Was The Ascent a missed opportunity?

[Shinobido Heart]

This is something that has been bugging me for awhile, hopefully I'm able to convey what I'm trying to say.

So, when The Ascent released not too long ago, I recall a lot of people painting it as a diablo-like looter shooter.

Of course, this is going to grab the attention of many people and set expectations pretty high.

When I actually played it, it was nothing like that. What you got was a top down twin stick shooter set in a phenomenal looking cyberpunk world.

I was so impressed with the scenery that I was trying super hard to find more reasons to stay in it.

Unfortunately, I don't recall there being enough content to take in, or rather, the content didn't allow me to really sink my teeth in and appreciate the world the game takes place in if that makes sense.

While I consider it a good game, deep down I do wonder how things would have been if it really was a looter shooter.

What do you all think? Am I alone in this?

 

[Fiery Phoenix]

Keep in mind the game was made by like 10 people. It was the studio's first project. I think there's a lot of potential in the universe. The game was very successful on GamePass and I expect that will continue next month when it's out on PS.

 

[Shinobido Heart]

Keep in mind the game was made by like 10 people. It was the studio's first project. I think there's a lot of potential in the universe. The game was very successful on GamePass and I expect that will continue next month when it's out on PS.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, that's the crazy part, very impressive by a small studio like that.

Do we have specific sales numbers?

 

[John Rabbit]

It tried to straddle the line between a loot shooter and a richly detailed, narrative-driven game and came away being pretty lackluster at both for the effort. It also ran poorly even after several patches. I wish it had been better.

 

[Laserbeam]

I only played it recently since it hit the PS5, and from what I've played you might be on to something, however for me the issues are more geared toward the fact that it's hard to stay engaged in the game because of the constant bugs and glitches.

Me and a friend actually haven't touched it for over a week because at some point any time one of us tried to play together it just dropped us into a completely black world where we were not able to interact with anything. that and lots of sound glitches, falling though the world, etc.

The story and some other elements of it do feel a little on the flimsy side, but I look at it more as a triumph being made by such a small team and being as competent in other areas as it is. Like, I think it's tremendously satisfying to play. I just wish it had a tiny bit more polish because the foundation is wonderful.

I also kinda dislike the way co-op progression is handled, but I get it. Really, I think it skirts the "looter shooter" arena just enough to be engaging, but yeah, it's not really Diablo with guns. I personally was never expecting that, though.

 

[Sealord of Braavos]

I though it was a brilliant creation by such a small team. And yeah, the pretty exterior wrapping (oh so pretty) wasn't quite matched by the substance and depth of the game itself. Would love to see this team grow a bit, get an bigger budget and see what they can do.

I'd be extremely excited about their next project based on what I experienced with The Ascent. A dev team to watch for sure.

 

[Bufbaf]

I honestly wanted to love it when it came out, but somehow it didn't grab me at all. Made it to the first (?) city, was feeling quite overwhelmed with both gameplay and what to do and it somehow just immediately fizzled out.

I'm not even saying it's bad, because it surely isn't, I can't explain it myself really.

 

[Dirtyshubb]

I picked the game up when it released for PS5 and overall really enjoyed it and hope they make a sequel.

Graphically it's probably one of the best games I have ever seen. The detail and lighting is phenomenal and extremely impressive.

Gameplay wise it's mechanically great.

I also enjoyed the story, it didn't go into too much detail about the world but it did a great job of giving you enough details to pick up what the world is like. It's also a pretty unique look at the cyberpunk genre and I loved the whole corporation warfare mentality where they can take over facilities and contracts by force. Also the whole AI situation was handled really well in that it felt like a massive deal to have one and is something I haven't seen before.

The one negative I would say is that there is a lot of walking to and from areas. It's mitigated a little by using a taxi but you still have to go to the hub exits to get to other areas which slows things down quite a bit as you don't get dropped off near the exits.

Still a great game and I can't wait to see where they take it from here.

 

[Skeeter49]

I'm hyped for the game when it comes out on PS5, it's supposed to get new content that'll also come ot the Xbox version, right? Maybe that'll help with the lack of stuff to do issue, as long as it's meaningful content.

