Savant - Ascent REMIX is a Nintendo Switch game here on Steam, where you can pretend you're playing an arcade shoot 'em up and that your PC is a Nintendo Switch. One disclaimer from me, I never played the original Savant - Ascent, but I also don't think that makes a huge difference when evaluating this Nintendo Switch game, as the defects are fairly consistent and unrelated to the changes in this new version of the game (which I believe was given for free to owners of the original game, so kudos to the developer for putting gamers first, all too rare, especially amongst amateur/indie devs).

Shoot 'em ups are largely a dead genre (3D graphics got invented etc etc), so when they make these games (because 3D games are often just too hard for some devs), they have to include some kind of gimmick. Here, unfortunately, the gimmick is a bit of a painful one that really limits how you get to play the game. See, you're on 2 platforms (elevators, ascent, see?) and you can't actually move freely anywhere else... you're either on one platform or the other and you "dash" between them. You can also jump and double jump to evade. Shooting itself is a twin-stick affair, aim with your mouse and shoot whatever kind of attacks you want to make (normal shooting/nuke w/ cooldown etc). I have to say this game would have been very popular in 1992. It's not 1992.

On the upside, the game does feature customisable controls and resolution, so at least some of the basic, minimum requirements have been met. It's also worth noting the game is fairly well polished and the controls are smooth and responsive, a must for this legacy genre.

Unfortunately there's a number of other technical defects and shortcomings which contribute to the game being difficult to recommend to gamers.

A choice was made to use obsolete, decades old retro pixel "art" as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics. It's unclear if this is due to lack of budget or talent, regardless, the overall visual quality of the game is extremely low as a result.

To make matters worse, while lazy, low quality pixel "art" has been used, making the game look bad, many elements of the game aren't done with pixelcrap... which accomplishes a couple of things. First, it shows the developers perhaps could have done better and they knew it, so that's a major screwup. Secondly, it destroys any hopes the developer had of creating a "retro aesthetic" as their excuse for the lazy pixelart compromise... It looks completely inauthentic from a retro gaming perspective.

While there are options to change the resolution for the game, all this does is scale up the simplistic 2D art assets used to make the game, which makes little or no difference to the graphics quality. Without any other substantial graphics tweaks, it's not possible for gamers to improve the lacklustre 2D visuals.

Because this is designed for handheld/portable gaming appliances, it carries a number of deliberate design deficiencies. Compromises were made to cater to the low power handheld gaming appliances that the game was designed for. These are unfortunate compromises and limitations that PC gamers shouldn't be forced to accept, but it's evident that PC was a second thought for the mobile game developers. The game is deficient as a result of these choices, and would have been so much better without the handicaps that designing games for low power handhelds forces upon a game. While this might run well on a Steam Deck, we must remember the vast majority of gamers here are gaming on PC.

These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.

The game never really caught on with the millions of gamers on Steam, with a very low peak player count close to launch, and then just a handful of players launching this game every couple of days. This is undoubtedly caused by factors such as those raised in this review. It's always helpful with buying decisions to consider how popular and successful the product is, and unfortunately while this did accumulate a few participation trophy reviews, overall, people just aren't using it.

So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 100,000+ games on Steam?

Savant - Ascent REMIX has the ridiculous, laughable price of $10 USD, for which you could easily get any number of older AAA games. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend. For comparison, the $10 asking price for this game could get you games like "Mass Effect Andromeda", "Kingdom Come Deliverance" or "Monster Hunter World". Quality, professionally made games like those are frequently on sale cheaper than this.

While I like Savant Remix a fair bit, there is too little gameplay, replayability and in-game variety for me to see it as anything else but a charming curiosity, a digital oddity, a small artistic endeavor that innitially offers a momentary distraction with its bright visuals and busy soundtrack at first but ultimately fails to entertain the gamer for long and waranty a purchase.

The art style is cool and well detailed and whether you like the music tracks is subjective, but the story is very short and the gameplay stagnates throughout the game getting repetitive. There are no new power-ups to unlock as you progress or more than a handful of different enemiy varieties and all of them are dispached in the same way, the story goes nowhere and the game's only saving grace for replayability is the randomizer mode.

Overall, not a bad game, but for its price you can get something else that will keep you entertained for longer and won't be left collecting dust in the back of your Steam library after an hour or so of beating the same 3 to 4 bosses over and over.

♥♥♥♥ off

The TL;DR I enjoyed it. I know I list less positives and more negatives, but anything positive to say about it could be said about the original. I wanna suggest the game in hopes that classic mode and owlboy pick up the slack for what feels kind of like a deconstructed bare bones version of the original that takes away a lot to add a little. But that little is cool and exciting, but it is less. If the menu drag gets resolved with the update of classic mode & owlboy, I think that alone would make me say you should get this game over the original. until then? Original feels more complete and replayable, FOR NOW. I LIKE this game. It is worse than the original. IF those updates improve AT LEAST those things? I'll happily and with bounds of joy change this review to a recommend.

I had only realized yesterday I had apparently received remix for free. I had not originally planned on playing it because money is tight, so I am extremely appreciative that I do get to play this.

-I ADORED the original Savant - Ascent. My only ever gripe with the original is that I hated that AWFUL jump in difficulty between everything else and the Robot Samurai. It's just an absurdly frustrating fight to restart from its beginning every time. Thankfully, it actually felt more accomplish-able. I had put the first game down for years before I tried to actually beat the Robot Samurai. It took a lot of aggravating tries, but I did manage to beat him with the rest of session. Less of an insane difficulty spike, but still a strong opponent. So the final boss was definitely improved in my eyes. Still made me want to scream in frustration, but I felt I could accomplish this one and did.

