The Ascent

I like the games cyberpunk vibe, music, and co-op features. The abilities are really fun, and theres lots of weapons to collect. I've been told that the game is very good solo as well, but I was really sold on playing a co-op game with my friends.

However, the co-op in this game breaks often. When one person crashes you have to restart the game. Desyncs happened every single time we played the game together. When you pick up items and health, they will appear on your co-op partners screens but will be uninteractable. Ucreds can even be accidentally duplicated. Quest trackers desync. Sometimes things will do friendly fire damage/knockback, and sometimes they won't. Sometimes the game's wonkiness will prevent scripted events from happening, preventing you from progressing until you restart and hope it doesnt happen again.. because it might!

I play a lot of janky games and if the charm is there I will continue playing happily, but the charm I got from being in a cyberpunk world wears itself thing when combined with jank of THIS magnitude, tedious farming for weapon upgrade points, and honestly some very cringy 'edgy' dialogue. I was just playing it to finish it towards the end, and groaned during the post credits scene and uninstalling gave me relief. There are better co-op games for your money imo, but if you can deal with the jank and you think stuff like deadpool is peak comedy, you might like this game.

absolutely beautiful game. The setting is really amazing and I would highly recommend it if you are using a controller but I found it nearly impossible to play with mouse and keyboard. I just can't move diagonally using WASD and shoot with the mouse at guys coming from all sides all at the same time.

The concept is fun, the idea is great, but it's glitchy as hell and the camerawork is awful. If you have friends to play with it's worth it but I wouldnt waste your money.

Just as the weapons and abilities began to get interesting the game ends.

Very repetitive and limited gameplay.

Seems like they spent the budget on graphics.

OK....This one I was not ready for.
This game slapped me harder then Charlie Murphy. First off,Just the ''Cyberpunk twin stick shooter'' as a game! I'M IN!
Graphics are AMAZING. I cant get over how locked in I was while playing. The Ascent hit a craving that a In-and-out double double never could.
You are running around. Blowing people up. Blood,Guts and more are all over the ground. Meanwhile the MUSIC is locking you in. I mean this is hands down the best video game music to date.
The only thing this game is missing is more Content\DLC....Thats it.
I just cant recommend this game enough to new players.

It's hard if you play on hard. Great world, excellent weapons, brilliant music. What other reviewers say may be true. This game is not for everyone. If you like easy twin stick shooters, probably skip. I'm playing it on Steam deck and have no issues which other reported except for one: Every hour or so, framerate drops suddenly from 60 to 0. It's an unfortunate bug, I've just learned to live with that, or I can get back to Crusader No Remorse lol. I've finished it once, now playing it again after years. That says things.

Had to fight myself just to play it. The gameplay isn't always fun, the world is confusing and sometimes difficulty spikes punish you for no reason. After a while, despite some interesting mechanics and action, I had to just walk away.

The Good: You can pick an armor set with great stats and change the appearance to any of the other armor sets in the game. The combat is fun and the overall look of the game is excellent.

Wish List: An all time kill counter because that's something that would bring me back to the game to keep building on my numbers.

The Bad: Freezing. It isn't game breaking but the game froze on me more times than I'd like. Also this game has been seemingly abandoned unfortunately so it won't see any improvements or additions. Like Mad Maxx, such a great base to build off of but it's being left in the dust.

Conclusion: It's worth the purchase on sale, I thoroughly enjoyed the game overall.

The Ascent was exactly what I was looking for—Diablo meets Cyberpunk 2077. The difficulty was perfectly tuned: never too hard, never too easy. What I appreciated most was the consistency. The playstyle I developed and came to love remained viable all the way through. I found my favorite weapons early, upgraded them diligently, and stuck with my go-to augmentations for most of the game.

Around the 60% mark, I did feel like I might be pushing forward with too little power. So I spent an afternoon on side quests, leveled up a bit—which thankfully never felt grindy—and got back to the main story.

In short, the game was just plain fun. It hit the spot. The Unreal Engine was put to excellent use, the soundtrack was solid, the voice acting was top-notch, and the story didn’t try too hard to justify itself. It knew what it was: a great twin-stick shooter in a world that would make Smash TV proud.

A lot of style, a lot of skills, abilities and fun, with wonderful visuals, sound design and atmosphere.

BUT

A few bugs that are manageable, combined with aggressive difficulty spikes will force you to just quit. Even on normal difficulty.

