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[IGN] Series X's "The Ascent" Looks Like Diablo Meets Judge Dredd - IGN First

IGN First - added 5 minute gameplay footage




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The quick pitch for it is essentially “twin-stick Diablo meets Judge Dredd,” and the hour-long live demo I saw earlier this month made me more than excited to dive headfirst into its dark but impressively detailed world.

While the gameplay we’ve shown so far as part of this month’s IGN First looks cool enough, there’s a lot to The Ascent’s combat that I missed.....most notably, while it may look like a regular twin-stick shooter on the surface, you can actually choose to fire high or low with your primary weapon.

That might let you shoot over a crowd of weaker enemies to hit one farther away, or duck down behind cover and shoot over it from relative safety.

A sense of height isn’t limited to combat either, as the story takes place in what’s called an arcology – a towering building built by a megacorportation called The Ascent Group that has grown into a self-sustaining megacity. There are layers and layers of environments to rise and fight your way through here

While I still have some reservations about how much these areas might begin to blend together over time, their sense of depth is seriously impressive. Despite being trapped in a single (albeit very large) building, The Ascent’s levels only come off as compact or claustrophobic when they actually want to.

The graphical fidelity here is higher than you might expect from an ARPG, with sparks and smoke in particular looking fairly stunning. Rooms will subtly fill up with smoke as you fire guns and cause mayhem, and a notable highlight of the demo was one room that started fairly clear, but quickly filled with so much smoke that the light rays streaming through an opening started to become visible.

None of The Ascent’s level layouts are randomly generated either, only the enemy placements within them to keep fights unpredictable. This arcology is a large, handcrafted space that I’m told has essentially no load screens.



This was one of the highlights of the XsX stream a couple weeks back. Looks pretty fun to me
 
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Tomeru

Member
As an pc xbox pass owner I'm loving the steady stream of interesting high quality exclusives. Much better than the usual playstation scripted garbage.

What are you talking about?

OT:
This looks nice, but I dont see any meat in there. Its hard enough to make a compelling diabloesque game, and this one doesnt inspire depth so far.

Could be fun to co-op some I guess, but I wouldn't call this game a highlight under any circumstances.

🤷‍♂️
 
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BRZBlue

Member
What are you talking about?
They are just expressing their love of the new Microsoft X Box Series X gaming entertainment system, the most powerful gaming console ever created. And featuring games from unparalleled franchises such as but not limited to Halo, Forza, and Gears of War.

No other console provides such great gaming experiences as the Microsoft X Box Series X, available soon!

:messenger_winking_tongue:
 
S

Steve.1981

Unconfirmed Member
Yeah this game looks cool. It was something that I knew nothing about it, but now I'm keeping an eye out for it's release. Same with Bright Memory Infinite & The Medium.

Also, it's really cool that you simply can't escape console war bullshit these days. Keep up the good work fanboys :messenger_ok:
 

Gavon West

Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads

lachesis

Member
Must be Samsung? LOL...
Some weird shit Korean all over the place that's pretty laughable - but atmosphere looks pretty good.
 

Belmonte

Member
The graphics are already very good, but weighting the fact tha it uses isometric view, which demands a lot less graphic fidelity since the camera have some distance from the character, it is pretty damn impressive.

Art is very high quality, specialy the vehicles and mechs. Almost makes me wish they did a shoot 'em up.

Another thing which I liked seeing is the way positioning and tactics seems kind of important. I like loot based games but I wish the action per se, instead of the loot, had more impact in the gameplay. It doesn't need to be Nioh, but a little bit more of brawler/shooter mechanics would be great.

TLDR: Seems great! Hype increased.
 

ZywyPL

Banned
I need this game NOW!!! Man, this is something I always wanted but on one delivered, day 1 for me easily.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
They are just expressing their love of the new Microsoft X Box Series X gaming entertainment system, the most powerful gaming console ever created. And featuring games from unparalleled franchises such as but not limited to Halo, Forza, and Gears of War.

No other console provides such great gaming experiences as the Microsoft X Box Series X, available soon!

:messenger_winking_tongue:
Well said!
 
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