The Ascent

[Gryndyl]

This just launched today on Gamepass and Steam (and maybe other places; dunno). It's a singleplayer/multiplayer cyberpunk isometric twin-stick looter shooter from a small dev team called Neon Giant. I just jumped in (playing via gamepass) and went through the first mission. Stunningly detailed environments, controls well with mouse and keyboard, seems to have all of the things you'd expect from the genre- skill upgrades, weapon upgrades, cyberstuff, etc.

I'll be the first to admit that my system is fairly aged (i5, 8g RAM, GTX970) but it still handles most stuff pretty well. This one, however, gives me huge frame drops whenever something explodes. I made it to the first boss fight which was a big robot firing grenades of frame rate destruction that consequently killed me pretty quickly. I'll have to go into settings and see if I can find something to adjust to fix it or wait for a performance patch. Seems very promising, however, as when it was running ok it was pretty fun. My only real design gripe is with the map system. You have a detail-free radar that shows where enemies/NPCs are and can pull up a detailed map to look at but there's no way I've found to have the map on screen while playing. This may be something I've overlooked. The first level is pretty mazelike and I'm a bit of a completionist when it comes to map exploration so that was a bit frustrating.

They also could have used another proofreading pass on their flavor text. Have caught two grammatical errors already.

[wonderpug]

I won't be diving in until this weekend but I'm looking forward to giving this a try!

[Gryndyl]

Little further into it now. I'm around level 15 and have a set of fresh gripes.

Level suggestions for missions is a bit of a joke; they may be accurate for the mission itself but might require you to traverse a much higher level area to get there. The GPS gets confused sometimes, directing you to doorways you don't have access to yet. The map also doesn't do a great job with the verticality. You can run to the icon for a gun shop, for example, and have it not be there because it's actually two levels below you. Low level enemies still seem to aggro on you when traversing low areas which gets a bit annoying. Gear variety seems very limited so far. Fast travel is also a bit wonky as fast travel points have unpredictably limited destinations. I've done lots of option tinkering but still get some lag spikes with explosions and occasionally have sound lag or the sound cutting out for a few seconds. The autosave is unpredictable as well. When leaving the game it can be anywhere from a few seconds to 11 or 12 minutes since the last save and it's unclear when the game saves and what prompts it to do so. I also have to Alt F4 to exit the game. The ingame quit button doesn't seem to function.

Having said all of that I'm having enough fun with it that I'm still playing but I'm glad I'm playing it as part of a gamepass subscription. The combat is fast and satisfying and the eyecandy remains strong.

[coopasonic]

I got to level 11, I think, in my first play session and had a blast with it. The combat feels pretty good, the loot system is different and I haven't quite wrapped my head around it, but the gameplay is good enough that I am not sweating that right now. Not much has been very challenging yet. I am still using the SMG I got in the first area. I've only gotten one elemental weapon, a fire handcannon. I assume at some point I will be encouraged to care about elemental damage. I'm also spending skill points somewhat randomly as I don't really know what matters.

[coopasonic]

Finished off the last mission this morning. Solid game, especially for something I don't think I had even heard of before last week. Played about 30% of it co-op with my son and had some disconnect issues (playing via windows game store/gamepass/not steam). Good times regardless.

Edit to add: just a but under 17 hours in a near completionist run. Achievement says I completed 83% of side missions. I did all that I could find.

[Skinypupy]

Definitely not my typical style of game, but I played through the first couple hours and am pretty impressed. It looks incredible, the twin stick combat is fun, the music is great (got an old-school Frontline Assembly feel to it), and it's been difficult but not overwhelming.

Will definitely keep at it for a bit.

[LawBeefaroni]

Enjoying this on the Xbox. Love twin stick shooters and this has been fun so far.

Not exactly loaded with depth but voiced cut scenes and dialogue keeps the story somewhat interesting.

[Jaddison]

I bounced off of this twice but third time is a charm. As something clearly meant to be in a Blade Runner inspired cyberpunk world. I guess all those hours in D4 made more competent on the evade hit evade routine

[Skinypupy]

I really enjoyed it...right up to a huge difficulty spike around 10 hours in. Bashed my head up against it for a couple hours before finally just throwing in the towel.

Disappointing, as it was a really cool game up to that point.

[jztemple2]

Love twin stick shooters and this has been fun so far.

Remind me again what makes a shooter a twin stick shooter?

[Isgrimnur]

One stick moves your character, one stick shoots in that direction.

[jztemple2]

One stick moves your character, one stick shoots in that direction.

Thanks. Oddly I can't think of any games I have that are like that.

[Jaddison]

One stick moves your character, one stick shoots in that direction.

Thanks. Oddly I can't think of any games I have that are like that.

playing without a controller and it is pretty easy to shoot and move

[LawBeefaroni]

One stick moves your character, one stick shoots in that direction.

Thanks. Oddly I can't think of any games I have that are like that.

Robotron is the primary example.

Think of any top-down or iso shooter where you can move one way and shoot another.


New games....Enter the Gungeon?

[Daehawk]

Remember SmashTV from the old arcade days?

[Anonymous Bosch]

One stick moves your character, one stick shoots in that direction.

Thanks. Oddly I can't think of any games I have that are like that.

Robotron is the primary example.

Think of any top-down or iso shooter where you can move one way and shoot another.


New games....Enter the Gungeon?

Some other popular and well known twin-stick shooters:

• The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
• Hotline: Miami
• Renegade Ops
• Nex Machina
• Crimsonland
• The Geometry Wars series

And perhaps also Vampire Survivors, which has evolved into its own subgenre.

[Chraolic]

And perhaps also Vampire Survivors, which has evolved into its own subgenre.

I think that's a different genre since you can't really aim, it just auto-shoots at whatever's in front of the sprite.

[Anonymous Bosch]

And perhaps also Vampire Survivors, which has evolved into its own subgenre.

I think that's a different genre since you can't really aim, it just auto-shoots at whatever's in front of the sprite.

True, Vampire Survivors adopts the formula of a twin stick shooter into an approach where your attacks instead fire off automatically at regular intervals. I think that's part of what makes it so remarkably compelling, and helps broaden its appeal to a wider audience that would perhaps otherwise be put off were it an actual twin stick shooter.

[LawBeefaroni]

Yeah, I think the genre is "auto shooter" or "vampire-like".

20 Minutes Till Dawn allows you to toggle between auto and twin stick. Have been enjoying that.

[GreenGoo]

Some other popular and well known twin-stick shooters:

• The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
• Hotline: Miami
• Renegade Ops
• Nex Machina
• Crimsonland
• The Geometry Wars series

Helldivers is a notable one in my opinion. Just noticed there is a helldivers 2.