From what I've heard, the big issue was how it ran, and while not first party, I'm sure it had a lot of hype as one of the heavily pushed Xbox "exclusives", so people had higher expectations than what they normally would have for an indie game imo. Definitely missed opportunity, as it reminded me of the games Housemarque use to make before Returnal, but I think the foundation is there for them to make a much better sequel/ new game with similar ideas/ structure. I think most people were fine with the core gameplay, so as long as they fix the issues people had with Ascent, whatever they do next should be great.

 

[cowbanana]

I love The Ascent exactly because it is what it is. A fairly simple, fun twin stick shooter in an amazing environment - maxed out RT on PC is stunning looking. Thank the gods it's not a stale looter. It's also a perfect length at a little under 20 hours for my first playthrough, taking in the sights.

I hope for a sequel and I hope they don't bog it down with excessive padding and looting.

 

[hydruxo]

This game reminded me a lot of Ruiner in the sense that they're both visually stunning games but gameplay was sort of lacking. I actually think Ruiner was more enjoyable to play but The Ascent just felt like it tried to dip into numerous different genres without really excelling in any of them. Not a bad game by any means, but just sort of half baked in a lot of ways. I really liked the visuals though, for such a small team they are definitely very talented.

 

[Legacy]

I think it was an ok game, I enjoyed the combat. Could have been more but given the size of the studio, I think it was an achievement.

 

[Wesley]

I've not played Diablo so I don't really understand the comparison. Is this something they had claimed though? Playing it I felt like I knew what I was in for from their marketing.

Got to say I absolutely loved it. The environment, story, themes, characters, gameplay, everything. I was playing on Series X and never encountered any bugs fortunately. It's mind blowing it was made by such a small team.

 

[Hoggle]

Good timing. Digital Foundry just put up their breakdown of all versions.

 

[Shinobido Heart]

I've not played Diablo so I don't really understand the comparison. Is this something they had claimed though? Playing it I felt like I knew what I was in for from their marketing.

Got to say I absolutely loved it. The environment, story, themes, characters, gameplay, everything. I was playing on Series X and never encountered any bugs fortunately. It's mind blowing it was made by such a small team.

Click to shrink...

Hmm, good question, I don't think they ever mentioned that.

I think it was just fans saying it was a diablo-like looter shooter.

Good timing. Digital Foundry just put up their breakdown of all versions.

Click to shrink...

Ah, looks like the game hit PlayStation platforms.

 

[Rumenapp]

It's a small project made by a small number of people you have to remember that.

It's an incredible achievement for it's scale.

The Ascent Photography thread

Photo mode is now available on Xbox, share your screenshots from the amazing world of Velles Shots taken on Series X

www.resetera.com

 

[Stoney Mason]

The look of the world is amazing. I hope they take future games more in the direction of the shadow run rpg games rather than Diablo. That would be my suggestion.

 

[Ziyi]

The Ascent; gorgeous, good looking, beautiful....and did I mention gorgeous? With RT turned on, the lighting and shaders are some of the best in class I've seen. And this is coming from an individual who has played many, many, many gorgeous games with astonishing lighting in their time.

Aside from the looks, it was rather disappointing in terms of the loot aspect. Story included. Weapons were not very good and not very useful - balancing was a major issue. For most, I'd suspect they were using the minigun and nothing else simply because nothing else genuinely did a better job at slaying your opponents. So on that front, loot was pretty much not varied enough and not balanced enough.

They managed to squeeze in an item tier system (purple, yellow etc.) but it doesn't actually work if there isn't enough variety and volume in the weapons found in the game. Such a system only works when there are multiple variations of the same item with varying stats and perks. And there needs to be enough volume of differentiating weapons to justify such a system which isn't found in The Ascent unfortunately.

 

[Z-Brownie]

i don't think it was missed, played a lot when it launched and it was quite good.

 

[YozoraXV]

I finished it last week with my partner and the graphics are really impressive for an indie game.

But that's really all that was good, the story had way too many nonsense words it got to FF13 level silly. The gunplay was pretty fun and addictive which is why I stuck with it to the end, but the amount of bugs was crazy too. I nearly had to start from scratch due to an elevator no working. And the difficulty was all over the place sometimes its so piss easy then it got impossible then really easy again.

Consider a team of 10 made the game, it is very impressive hopefully they try again because it does has some potential.

 

[MadMike]

I can see how people might be disappointed if they expected something like Diablo. To be fair, I don't remember them ever describing it that way, but the gaming press certainly did. It's really more of a basic RPG that just happens to be isometric.

