We’ve discussed the game here and there, but as it gets closer to release, I think it’s time for it get its own thread.
Here’s the latest trailer.
Eurogamer has a nice preview of the game today.
The twin-stick shooter aspect was potentially a turn-off for me. Since I started playing twin stick shooters with Geometry Wars, I’ve felt that the minimalistic one screen shooter is the best way to actually enjoy a twin-stick shooter. But this one has some interesting spice to it maybe that will stop me from thinking about Geometry Wars:
The twist of the early combat is in the aiming, where the left trigger has you raise your gun to shoot at head-height, staggering enemies or allowing you to hit ones that are slightly up a few stairs, or over cover if you find yourself behind it. There’s an odd - unique is a better word, or maybe apt - sense of verticality to The Ascent’s action. Much of it is about kiting - running backwards while shooting, basically - but high-aiming makes you move slower but also makes the enemies that are running at you move slower too if you hit them and cause the stagger, so you must strike a balance.
You level up, spend those skill points on passive attributes like your weapon handling or your balance, which impact things like reload speed or dodge cooldowns or, as the game unfolds itself a bit more, the interesting things like active abilities and cybernetics. My active was a strong melee smash, which was simple but satisfying, while the cybernetics I never managed to unlock.
The world itself, the details, the setting, it all looks pretty neat.
The world is very cleverly interconnected, with one mission dungeon, if you could call it that, flowing into an enemy free hub, into another hub, into the next mission area. It’s old school adventure game stuff, Zelda-like, which wasn’t quite what I expected from a twin-stick shooter but works nicely, the option always there for you to nip back into town to upgrade something if you’re finding the enemies a little tough.
