Video Gamers Podcast - Quick Takes: The Ascent - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: November 26, 2022

From gaming hosts Paul, Michael and Josh, we're bringing you even more gaming content each week. Gaming Quick Takes are a short series of game recommendations, funny moments, off-topic chat and more. A small dose of gaming to brighten your Saturdays! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Terms and conditions apply. Hey guys, welcome to this Quick Take episode. We're so excited to have you here with us. In the past, these Quick Take episodes actually were only available to those who financially supported the show through Apple subscriptions and Patreon. But due to popular demand, we have decided to shake up the perks for our supporters and we'll be releasing these Quick Takes on saturdays to everyone giving you all some extra free content that was previously unavailable to the public and these quick takes

are a little more laid back and they're hosted by just one of us so sit back relax and enjoy this quick take episode shazam boom hey everybody it's josh and i am back with another phenomenal quick takes episode just our way of saying thank you for supporting the show i'm going to tell you about a game that we actually almost covered in a deep dive episode paul and I were actually on track to get this game. I think he even bought it and I started playing it. I was pretty hyped for this one. And for whatever reason, it just kind of fell off the radar for Paul and me to do as a deep dive. But I have played this game a pretty good bit. And so I want to bring it to you since I've got this opportunity and I think it's well worth checking out. That is a game called The Ascent. Now, you guys may have heard me get hyped about this before it released back in July, but it did release at the end of July.

I have played this a pretty good bit. This game is a lot of fun and it has some of the coolest graphics I have seen in a game in a while. So what is The Ascent? The Ascent is a solo and co-op action shooter RPG that is set in a cyberpunk world. And so what this game is, is they really nail the cyberpunk aesthetic to it. It is a kind of isometric, kind of diagonal, top-down, twin-stick shooter. So you control your guy with one thumb stick and you control where you aim with the other. Uh, and then, you know, you,

obviously it's, it's got a lot of RPG elements. So you are constantly finding new weapons, new armor upgrades, abilities, and stuff like that. I mean, your character is definitely progressing as you play this game. Um, but the, uh, the, the kind kind of gist of it is that you are this kind of low level, kind of lackey almost for this mega corporation that owns basically everybody. That's kind of how Cyberpunk works, right? It's all about sticking it to the man. But your first mission, you kind of have to go down into these sewers and clear out this infestation and get, you know, get the AI, you know, back online or something like that. Um, but the action in this game is just top notch. The shooting feels so good. The weapons in this game are a blast to use. They feel great. They really, really nailed the combat in this. I mean, for a twin stick

shooter, you kind of have to, um, but man, did they do a good job. You get new weapons and new types of weapons at a fairly good pace. So it never really feels stagnant. And because there's a wide variety of weapons, you are going to find ones that really fit. I still prefer one of the earlier machine guns in the game just because of the way it feels. I really like the rate of fire, the way it sounds, um, though, you know, how easy it is to aim the spread and all that, but you can get some really cool stuff. I mean, you can get like automatic rocket launchers, grenade launchers, you get these high tech weapons where instead of damaging like flesh and stuff, it'll damage robots. So they're almost like electromagnetic weapons and stuff like

that. But yeah, I mean, the biggest thing about this game is the combat just really shines through. There's a lot of chaos to be had. As a twin stick shooter, you're moving around in all directions, you're shooting in all directions, and that lends itself to a lot of the fun. Again, wide variety of weapons and armor. Every piece of armor that you put on really changes the look of your guy. And so you can go full cyberpunk with these glowing visors and crazy helmets and arm pieces and stuff like that. But you can also get abilities. So you can get these two upgrade abilities that let you shoot out razor blades from your body, or maybe drop an AoE healing pod that's very beneficial and stuff like that.

So just trust me when I say that the gameplay is incredibly fun in this. One of the things that sets The Ascent apart is the graphics. It's mind-blowing. It really is. I have to give the people credit, whoever the artists were in this game. This game is very vertical and because it plays like a top-down shooter, the sense of scale that they create and the backgrounds that are behind the main area are just honestly beautiful. I don't know any other way to put it. So do yourself a favor and look up some gameplay footage. You'll see what I'm talking about, but it looks even better when you're actually playing the game. this chaos, uh, one of the AIs that are these like all powerful things that control these levels that people live on starts going on the fritz,

your boss or your supervisor, whatever sends you to go check it out. And then that just, you know, spirals everything out of control. And before you know it, you're this top level, uh,

cyberpunk espionage guy. That's just trying to work his way up and, and get better and stuff as well. So there is some story there. I'll be honest, I didn't pay a ton of attention to it. It's decent. But when you're playing a twin stick shooter, you just want to shoot things, you know, and so the story does do good, but it's not like a major part of it. So what are a couple things that I like? What are a couple things that I don't like? I love the combat. I love the graphics. I love the upgrade

system. I love the fact that you get new weapons fairly regularly and there are different kinds of weapons. I love the fact that there's boss fights. I love the fact that you can be running around doing nothing and then you get jumped by a gang of guys just out in the middle of the city. So you never know when you're completely safe. I think it's funny because as you're shooting all these bad guys that are attacking you, you're going to accidentally take out civilians, which I still feel bad about, but there's no repercussions to that either. It's not like there's a police force or guards that are going to come along. So you really can just kind of lay waste to everything if you want without too much repercussion there. But yeah, it's just a fun all-around game that is very very well done

I could see this game winning some awards because of how good it is. It's a small indie developer I feel like this is like five people that made this And it is just an all-around top-notch game highly recommend you check it out Like I said, I think it's on xbox game pass. I know it's on pc. I'm pretty sure it's on playstation as well Uh, it's not much it's 30. as well. It's not much. It's $30. I feel like it's worth every bit of that $30. It's been out long enough that maybe in the next month or so, it'll go on sale. If you can pick it up for less than $30, it's an absolute no-brainer to me.

Some of the things I don't like about it, there is an awful lot of running. That is honestly my only complaint with this game is that it is a massive city and a massive world with multi levels that you go through. You do unlock fast travel, but the map is this like weird three dimensional map. And it's very difficult to kind of tell where you are and where you need to go. So I find more often than not, I take the subway, but I take the subway to the wrong area. And then I'm like, well, wait, I thought that's where I needed to go. And it wasn't. And the game does do a good job. They give you kind of a quest marker system where you can ping and it'll draw a path along the ground to where you need to go. And it'll even say, hey, you're

a thousand meters away from your next objective. The problem is, is that you want to fast travel. I just don't know where to fast travel to. And running a thousand meters in this game takes a while. You run at a decent pace, but it's just very spread out. It's honestly probably my only complaint. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm just an idiot and I don't know how to use the map. If I figure that out, then I think it solves that problem. But I do notice a lot of times that I'm like,

oh, I got to turn around and run for five minutes now to get back to where I just was to get to the next quest. But yeah, this is one. This is a strong recommend for me. Again, it's called the Ascent, A-S-C-E-N-T, like you're ascending a mountain. So the Ascent, check it out. A lot of fun. This game is co-op as well. Unfortunately, I never got to play with Paul because we kind of put it to the side. But I can only imagine that with two or three friends, you can play up to four people.

The co-op in this would just be bananas. I think it would be an amazingly good time but I had a ton of fun with it solo as well so it definitely plays very well there. Okay, so check that out. If you pick it up, let me know your thoughts. If you've played it, hey, give me a shout. Let me know what you think of it.

We can compare notes on that as well but that is it for this Quick Takes episode. I'll be back with some more game recommendations next week. Thank you all for your support. It means the world to us. And I will see you all next time. Have a good one. Bye-bye.