Such a shame.

I really, really like this game. A Diablo clone simply doesn't do it any justice. It plays like a Diablo clone but it is far beyond in terms of art style, sound design, action, all of it. It's dark, gritty, and realistic for a sci-fi setting. Forget Blade Runner, Judge Dread...nah. This game is badass.

I enjoyed this game quite a bit, the art style and consistently immersive atmosphere of the world was the standout feature for me since I really like the cyberpunk genre. The game's combat is enjoyable but perhaps not the best you've ever seen, it's base elements like shooting and abilities (augments) are acceptable but I didn't find the too novel or interesting. They were just fine. Some special weapons exist in the game but are not good enough to use imo so the novelty of an interesting weapon is wasted on them as the regular weapons are much better. There's loot in terms of armor, weapons, augments (abilities) and tacticals (abilities on a separate cooldown) you can experiment with these but I find that again none of them are all that interesting. The story is also a bit underwhelming serving mostly as just background noise, I chuckled at the ending a bit which managed to surprise me but the boss fight ended up being underwhelming. As far as the enemies go there is a decent amount of variety although none of them stood out to me. I got the game at a discount and played it with friends, (there is both local and online co-op with up to four people) and that was very fun. Still I'm looking forward to seeing what the devs come up with next since I did like the game overall. The presentation I think makes up for it's flaws.

its an okay game with the boys but there are bugs and a significant one which can wipe your save file (which happened to me). Soundtrack is good and the visual direction the game has is great.

Cyberpunk top-down beat-em-up game with guns and different builds (think Hades without rogue-lite elements) and a massive, mostly interconnected map. Story is light, gameplay is fun, atmosphere is impeccable, weapons and abilities feel good. Apparently the multiplayer is prone to crashing though, but the game itself is great

I really love this game, I play solo, no crashes, no bugs. If its hard for you, just change weapon or build. This world is real cyberpunk. Now I enjoy NG+

Looks cool as hell. Difficult at times with the bosses and the game is extremely shallow. Same gameplay loop over and over and over. Recommend passing this one.

The game is ok-ish, not perfect by any mean. Only buy it when sale.

- Choice/variety of guns is just average.
- Weapon upgrades are extremely boring. Eg: No magazine size upgrades.
- Combat mechanic need lots of improvements. it doesnt feel real for me. I would recommend “hatred” in this aspect.
- Character upgrades are boring as well
- Story is ok
- Moving in map, especially navigating is horrible

It’s good to kill sometime if it is on sale.

It is a really weird game. Really cool concept. Really decent mechanics. Focused.. But the fact that it still has so many insanely lazy bugs is a disgrace. The amount of times I get stuck in the environment (likely on some sort of texture or something) is staggering considering the talent behind this game. It happens multiple times every single session I play it.

So yeah. Not a bad game, but it seems to me like the devs didnt bother with ironing out the details.

It don't have an expression for it, but the amount of dumb bugs in this game this seems to me to be a result of how people who are very talented at things see themselves as being above doing the dirty work, or is just too lazy to do the dirty work, painting in broad strokes.

I really love playing this game, but it's painfully broken. Nearly every transition point (lifts/ trams etc) have about a 50/50 chance to just sit at a black screen with the music playing. Quests have 'sometext' as their description, meaning it's hard to know what you're meant to do. Last but not least there's some sort of hidden order you're meant to progress, so some side quests aren't playable until you've done...something. Never mind the horrendous performance issues if you're running DX12 in the hub areas.

Feels like a little investment would actually get this in a complete state, but as it stands this should be badged as early access.

First game I try to play with my siblings and it's a perfect excuse for a Sunday gathering. Specially the team work mechanics. The game has some bugs that are annoying and the way you continue with the story is a pain in the a$$. Sometimes it sends you way back into what you've played and it makes no sense. But overall, it's a nice experience and fun to play, local co-op.

Ascent is a great game. Crying shame the game crashes when the fighting gets too intense.

When enemies are on another level (upstairs/downstairs) you can't hit them.
Enemies with pistols have auto aim, they shoot - you get hit.
Fighting lvl 4 enemies then a group of level 8 enemies come, then lvl 4 enemies again.

Game crashed so that's an uninstall.

I enjoyed the game however i cannot give it a positive rating due to the constant freezing issues. Having to restart the game every 30 minutes really takes away from the fun.

