When this game was introduced and the first images were released, it immediately wowed gamers with its world, its aesthetics, and its playability, which I believe are the strongest points of the Neon Giant title. As time went by, I was generating a certain illusion to know more about this creation, that I have had the opportunity to play and that I must say that I loved it, despite all its defects that of course it has. This and much more, I bring you in this analysis of The Ascent on Xbox Series X.
A dystopian, chaotic, futuristic cyberpunk-style world, surrounded by gangsters and dark characters brings us The Ascent, a title that shines on its own, where we will have to create our character to discover the places and secrets that this universe hides. With its touches of role-playing and frantic action, we will have to face all kinds of enemies throughout history, who on more than one occasion will give us a headache.
New update for The Ascent adds difficulty options on Xbox
The darkness of Veles
The story of The Ascent takes place in the city of Veles, a population unleashed by chaos, where we play a mercenary, who must perform jobs for different characters and thus earn a living, like everyone else in the city. As we progress through the story, our character will discover the darkest secrets that the city hides, in an odyssey to find out what is really happening.
As for the story itself, I must say that at the beginning it is somewhat slow and passive, without any emotion or purpose beyond what is posed to us. As we move forward and we have already put a couple of hours into it, it is forming interesting, with secrets and details that we will have to discover to know what happens with the events.
While it is not the most surprising and captivating story in the world, it serves as a guide, incentive and attraction for everything we have to do within the title, which is quite a bit. It is a story that is told in a fairly linear way, without twists or surprises in the script, which is its great flaw, especially because of the spectacular world that is presented to us, which cried out for a deeper story. However, it is clear that this is not the strong point of The Ascent, on the contrary, its peculiarity lies in the frenzy of combat.
Frenetism and strategy at every step
As for the gameplay, I must say that it is the best that the game has together with its technical section, which stands out at each point and by itself. However, they are also the sections that have the biggest bugs, especially the gameplay, which sometimes make it a nuisance.
First of all, I must highlight and praise the combat system, which It invites us to want to be fighting all the time, even more than following our own story. It has a level of depth and strategy of the greatest, where we will not only have to shoot any enemy that we see, but also and especially with the bosses, we must be very strategic, think well where to aim, balance and improve our skills and weapons, to empower them with certain enemies. In addition, we will have to make use of skills such as dodging and hiding, which are extremely important to advance and fight in combat against the strongest enemies.
An excellent success and approach in this sense, which presents us with several challenges throughout the game, whose bosses will make us repeat the fights on more than one occasion.
Another element that is very important is the RPG progression system that The Ascent has, adding a rich and attractive depth, since there are many edges that we must consider. We will have to our credit, certain skills that we must improve with points that we earn for each level we go up. These are of vital importance, since They give us more evasion power, more vitality, more aim, etc.. Throughout history, they become extremely important, since it will depend on this if it is fast or not to beat a boss or enemy.
On the other hand, we have the section on weapons and armor, which we must also improve to gain more statistics. Weapons throughout history and the world, we will be able to improve them with different NPCs that we find, thus we will gain more specific statistics that we want to attribute. Likewise, we will have the option of finding more powerful weapons in chests distributed throughout the world, which we can use, improve or sell to earn more credits and buy new items.
Something similar happens with the prostheses of our body, which we must improve or change according to the additional attributes that they give us for battles, something very strategic.
Regarding the missions, I must say that they become repetitive and some even boring. There is no major innovation in terms of their realization and implementation, on the contrary, they lack surprise and depth. They are always in plan to get a certain item, kill a certain character, go to a certain place, etc.
Some secondary schools are quite interesting and entertaining, they also help us to get equipment and thus face the story missions in a better way, however, they also lack the surprise factor.
Another negative point that certain missions have are the tremendous bugs they have. It happened to me on more than one occasion, that when killing a final boss, costing me work and effort, He did not recognize the mission as “completed”, having to start all over again. Quite frustrating for a game that, in itself, certain enemies require high skill. I hope these deficiencies will improve in a future patch.
A bright and living world
Regarding the technical section, I must say that The Ascent is near perfect. It is an engaging world, beautiful, deep, and well constructed in such detail that even the names on the billboards are well defined, a remarkable and excellent job by Neon Giant in this area.
First of all, the title runs at a stable, exquisite and enjoyable 4K 60 fps, which causes us a real delight to play the combats in this way. The sets are excellently well constructed, with a remarkable level of detail that makes you want to explore it all. The buildings, the corners, the pharmacies, the shops, the nightclubs, everything is so well detailed and illuminated that it becomes a fully immersive universe. In addition, there are a large number of NPCs roaming the different areas and sectors of the city, which makes it a world that is one hundred percent alive.
There are small graphic bugs in some areas of the game, but these do not detract from the experience in any way, on the contrary, they are very imperceptible unlike mission bugs.
The art and aesthetics of the game are delicately well cared for, to such an extent that the lighting of the buildings, billboards, public lighting poles, everything is so detailed with effects of flashes when passing the camera, that it seems above all a science fiction film. Once again, I must applaud the developers, as this job is not easy at all.
As for the sound path, although it stands out a little less than the visual one, it still takes my admiration. The music throughout the story is quite incidental and subdued, letting sounds like gunshots and footsteps reign supreme. However, when we get to a part of action, confrontations, combats or final bosses, the music becomes the protagonist, with a loaded mix of Futuristic synthesized rock that accompanies the frenetic action that we are unfolding very well.
The Ascent Analysis – Conclusions
Without a doubt, Neon Giant has done an excellent job with The Ascent, a title that just playing the first hours, I was immediately captivated by the visuals and its frenzy at the time of combat. It is a game that, despite having its negative points, the total experience that you take with your adventure makes you forget those defects and you have a great time. It is a work to admire, especially to take it into account and as an example for large developers, who with larger budgets make very low-quality games.
The Ascent becomes an Xbox essential, a title which you must play yes or yes on your console, recommended one hundred percent and eager for new content to arrive in the future. By being included in Xbox Game Pass, you get the visibility and importance you need and deserve.
