“The environments are cluttered, bustling, and convincingly lived-in”

Falling in love with the Arcology, the setting for cyberpunk shooter THE ASCENT

- ANDY KELLY

Man, Night City left me cold. As a fan of dark future cities, I was excited to explore the streets of Cyberpunk 2077’s setting. But the closer I looked the more I stopped believing in it as an actual place. Which is the opposite of the experience I had with The Ascent, a new action RPG made by a tiny 11-person indie team made up of veteran game designers.

The Ascent is set in The Arcology, which is essentially an entire city squeezed into a monolithic skyscraper. It’s a vast, multi-tiered metropolis. It’s derivative, sure, but rendered with such fidelity and style that I found it hard to care. It’s honestly mind-blowing how good it looks, and the sheer depth of detail impressed me way more than Night City ever did—a real achievement for an isometric shooter.