-I LOVED the addition of the laser sharks.
- The new soundtrack is phenomenal.
- This was a fun reason to get to experience this game with this adrenaline rush arcade feel I missed.

- Positive/Negative: The inclusion of the dark level & boss strongly encouraging audio cues was a cool touch and I really liked it. BUT I think it is very hard to hear the cues when you're also jamming out to loud bangers. Thankfully you do get slightly subtler visual cues as well, so I'm not too mad about that.
-Positive/Negative: At one point the review said I liked double jump. I REALLY wanted to. I had to edit as I played more. Double jump is a boon and a curse. it makes dodging special attacks like robo less insanity stricken. but it feels like your CONSTANTLY being punished for using this new mechanic with overhead spawns that you can't know are coming unless you've got them memorized.

Now the little more negative,
-as others have pointed out, it does feel sort of hollow when you lose your progression system is taken out of the equation. No upgrades.
-You get disc-pieces and "soundtrack" but you don't actually...get the soundtrack? Like nothing comes from it outside of recharging your meter you probably used to get it.
-The menu for when you lose is for sure the worst offender of remix. At first I thought it was my computer, but no. The game just really struggles with bringing up the menu after you lose. It makes starting over or backing out after the sting of defeat just irritating now. If it's because you wanted to add the live update to hi-scores, it's not worth the drag it adds to trying to restart a run to see the hi-score then and there. And at a defeat in the story mode, seeing the hi-score just sort of feels mocking cause you know most of us ain't hitting the numbers we're seeing there, once again adding to that sting of defeat.
- There's an achievement called "You Can Play Vario Now." You could do a Vario mode in the previous game. I went out of my way to get this achievement so that I could do Vario mode again. It does not let you play vario mode. I was lied to and it sort of made me feel like I wasted my time I won't lie, even if I didn't have too hard of a time and I enjoy the game.
-Survival is a downgrade to Endless Mode. Endless gives you that arcade actually trying to survive feel. Survival just feels excessively cruel. Endless you could at least have a smidge of pride getting so far. Survival comes straight out the gate kicking you in the gut with no build up.

Actually nothing compared to the original game. The game punishes you by taking away your combo for no reason during some transitional periods due to enemies not spawning fast enough. The catacombs audio queues are wildly misleading for where and sometimes when things spawn. Some hit boxes are not accurate for the player character.

Music is still good though.

I was gifted this game recently because I owned Savant Ascent. While I do appreciate the gift, I must say the following.
This is a terrible game. It's one of those beyond basic games where you have only 2 platforms where you can jump, left or right, and you shoot all enemies around you. It's bad, frustrating and not entertaining.
Also it's incredibly short.
Also I don't like the graphics style, nor the charachters, nor the soundtrack that most players praise.
I will never understand why I bought Savant Ascent a few years ago. It's one of the worst games I ever played in my life.

The game is currently in a pretty unfinished, beta-state, but the developers have been putting in decent work to continually make the game more fun. The game should not have been released in this state. A poor experience at a surprisingly high price compared to the original game.

Buy the original, superior game instead.

I liked the original game. The vibe, the music, the gameplay. I came back for more and better but instead I got... different... and in my opinion - worse.

Music: downgrade, from distinct and soulful electro-Savant we're getting orchestra/overture Savant which on it's own is still good but...

Vibe: ...we lost the vibe of original game. I loved killing kettles to the sound of some hardcore dnb and dubstep. It was great time. On the other hand orchestras are overutilized in the games and it made it feel generic.

Gameplay: just very personal - i miss stacking boost by spinning and finding cool techniques and strategies to style on enemies. I might be wrong, but this one feels very one dimensional on this field. Not fun.
Samurai fight changed from spectacle/puzzle perfectly synced to great song into almost same thing but in every aspect worse. Also you get punished for being slower to kill him, not very good mechanic for new players :)

Graphics: not much changes. Still looks great.

Summary: I got it for free because I own OG game and I am actually surprised by this, I literally found it by trying to buy the game... but in the end I'm glad I didn't spend money on this one. Play original one. It's really fun, altho short and sweet style.

I don't like developer duplicated the game. I don't like that now I have 2 same titles (second is with REMIX word in title). I don't like developer added new achievements long after I completed the game 100%. Now I have 80%. I don't recommend because of this practices.

For owners of the original game, it's free! And you get what you pay for...

First, the most annoying issue: the control scheme is wonky and unclear. The most frustrating way this manifests for me is, on both Deck and desktop it is impossible to properly toggle and/or confirm changes to settings such as screen resolution. No matter what I do, it always ends up reverted to default. This is arguably worse on Deck ('verified', MY AZZ, per usual) because running games above native resolution [on Deck] "may lead to degraded performance" I've heard it said--but again, 1080p seems to be the only allowed resolution regardless of device. This issue also made it impossible to configure or confirm music tracklist/playlist changes and settings, at least on Deck. I didn't bother trying that out on desktop because...

Apparently cloud saves don't work properly, either. None of my progress from Deck persisted or carried over when I tried the game out on Windows 10 desktop just now. Therefore I didn't have any unlocked tracks to experiment with inside of the playlist feature.

The game lags massively during and after game over screen, especially on Deck.

In Hardcore mode, restarting or retrying refills my 'meter' despite Hardcore mode's description saying 'start with empty meter'. This leads me to believe I'm no longer playing in Hardcore mode, so I'm encouraged to exit to main menu every time.

Maybe I'll check out the original game again instead.