I don’t recommend this to anyone, even if you’re a fan of the cyberpunk theme (which is the only reason I bought it).

- The biggest problem was the final mission—it’s ridiculously hard. I would have rated the game 50/50 until that point. WTF, do people not test their games? Who’s the idiot that thought it was a good idea to ramp up the difficulty 10 times in the last mission?

- The minimap is awful. It’s so bad that you frequently get lost. Since the minimap is absolutely chaotic, you never know exactly where to fast travel, so you’ll have to walk 1000 meters or even more to reach each objective.

- Every mission is the same: go somewhere, kill everyone, grab an item, then return it to someone.

- There is a bug in one of the missions where you have to find a stuck enemy, and if you don’t find them, you can kiss your save game goodbye.

- Did I mention that you can only walk and roll? You can’t even run.

- The only good things about this game is the world—it looks good. But you can’t interact with it, you can’t talk to people, only to those who give you side quests.
Another good thing is the voice acting—it’s alright. And since the protagonist is non-vocal, you can’t talk in this game.

I wish I could get a refund. Respect your money and your time—this game is a waste of both.

Ever wondered what would happen if Diablo and Blade Runner had a chaotic, synthwave-fueled baby? The Ascent answers that question with a resounding BOOM—and about 500 explosions per minute.

🔥 Pros:
✅ Jaw-dropping cyberpunk visuals that make you question if your PC is actually running a small city.
✅ Combat so satisfying it makes you forget your crippling debt (in-game and real life).
✅ Guns. Big guns. More guns. And enemies that explode into neon confetti when you use them.
✅ A world so immersive you can almost smell the burnt circuits and corporate oppression.

💀 Cons:
❌ UI feels like it was designed by an evil megacorp that hates accessibility.
❌ Storyline: "Congrats, you’re a corporate slave!" (But in a fun way?)
❌ Friends are optional but recommended—unless you enjoy solo suffering.

Final verdict: If you love cyberpunk chaos, shootouts in rain-soaked alleyways, and blowing up robots just trying to do their 9-to-5, this is your game. If not, you might already be a mindless corpo drone. 👀

💾 8.5/10 would sell my cybernetic kidneys for DLC.

This could have been a decent game if not for the constant freezes.
I had this in my backlog for a while, but once I decided to actually play it, it proved too broken to enjoy.
Last update was 3 years ago, so I have little hope it will be fixed.

Otherwise, acceptable shooter, nice atmosphere, and possibly interesting storyline from the little I got to learn.

Phenomenal game. The depth and detail in the visuals and sound design are amazing and it is still easily one of the best looking, best sounding and smoothing playing games out there. The animation and movement is really smooth, transitions are smooth, the music is very synthwave/80s. This game is more cyberpunk than 2077 is. Incredible lighting effects, even without the RT. It is also a joy to play. I've been using a controller and while it is a challenge for accuracy, turning on full aim assist really makes the game fun and doesn't take away from the challenge. You will die, no matter what, at some point. The only drawback in this game is the confusing map. That takes time to get used to. The game is worth any amount of money they are asking for. I already had the game on Xbox, but got the Steam version during a great sale.

it's fun, it's good BUT it has the same problems as these type games always have, getting shot by enemies you can see off screen and they always have PERFECT aim! 7/10

A fantastic shooter with a very good and well-voice-acted story with unique characters. New game plus adds an extra layer of replayability and gives you a second chance to explore everything you may have missed the first time around in a very detailed and lively world. Not all abilities are equally viable, melee isn't great but the weapons do provide decent diversity in playstyle to enjoy the ultimately very fun fast combat.

Game is great when it runs, but it seems to be a huge fan of crashing.

Great game. A Cyber Punk like game from a different perspective.

What was great.
+ Graphics: Incredible, there is so much detail in this game, from character customisation, to the NPC's and the world! The detail goes beyond just the level you on, it reaches every depth you can see. It is packed with it. Its not just only random items placed around but mixed with meaning.
+ Game play: Its fun, with the variations of weapons and other non-spoiler things, you have A LOT to play around with.
+ Customisation and weapons: SO SO much, from colour schemes, load outs, weapon types, the more you do and accomplish, you will get more. Even after the game (hint)

-+ Story: its okay, was a bit confusing at times. There is a lot going on but I was not too invested in it. Normally i am in games but this one did not make feel that. I stayed for the challenge and game play instead.