I loved it, though. They created an amazing world to learn about and explore. They packed so much detail into every inch of that map. I hope they do some kind of sequel where they can expand the scope a bit.

 

[Operations]

Loved every minute of it. Never saw it as a Diablo-esque looter, but more of a modern Contra. Had a blast playing it with a friend. The game is so pretty!

 

[Gunny T Highway]

For how big the dev team was I think they did an amazing job. Had a much better cyberpunk atmosphere than Cyberpunk 2077.

 

[Shinobido Heart]

It's a small project made by a small number of people you have to remember that.

It's an incredible achievement for it's scale.

The Ascent Photography thread

Photo mode is now available on Xbox, share your screenshots from the amazing world of Velles Shots taken on Series X

www.resetera.com

Click to shrink...

Indeed, rereading my OP, I sort of give an unreasonable impression. Let me see if I can edit it a bit.

But yes, I think they did an impressive job for a small team.

For how big the dev team was I think they did an amazing job. Had a much better cyberpunk atmosphere than Cyberpunk 2077.

Click to shrink...

I agree! They captured the look and feel very well!

 

[The Omega Man]

They couldn't do more, but I sure wanted to come back to the game after finishing it, sadly there is no reason whatsoever to do that anymore, no more loot, no online raids, nothing.
I don't blame them, it is what it is.

 

[Fadewise]

I don't understand your thesis. It's a beautiful game with fun gameplay. It was never sold a looter, people just assumed that because of the isometric perspective. "not a loot shooter" seems like an arbitrary criteria for a game being worth it.

 

[Shinobido Heart]

I don't understand your thesis. It's a beautiful game with fun gameplay. It was never sold a looter, people just assumed that because of the isometric perspective. "not a loot shooter" seems like an arbitrary criteria for a game being worth it.

Click to shrink...

I wrote this thread last night before bed, reading it again I wasn't too happy with how I worded things so I still have much to improve.

But you almost got it! As you said, people were calling it a diablo looter shooter which most likely raised the bar and expectations, when the game wasn't anything like that.

In the OP, I mentioned I was looking for reasons to stay longer in the game because I really liked the cyberpunk aesthetic they crafted, which lead me to wonder how the game would be if it really was a looter shooter.

For me personally, I wanted more RPG elements from it. I still enjoyed The Ascent for what it was, as people said it's an awesome feat by a small studio.

 

[Snefer]

Threads like this are fantastic <3 You always wish you could do more, but I am more than happy with how many people noticed the love we poured into the game :)

 

[Deleted member 6235]

Yeah, that's the crazy part, very impressive by a small studio like that.

Do we have specific sales numbers?

Click to shrink...

Don't think we have exact numbers, but it seems it was a big success (hopefully). It earned more than $5 million dollars in it's opening weekend, according to Curve Digital.

 

[Moebius]

The Ascent is a really fun game with friends. Unfortunately it is still very buggy. Even to this day, I get crashes on a high end pc when playing cross play with friends on xbox. It's insane to me that these crash bugs haven't be fixed yet after all this time. I hope if there is an Ascent 2, that they can figure out how to get rid of the crash bugs.

 

[supercommodore]

Aside from the achievement bugs I had a great time with it. Environments looked stunning in 4K.

Type of game a sequel or spiritual sequel could really build on. More loot, more locations etc.

 

[headspawn]

I thoroughly enjoyed the game, beat the hell out of and do plan on returning at some point; super excited to see what the studio does next tbh.

 

[Shinobido Heart]

Threads like this are fantastic <3 You always wish you could do more, but I am more than happy with how many people noticed the love we poured into the game :)

Click to shrink...

Heyo! Glad you liked the thread, you certainly have some fans here! :)

Don't think we have exact numbers, but it seems it was a big success (hopefully). It earned more than $5 million dollars in it's opening weekend, according to Curve Digital.

Click to shrink...

Oh wow, really? For their first game, that sounds good to me.

 

[Coolluck]

I'm grateful for a game that ends in the current environment of perpetually ongoing games.

 

[Jakartalado]

Threads like this are fantastic <3 You always wish you could do more, but I am more than happy with how many people noticed the love we poured into the game :)

Click to shrink...

You guys are crazy! I just bought the game and played the entire intro on the PS5.... Seriously... I wish I could do something like that with a few friends! You guys are very talented! Keep up the excellent work.

