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The Ascent: Brand New Gameplay for this Sci-Fi ARPG

Vasto

Member
The Ascent is a solo and co-op action RPG set in a cyberpunk world. The mega corporation that owns you and everyone, The Ascent Group, has just collapsed. Can you survive without it?

Launching on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles, and PC July 29 2021.









 
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Got two buddies ready to play with, looking forward to it. Checked out a few minutes of OP footage but I'm going dark on it until I play.
 
Got two buddies ready to play with, looking forward to it. Checked out a few minutes of OP footage but I'm going dark on it until I play.
Same here got my friends waiting with me, launch day were all off and diving in hard. I didn't realize the game had those areas where you walk around dealing with NPC's, taking quests, and making decisions..I just thought it was a dungeon shooter type.
I'm really excited for this one
 
Same here got my friends waiting with me, launch day were all off and diving in hard. I didn't realize the game had those areas where you walk around dealing with NPC's, taking quests, and making decisions..I just thought it was a dungeon shooter type.
I'm really excited for this one

That was exactly my reaction too, had no clue about the lite RPG stuff. Very welcomed and a little Diablo-esque I suppose. It really helps bring the explore/world to life I think.
 

CrustyBritches

Gold Member
This game got Raytracing?
Yep. RT+DLSS:messenger_smiling_hearts:


I haven't looked at the console game listing, but GP PC shows 'Ray tracing' under capabilities. Will have to research more concerning Series S|X. *edit* Looks like Series X is confirmed for Ray tracing...
In addition to benefiting from the power and performance of Xbox Series X for quicker load times etc. what Xbox Series X features were you most excited to explore leveraging in the development of The Ascent?

It’s still early days for us with the hardware and we’re experimenting weekly trying to figure out what we can and cannot do. It’s like a new big box of toys and we want to try and play with all of them before saying which one is the favorite. But we’re of course very optimistic about ray tracing and being able to push the envelope even further! It really adds that extra oomph to the world and everything in it. And our cyberpunky sci-fi world is an excellent use case for it as well with all our lights and reflective surfaces. In addition, it feels good to be able to offer crossplay and Smart Delivery to give everyone a richer experience and making sure every version is the right version.
 
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I hope it has good world building and lore for me to wade through.

It does seem to have hub areas and cities. So hoping they are well done.
 
I still think this looks too good to be true in the sense that either it will lack a lot of things or will be incredibly short. The quality we've seen is pretty nice, maybe too nice for such a small indie team. I'd say keep your expectations in check and stop preordering ffs.
 
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reksveks

Member
I still think this looks too good to be true in the sense that either it will lack a lot of things or will be incredibly short. The quality we've seen is pretty nice, maybe too nice for such a small indie team. I'd say keep your expectations in check and stop preordering ffs.
It's the benefit of gamepass though, you can try the game out. If it's good, you can buy it.
 
This game looks freaking awesome. I like how fast paced it is, while the story reminds me of old school syndicate. Also reminds me how EA killed their own Cyberpunk style franchise by turning it into a brainless FPS.
 

GymWolf

Member
Yep. RT+DLSS:messenger_smiling_hearts:


I haven't looked at the console game listing, but GP PC shows 'Ray tracing' under capabilities. Will have to research more concerning Series S|X. *edit* Looks like Series X is confirmed for Ray tracing...

Does it use dlss?!

Also do we know how long the game is supposed to be?!
 

CrustyBritches

Gold Member
I still think this looks too good to be true in the sense that either it will lack a lot of things or will be incredibly short. The quality we've seen is pretty nice, maybe too nice for such a small indie team. I'd say keep your expectations in check and stop preordering ffs.
With Game Pass you don't have to keep excitement in check, or worry about pre-ordering. I did some research about game length and it came up with a wccftech Q&A with the dev...
Fair enough! How long do you expect The Ascent to last on average? Is there a lot of side content?

Arcade:
It depends a lot on your play-style and how much of the world you want to immerse yourself in. From what we’ve seen, playing through the Main Missions will land you somewhere around 15-20h. On top of that you have many more Side Missions, treasures to find and a myriad of Codex entries to unlock and read about the world and what’s in it.
Even 15hrs is a nice chunk of playtime. I'll probably hit 20hrs+ if the gameplay clicks. I love the environments and effects.
 
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With Game Pass you don't have to keep excitement in check, or worry about pre-ordering. I did some research about game length and it came up with a wccftech Q&A with the dev...

Even 15hrs is a nice chunk of playtime. I'll probably hit 20hrs+ if the gameplay clicks. I love the environments and effects.

I forgot about gamepass. Dev hour estimates are usually longer than average but we'll see.
 
Yeah got this locked and loaded, just so many games I'm looking forward to coming to Gamepass over the next 5 months. It's been a bit of a wait but Xbox have finally got their shit together. Flightsim and this, Psychonauts 2 and 12 minutes next month and that's just what I'm concentrating on.
 

Schmick

Member
Damn this looks good. This is perhaps the first game I wished I had a RTX card. I hope my 1070 can handle it.
 

reksveks

Member
How come? Could you offer a bit more info? Is there a deal in place? Is it Xbox console exclusive? Do the devs not like PlayStation? Did one of them get root kitted by Sony Music? Did they break their Walkman when they were little? Your reply is ... vague.
It's definitely a timed exclusives but no one knows how long or whether Microsoft have got complete exclusivity. If you are willing to wait at least 6 months, you might able to get on ps5/ps4.

There might be some insight out of the Epic vs Apple documents.
 

Bartski

Gold Member
How come? Could you offer a bit more info? Is there a deal in place? Is it Xbox console exclusive? Do the devs not like PlayStation? Did one of them get root kitted by Sony Music? Did they break their Walkman when they were little? Your reply is ... vague.
It's a game pass release Xbox console exclusive promoted heavily by MS, the usual stuff with money behind it. True, that doesn't mean it will stay that way forever
 

Fredrik

Member
It's a game pass release Xbox console exclusive promoted heavily by MS, the usual stuff with money behind it. True, that doesn't mean it will stay that way forever
I think it’s timed exclusive, assumably 1 year. MS don’t count it as one of their 6 games in 6 months so that should be a good giveaway that it’s not a full exclusive.
 

Barlow

Member
This looks rather good. No word on a PS5 version?
I guess it's 6-12 months xbox timed exclusive.

I think it’s timed exclusive, assumably 1 year. MS don’t count it as one of their 6 games in 6 months so that should be a good giveaway that it’s not a full exclusive.
It was and is announced as "Console Launch Exclusive" aka timed-exclusive, we just don't know how long.
 
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I think it has potential but obviously with this type of game it's very much about how it plays.
Yeah, there's no mention of it not coming to other platforms on either the Microsoft or Curve Digital websites so it may well just be another one of those six or three month game pass things.
The game pass thing is what makes me slightly nervous about how well it will play simply becauset they've gone for the lower but safer returns of a game pass deal rather than believing that it will review well enough to make more money via sales. We'll see though.
 
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