Negatives.
- Bugs: there are some really annoying ones. Getting stuck in objects which force you to leave and return, NPC's floating around but this one is more entertaining than harmful, game crashes!, NPC's forgetting they were in a fight and end up just standing there.
- Map control, navigation: This was super annoying! I had to select each individual mission to see its map location. Not sure if i missed it but it would have been better to be able to see the map with ALL its mission locations at the same time. Also the map view itself was great and flawed. It looked nice but was not very useful or clear which level / floor things were one.
- Difficulty: I played the game on the highest difficulty. I appreciated the challenge but some instances just felt unfair rather than a challenge. Been evenly or better matched against the enemies still had me dying from one shot attacks.

Overall i enjoyed this one! The cons are not enough to steer away from having a good time.

Thanks for the fun and challenge!

A great, unique twin stick shooter with at least twenty-five hours of gameplay (DLC included) if you do most of the side missions and take your time seeking out all the loot. The visuals are stunning as well.

However, co-op is unplayable (constant, unfixable crashes and desync; this is a HUGE bummer as I wanted to play with friends) and there are about ten crashes to be expected, including for the base game final boss (forcing you to do it twice).

The DLC is worth it if you enjoyed the base game, especially on sale. It’s short, but enjoyable and gives you more of the world and some unique elements.

Visually it is stunning , and the music compliments the atmosphere, however, the gameplay is mediocre. It is quite annoying to get hit by enemies that you do not see, due to how the camera placement works. Additionally, the voice acting could've been better.

I enjoyed the Gun fights alot
But the Weapon balance needs some work.
I Finished the Main storyline and most of the side quest after 19h.

Crashed more times in 4 hours than I have crashed while playing any game in the 10 years I have had this steam account.

Visually its stunning. Soundtrack is great. Gameplay is okay most of the time, lots of slow walking around.

Not a lot of weapon variety but its enough.

I cannot recommend this game because of the crashing, me and my 2 other friends basically played crash hot-potato until it became so often that we could not continue. Dog shit.

Life is swell. Life is hell.

You’re thrust as a mercenary, or better put an errand boy/girl, into one of the most astoundingly well made, believable cyberpunk universes I’ve seen in recent times. The amount of detail on display here is staggering. Rundown kebab joints, glitzy club entrances, favela-like neighborhoods, and pristine highrises all intermingle in giant arcologies, bathed in grimy neon lights, infused with scents, dirt, and sweat the multitudes roaming the streets produce. The amount of work that went into this is obvious, but it makes me wonder if a world this good was “wasted” on a game like this.

It’s a shame that you’re quite often interrupted in the enjoyment of it by constantly spawning, tedious, droves of enemies that are mostly your only agency here, since you can’t do much with the rest of the world. Unless you count the civilians you will mow down in the chaotic battles, where the game won’t miss to chide you for it at every opportunity. I find that a weird decision since it has no consequences. What’s even more cranky is the very inconsistent difficulty of mob spawns, sometimes resulting in cheap deaths, regardless of the game’s difficulty setting.

There are two ways of fast travel, metro stations and a taxi. But, there aren’t that many fast travel points, making backtracking quite a common thing. And you will backtrack a lot for all the loot and sidequests scattered around. All that without a run button and very little shortcuts. Slightly shameful.

The story doesn’t even try to be something deep, and neither do the NPCs. Both are shallow, one-dimensional, and here only to serve the progress of your ramped up killing sprees. All main characters are also excessively wordy, which wouldn’t be a problem if they had something noteworthy to say and weren’t constantly repeating themselves, only using different words. You just end up getting mauled with exposition and strange terms. Quests, items, and in-game lore descriptions found in the Codex fare much better and are an interesting read.

This game is like previous game i played "Satellite Reign" but you only can direct control 1 characters and with closer zoom to your character and its abit annoying since u can shoot kinda far but u cant see the enemy because of the zoom levels in this game...you can customize it via mods but the dev should patch it and make in x3 more zoom out level...the game is kinda linear story but good OST and the ambient is nice also the graphic detail looks beautiful but use too much resource and the engine is not really optimized and have lag issue sometimes and even at the start loading start menu.....
the game got too much repeat mission but there's sub-mission u need to plant some plants and harvest it...the (T key) for taxi is nice fast travel mechanic then running around from point A > B
/ 8 graphic
/ 6 story / sub mission
/ 8 OST
/ 8 weapon design
/ 6 armor design
/ 6 game mechanic

Good game but foul language and adult themes, maybe not for kids.