Excited about the future for the team =)

 

[Gitaroo]

The random difficulty spike at different locations breaks the game for me. Unless I missed something.

 

[Addleburg]

I bounced off due to preference. The world looked gorgeous, but I wanted a more straightforward twin-stick style shooter. None of the narrative I experienced before I bounced off was interesting to me in the slightest. I guess I just wanted less story and RPG elements out of the game, and more of an action-forward, linear adventure game.

 

[tarman76]

I remember someone modded a first person view into it and I thought, "thats the game I wanna play!"

 

[Kupo Kupopo]

I though it was a brilliant creation by such a small team. And yeah, the pretty exterior wrapping (oh so pretty) wasn't quite matched by the substance and depth of the game itself. Would love to see this team grow a bit, get an bigger budget and see what they can do.

I'd be extremely excited about their next project based on what I experienced with The Ascent. A dev team to watch for sure.

Click to shrink...

this. i booted it up, & it was gorgeous!... & then i began playing...

 

[New002]

Really cool and fun game that I put a good chunk of hours into via co-op, but unfortunately too many technical issues and hurdles had me eventually abandoning it. I never went back to the game so I'm not sure if the devs were ever able to address all the issues. That being said I'd love to see an Ascent 2 with all the technical issues ironed it.

 

[Mesoian]

It certainly didn't help that the game was extremely buggy when it first released. The shader caching causing hitching was a constant ordeal throughout the entire game.

 

[ClarkusDarkus]

Visual spectacle, Totally absorbing atmosphere and setting, I even understood the Japanese signs which made me feel even more immersed.

Bugs aside, Would definitely play dlc if it ever got it.

 

[sora87]

All i could think when playing it was "i want a shadowrun game that looks like this"

 

[CHC]

Honestly it fulfilled its goals pretty well actually. The game looked incredible and I found the combat super snappy and fun. I would have really liked to see more weapon and enemy variety though. And, paradoxically it could have used a bit more OR a bit less RPG elements and depth in the dialogue - the current balance was kind of neither here nor there. But overall I think the game was quite underrated. It wasn't super deep or complex but not everything has to be. Sometimes you just wanna blow things away in a hyper detailed and atmospheric cyberpunk hellhole.

 

[Bitterman]

Understatement of the century. Apart from the visuals, literally everything felt underwhelming and half-baked to me.

 

[Deleted member 8257]

The fact that you couldn't play with random players online was what stopped me. I can see it as a fun coop experience.

 

[Rumenapp]

Don't miss out on the photomode, game is crazy good looking!

 

[bonch00ski]

This is something that has been bugging me for awhile, hopefully I'm able to convey what I'm trying to say.

So, when The Ascent released not too long ago, I recall a lot of people painting it as a diablo-like looter shooter.

Of course, this is going to grab the attention of many people and set expectations pretty high.

When I actually played it, it was nothing like that. What you got was a top down twin stick shooter set in a phenomenal looking cyberpunk world.

I was so impressed with the scenery that I was trying super hard to find more reasons to stay in it.

Unfortunately, I don't recall there being enough content to take in, or rather, the content didn't allow me to really sink my teeth in and appreciate the world the game takes place in if that makes sense.

While I consider it a good game, deep down I do wonder how things would have been if it really was a looter shooter.

What do you all think? Am I alone in this?

Click to shrink...

I would have played it more than the few hours I did if it was more of a looter shooter.

 

[Fiery Phoenix]

Yeah, that's the crazy part, very impressive by a small studio like that.

Do we have specific sales numbers?

Click to shrink...

I don't believe they've published sales data but it was among the top titles on GamePass for a while.

I should mention though that when it first came out, it was practically a beta. I couldn't play for 10 minutes together without running into one bug or another. To their credit the devs have since ironed out most of the issues, and it's a lot more playable now.

 

[shadowman16]

Not having read about anything before hand, I took it as just being another twin stick shooter with your normal loot options (as many games have these days). Didnt really have any issues with that.
I didnt care for the dialogue (got bored of it quickly, started skipping through some of it) and ultimately my issue was that the game had some horrendous game ending bugs when I played it (weapons first stopped working, and then I got stuck in a void and couldnt get back into the game world. The game saved me into said void so quitting and restarting was futile.

Pity, as the game world looks gorgeous, really high quality.