The Ascent Review – Mindless Mechanical Mayhem

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Reviewed on: PC
Also on: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Publisher: Curve Digital
Developer: Neon Giant
Rating: Mature

From the iconic works of Philip K. Dick to the seminal table-top RPG by Mike Pondsmith, fans of the cyberpunk genre are familiar with the theme of characters in search of an identity and purpose. The Ascent suffers from a similar identity crisis in its attempts to pull from dungeon-crawling RPGs and twin-stick shooters, but it never ascends to the heights of either genre. This mindlessly fun co-op experience features bombastic gunplay, engaging cybernetic abilities, and a visually impressive world to wreak havoc in.

The Ascent takes place in the tech-obsessed world of Veles, controlled by maniacal corporations, and players control an indentured laborer who becomes wrapped up in a mystery as they battle for their freedom. While I enjoy the cyberpunk genre, The Ascent’s grating narrative contains all my least favorite tropes: incessant expletives, human rights abominations, and a profoundly bleak world. Those tropes aren’t inherently bad when handled with nuance, but the main story never dives into anything of substance, making those dark themes more set dressing than meaningful commentary. Combine that with a lot of confusing jargon and lore, and I found myself wanting to skip through dialogue to get back to what the game does best: turning you into a cybernetic warrior.

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Combat is The Ascent’s main strength. The moment-to-moment gunplay is exhilarating, with waves of varied baddies headed your way at virtually every moment. Developer Neon Giant also ups the fun with a diverse inventory of weapons and some truly fantastic augmentations and tactical weapons that can send enemies flying. Some of my favorite moments included blowing away corporate goons with a rocket-spitting Gatling gun then finishing them off with a devastating energy punch.

While most of the fights left me satisfied (if not overwhelmed, but more on that later), the combat grows slightly monotonous as the game goes on. Through an upgrade vendor, I started to find my favorite weapons and boost them, which outpowered most loot drops, making them largely irrelevant. That lack of variation also extends to your armor as well.

The Ascent is a shallow RPG experience, with stats that don’t always feel purposeful. I was always thankful to have points to boost my health and energy levels, but I found some of the other categories and even the armor inconsequential outside of the generic protection buffs. It’s hard to know what specific attacks you’re even trying to protect against. I seldom paid attention to attributes such as fire protection because I could usually blaze through enemies with the right tactics and augmentations. That was especially true when playing with others when the onscreen tumult becomes extremely difficult to track.

The Ascent is best experienced in co-op. Up to four players can enjoyably play the majority of The Ascent’s 15-20 hour story. The bombastic fights are more manageable with a team alongside you, and the combat starts to sing when you’re synched with explosive weaponry and chaotic augmentations.

While co-op is the highlight, co-op play still has a plethora of annoyances. A limited pool of health drops aided in my team’s demise, as the number of HP pickups doesn’t seem to scale to the greater player count. It is also hard to find your partners in the world as player indicators blend in with the rest of the map. That problem is exacerbated thanks to a surprisingly large play space. My other complaint is how progress is handled. I jumped into a coworker’s game for a few hours, only to find my progress was utterly gone because I wasn’t hosting the match.

Co-op is the main draw, but solo players shouldn’t despair. Half of my time was spent on my own, and I still enjoyed the experience with some caveats. Picking up health is easier alone, but I grew frustrated in many encounters as I was quickly overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies ­– it seems that the game was balanced with co-op in mind. These encounters aren’t impossible, but you’ll have to play smarter and plan your augmentations instead of the normal running and gunning.

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The game’s other great strength lies within its presentation. Neon Giant has crammed a staggering amount of detail into the world. Each corner of Veles is disgusting in the best sort of way, with its denizens throwing garbage onto the dilapidated metal plates of the sprawling megacity. The game’s lighting is equally beautiful if, at times, a little bit of a neon-soaked strain on the eyes. The camera work is also impressive and moves in cinematic and engaging ways. Finally, the music hits a high mark, with clear callbacks to iconic sci-fi fiction of the past, such as Vangelis’ work on the original Blade Runner film.

The world of Veles is worth exploring, but doing so can also be a hassle. I was grateful for the fast travel points, but it still takes too long to get from point to point. I also found my co-op partners and I sometimes had the same objective, but our tracker would occasionally take us in entirely different directions. It also didn’t help that we’d consistently run into groups of overpowered baddies that would instantly shred us. Neon Giant does a great job of rewarding curiosity with loot, but I found myself exploring less out of fear of another ambush and a game over screen as time went on.