The environment is beautiful, and the combat was quite fun.
However, neither the story nor the game's world were captivating to me in the slightest.

So I played until I encountered something i didn't feel like trying hard enough to go through.

As I said, gameplay was fun, so if you're the type of person to try any top down shooter. I'd say try it out.

I want to like this game, it's sci-fi, its amazingly looking, however as a single player, I got stuck in early levels where you are supposed to do a big fight with lots of enemies and I just couldn't progress longer, they are impossible to beat.

This is not a good game. The controls are awful. I got it when it first came out and it was buggy to the point it shouldn't have been released. I picked it back up hoping the game had gotten better but I can definitively say no, it has not. Get it for free maybe but otherwise this game is terrible.

Decent gunplay and good story and visuals. Any fan of cyberpunk should have a look at this.

Proper cyberpunk stuff. Reminds me of the original Syndicate game from Bullfrog

This is an excellent game. The negative reviews are really just from people complaining about issues that are either minor, related to multiple player or are those that are fairly easily resolved. For a single person experience, the game is great fun and very rewarding.

This game could be great. It has a huge variety of weapons, equipment, upgrades, customizations, and different enemies that oblige you to alter your combat strategies. It’s really funny to play, especially with friends. However, I can’t really recommend this game because it has horrible, nasty, unbearable bugs. I’m not talking about minor issues that don’t really affect your experience, but big fat bugs that really doom your entertainment.

The game crashes. It can also use too much of your CPU that it will just shut down your PC (and I’m far from having a horrible CPU and power supply). There are items that you can’t take. In online co-op, two players can’t access a store at the same time (the second player will just need to restart the game). It freezes and you need to restart the game. In one stance, after clearing up a military base, the boss just did not appear. We had to exit the game, enter again just to restart from the start, that meant we lost 30-40 minutes of gameplay. We finished the main campaign and we’re doing other quests, I was thinking about buying the DLCs to make more progress in the game, but I think I’ll spend my money on something else.

To a game that was released over 3 years ago, it’s unacceptable that these bugs are still around. Unfortunately, I don’t recommend it; it’s a great game plagued by horrible issues.

Excellent single player twin stick shooter. It has among other things, the best office shootout I have experienced. This game just does so much right. Even if the game did nothing else, it is still worth playing for the incredible (not exaggeration) level of detail of the environment. Fun to practice your skills in combat, hard to master, and always something new to enjoy.

All the weapons I've tried yet have all feel good to at least practice with. Some weapon are tiers above the rest so you do end up using the more effective ones for the rest of your playthrough. Lots of perks and upgrades to play around with. Exploration and combat flow and complement each other. The voice acting great, story very engaging. The other stuff the game does are hard to notice since you are enjoying your experience. There not too many bugs, and none gamebraking.

A few thing are annoying. Sometimes the game will start randomly spawning enemies just offscreen too much, something which takes away from the immersion. Some story mission involve very difficult holdout fights that require specific loadouts to win, something that you will be completely unprepared for, and that will require you to fail and fail until you figure things out. The quality of content and engaging story keep those little things from ruining your experience. Every time you try something new the game becomes something you take possession of. Also the game locked up my video card a couple times, but it might have been on me.

Excellent, made by pros 9.5/10

played through the game on xbox, looks alot cleaner on pc, but still a good time..good story also.

It's not a bad game. I played it before on my Xbox, and I really enjoyed it. Bought it on sale, and despite how much I enjoy the game, I'd still say to get it on sale when you get the chance. Haven't tried the multiplayer yet, so I'm not sure how well it holds up.

I thought this Cyberpunk game was original. Reminds me of a game from a distant era called Syndicate, a classic game from 1993.[b] ( Developed by Bullfrog Productions )

-Graphics very good
-Intense firefight
- Flexible skill system
-Varied enemies
- Good story
-Co-op

Can be acquired very cheaply 2-5 Euro.
Try it if you like Sci-Fi.
[b]It's a Blast !

Enjoyed this so far, no crashes or issues as other pointed out. Besides some crazy difficulty spikes (or maybe i'm doing something wrong) this is a great top down shooter.