady rhythm of cover, bursts, and upgrades. The downside is that the game can lean on repetition, and the level of polish in the combat and quest flow is not always equal to the ambition of the setting. In play it is the kind of game that looks busy from above but asks for fairly direct shooting and constant gear tuning underneath. Compared with tighter action RPGs, it relies more on atmosphere and spectacle than on mechanical depth, so the ceiling is lower once the world’s novelty wears off. The Ascent is best when the city itself is the main attraction.