The Ascent - Preview of the cyberpunk themed isometric shooter

La isometric visual it is not particularly sought after, as it sometimes brings into play a playful sector tending to past canons, which in mind brings back to old-fashioned role-playing games that have now become niche. The slice of gamers who still live works of the genre is still substantial, but in recent years we have been dealing with titles ready to revolutionize the formula, while maintaining the same type of view from above. It is not impossible to create real action while lifting the camera from the shoulders of the protagonists, and that is why The Ascent showed us a gameplay that is anything but antiquated, patented by Neon Giant and published by Curves Digital.

The game was presented at theInside Xbox with a preliminary trailer, to be subsequently deepened by a gameplay that has showcased all its apparent qualities and potential. It is a somewhat frenetic shooter, which can be experienced individually or through the co-op mode on Xbox One, Xbox Series X and PC. After analyzing the material shown and the official information released, we are ready to talk about The Ascent, which as we know will debut by the end of this year.

Bullets in flight on The Ascent

The work is set on the planet of Velen, populated by an extremely advanced civilization, at least as regards the technological terrain. The largest security company in the entire globe, own The Ascent, does not seem to give any sign of life, and this has sparked unthinkable riots in various locations. The company's competitors have relied on the underworld and crime to escape it and take the first place in the market, however creating a succession of civil wars in which players will inevitably find themselves entangled.

It seems that to get out unscathed, the RPG variant will not be completely fundamental, at least compared to what has been seen for the isometric shooter sector. In fact, we did not have the opportunity to particularly deepen the enhancement system that will characterize the experience, but in the minutes of play shown tons of bullets flew. the presented settings show hordes of extremely fast-paced enemies, which do not leave the player time to take a break to reload a newly used skill or to refill their empty magazines on the masses of opponents. Abilities, on the other hand, seem to play a fundamental role in opening the enemy ranks through powerful and particularly useful attacks.

Everything can be enjoyed without problems through a controller or with a mouse and keyboard, since the isometric view opens the door to a completely different aiming system compared to the canons of the shooter titles to which we are now accustomed. What has been described could certainly easily turn into one breath of fresh air, which then sees the theme of cyberpunk land on horizons not yet deepened on the front of the playful sector, together with further features that the next generation will be able to reserve for us.

Cyberpunk at will

The setting seems to be done in an optimal way; despite being an independent production, it is easy to be struck by what is shown on the graph. The level design appears accurate enough to divide the scenarios and the peculiarities of the same, such as the environmental puzzles that differentiate a ton of enemies from the other. The flagship of the production, at least as regards the technical sector, could be represented by the now confirmed implementation of the Ray Tracing on PC and next generation console. The scenes shown offer one large amount of lights from everywhere, typical of the setting treated, which will shine in great style thanks to the constantly evolving technology.

In short, it seems that we will be able to deal with a truly surprising product, which aims to offer us a little-dealt gameplay through aextreme background frenzy mixed with an ever-present gunplay. We will be able to enjoy cyberpunk environments as dark as they are bright alone or together with a friend, while we will experience a script that is apparently well thought out and interesting, which we hope will accompany us for all hours in-game. The arrival of The Ascent is not particularly far away, as the launch window is enclosed in this year, and it is desirable that the game debuts before Cyberpunk 2077 in order not to deal with the new blockbuster of the Polish house: we can therefore see some good ones very soon!