The Ascent - Everything you need to know

The Ascent - Everything you need to know

By  Guest - 29th Jun 2021

Here's the lowdown on Neon Giant's upcoming open-world cyberpunk title

The Ascent - Everything you need to know

Neon Giant - a new game studio founded by devs that worked on Far Cry 3, Gears of War, and the acclaimed reboots of Wolfenstein and DOOM - has combined the minds of its talented staff to come up with The Ascent, the studio's first and upcoming game.

It is said that Neon Giant prides itself on working with a small dedicated team to maximize creativity and efficiency, and we hope to see it come to fruition when this anticipated cyberpunk action RPG - set on the sleek yet corporatized planet of Veles - launches on July 29th, 2021 on Steam PC and Xbox Series S/X. Eager to find out more? Well, we've gathered information to give you an idea on everything you need to know so far.

Let's learn a bit about it, shall we?

Twin-stick, four-player, co-op action RPG

Supporting up to four players for both online and couch co-op play, The Ascent puts a wrinkle in the well-trod action RPG formula by making the affair a twin-stick shooter from an isometric perspective.

We’re not talking something as basic as Robotron 2084 or Smash TV here!

The Ascent gives you more nuance to how you can attack whether it’s at enemies far away or from the safety of cover. Although twin-stick gameplay can take a bit getting used to, once you get the hang of it you’ll appreciate its flexibility.

Customize your cyberpunk

Customize your cyberpunk

A big appeal of The Ascent’s cyberpunk milieu is the ability to customize your character with augmentations as well as the traditional progression through new weapons, armor, and skill points.

In a fun curveball, weapons don’t have traditional ammo but instead use different cooldown periods. A rocket launcher will fire slower than a submachine gun. Combat in the game is said to be pretty intense, so choose your arsenal and loadout wisely!

Open-world questing

Open-world questing

While there is an overarching story in the neon drenched world of The Ascent, players can explore the world at their leisure to pick up side quests, grind for cold hard cash, and search for hidden goodies.

Part of what should make The Ascent so interesting is the grey morality of the characters. This is a cyberpunk setting after all, and everyone has their own agenda. Which side quests will you choose and which will you ignore?

Hacking for fun and profit!

Hacking for fun and profit!

In a world run by corporations, you just knew hacking had to be involved!

In The Ascent, characters can hack both enemies and environments. Although making bad guys shoot each other and scamming free treasure can be fun, it’s the cyberdeck that makes hacking unique here.

In a recent WCCF Tech interview with Neon Giant’s Director Arcade Berg, he stated that hacking is “driven by the cyberdeck that you carry. You might come to a door or a chest that you can't open because the security on that door or chest is too high. Then you need to find more cyberdeck upgrades to give your cyberdeck that ability.”

Such a large focus on hacking should make the cyberdeck an important component to upgrade indeed!

Pre-order The Ascent now!

Pre-order The Ascent now!

You can pre-order The Ascent right here at Fanatical at rather a nice discount. This is looking to be quite the spiffy title, so jump on it!

Article by Mat Bradley-Tschirgi



Share this post

X

You may like