Recent reviews by Cadian Shock Trooper

It may be a little janky, the graphics may not be the best in the business, but the gameplay is fun and addicting. Fight, capture, build, optimize, breed, and explore.

In this 1v1 scenario, it feels much more like Hearthstone's autobattle mode but less fun. If you're interested in a bigger autobattle experience, just play TFT lol

It's Monopoly, but free, online, and worse! Amazing. With a name like Business Tour, it'd be more like Fortune Street. But it isn't. It's just disappointing.

I regret buying this game because DMZ is free. All good though. Still having a blast playing 24/7 shoot house.

Just play a Housemarque game.

This was so cute. I'd love more wallpapers of the kid having her water. It makes me smile and feel good inside.

Great time killer that's easily digestible in 10-20 minute periods of time. Worth a try, especially 'cause it's free.

This game has very very minor horror elements, that are really no worse than your imagination. The art style is super cute and the story is simple. It shouldn't take much time to figure out. I bought the OST, stickers, and wallpaper too.

TL;DR: Despite the bugs I've read about, I've been really fortunate to not have to experienced any of the game breaking ones. I really enjoyed this game for a variety of reasons and I'd suggest getting it.

This game has received a lot of criticism and rightly so. The bugs in this game are NOT few and far between. They're constant and in your face, but manageable. I've read about the save deleting bugs, but considering the team behind this game is so small, I'm willing to overlook it. I've been save-scammed by a AAA title before, but I hope you never experience it in The Ascent.

Let's talk about the good first though.
The Ascent is a game with a well thought out design. They really nail that "High Tech Low Life" aesthetic and even reference it on a loading screen. The sci-fi aspect is also pretty well integrated, though I was certainly surprised when I encountered it initially since I went into this game with a complete media blackout. That said, they've blended the races into the world with finesse. The races don't feel particularly out of place, and there's enough background information for you to get an idea of the general qualities that each race possesses without it feeling hamfisted. The Ascent immediately starts throwing their homebrewed cyberpunk jargon at you as if you're already a resident of the world; you don't have to be a genius to figure out what the words mean which makes it easy to stomach.

The gunplay is solid, and despite lacking a huge weapon roster, there are still plenty of different weapons and unique weapons to allow you to pick and choose how you play the game. You're not meant to just pick 2 guns for the entire game, and you're meant to have a large toolkit at your disposal. The upgrade system lends itself to this nicely. That said, be careful about your MK9 and MK10 upgrades, as there are limited resources to upgrade weapons to the final 2 tiers. I wasn't a huge fan of the "aim high ADS" system because it felt really out of place, but it's part of the gameplay and you learn to make the most of it. If you can get used to it, it really enhances the gameplay experience. There's armor which can look great, but also can look kinda ♥♥♥♥. It takes a bit of work to get a cool armor set going IMO. Once you understand the damage types, you can start equipping armor that's the most effective for your given situation.

Now, the not-so-good.
Mobs have an aggro range and if they leave their aggro range, they'll basically be invulnerable and walk back to their spawn point. In most MMOs and other games with an aggro range, this isn't a big deal. However this is where one of those ugly bugs rears its head. On occasion, a mob's AI might not reset correctly when they return to their spawn location. They'll loop into a return path while taking single digit damage and not attacking the player. You can safely ignore these mobs however.

The soundtrack and audio design is all really well done and atmospheric and thematic. I was surprised to hear YUC'e's music in the game too! I love Nightclub Junkie! However outside of this singular song that I already really like, most of the sound design and soundtrack is rather forgettable. It' good, but there's nothing that makes me want to listen to it outside of the game, or outside of a cyberpunk TTRPG like CPR or SR5.

The transmogrification system is a lifesaver. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of the armor, while thematically appropriate, doesn't really allow you to get a more Corporate-aesthetic which is one I like a lot. There are some pieces you can kitbash together to make a great armor set, however this is kind of let down by the lack of preview-ability as well as the lackluster color palette.

The voice acting for the story is really good, however the story itself leaves a lot to be desired. It feels like Neon Giant has had a lot of influence from Borderlands, WH40k, and Shadowrun but has cleverly blended it into their own style and own world. While there are some things that I find to be similar, it doesn't feel completely familiar. The story and a lot of the NPCs are pretty forgettable.

As a final note: The game can be difficult at times. I've heard of people dying A LOT and I have no idea what difficulty they were playing on. I was playing on normal and died somewhere around 10 times. There's a lot of trial and error. All in all, if you buy this game, I hope you have a great time and don't encounter character or save killing bugs!

Other poster is a moron. Go to a Stylist and transmog the items. You can use it as armor or just use the appearance.

EDIT: The other guy deleted his post lmfao