The Ascent has issues, but those issues don’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the game. I won’t write my thesis on its commentary on capitalism, but I’ll fondly remember my co-op sessions where I tore through this cyberpunk world. That being said, the shallow RPG elements, lack of meaningful narrative, and exploration frustration were constants that really dragged the experience down. Neon Giant has made a solid foundation to build on, and I hope we can see future installments grow into something truly worthy of ascension.

Score: 7.25

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Concept: Command a cybernetic warrior through the cyberpunk streets of this twin-stick shooter/RPG hybrid

Graphics: The neon-clad lighting, the sheer amount of detail, and overall visual fidelity is wildly impressive, especially when combined with some beautiful cinematic camera movements

Sound: The soundtrack is a highlight, with clear inspiration from some of the most iconic sci-fi scores in entertainment

Playability: Blasting cybernetic baddies feels excellent when combined with exciting augmentations that can obliterate your enemies in the blink of an eye

Entertainment: The Ascent is a mindlessly fun co-op experience that is easy to pick up and play with an emphasis on quick-hitting gunfights and enjoyable cybernetic abilities

Replay: Moderate

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Tiny Tina's Wonderlands Review – A Spellbinding Hit

Reviewed on: PC
Also on: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Gearbox Software
Rating: Teen

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is Gearbox Software's best game. Built upon the studio's successful Borderlands formula, this experience adds a whimsical element to the familiar looter-shooter thrills and delivers so much firepower to your fingertips you'd think you were wearing the Infinity Gauntlet. Caked in silliness and always trying to make you laugh, Wonderlands hits with distinct charm and handles its characters and world with care, making you engage with both on a journey I didn't want to end.

From the outset of play, we learn that Borderlands mainstay Tiny Tina has invited a few of her friends to play a tabletop game called Bunkers & Badasses, which is essentially Borderlands' version of Dungeons & Dragons. Tina is the game's Dungeon Master, and you are the party's newest recruit – a hero of your design, right down to the deep class proficiencies and facial feature detailing.

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Playful chemistry is established immediately between Tina and her friends, each bringing humor-filled banter and the sensation they know each other well. Tina is once again brilliantly brought to life by Ashly Burch, who plays well with the careless adventuring qualities of Captain Valentine (Andy Samberg), the strict rules-driven guidance of robot Frette (Wanda Sykes), and the dishonest and vile virtues of the Dragon Lord (Will Arnett). These powerful personalities often entertain and make questing an absolute blast, as you never know how they will react to the situation. The story bounces between Tina and her cohorts sitting at the board game table to discuss the next chapter in the adventure, and your character dreaming it up and traveling into that scenario, a point where control is given to the player. This story flow works incredibly well and is a nice way to bookend chapters and set up the next event at hand.

Tina has the most influence over the quest and can use her god-like powers to alter it at any time. With her imagination leading the way, she can turn an ordinary forest into a magical mushroom kingdom – a stunning visual transformation you witness as you run through the environment. Your party members also influence the world and can propose their character do something to overcome a challenge, such as Valentine romancing a drawbridge to make it open or the team collectively figuring out how to remove a cheese curl from the board. The situations are often zany, nicely penned, and fun to see through to the end.

The missions draw you in with humorous setups and shine in combat, giving good reasons to unleash everything you have in your arsenal. Borderlands' overindulgence in weapons is alive and well in Wonderlands and is made better with the wide selection of spells. The gunplay is highly polished and feels like Borderlands, but packs more of a punch through the fantasy elements. For instance, in a battle against land sharks, I alternated use between a crossbow that fired explosives and an acid gun that chained enemies together in a gooey spray. My pet wyvern barfed fire on these foes as it swooped onto the battlefield, and I added elemental chaos to the mix by firing electrical crows from my fingertips. If an adversary somehow survived this frenzied onslaught, I could smash them with a massive hammer that creates an earthquake. You start the game plenty powerful and reach the point of being a ridiculous war machine at the midway point when class blending is enabled – a proposition that is downright awesome.

The loot enemies drop can completely change loadouts and approaches to combat. Most of the weapons are awesomely unique, melding fantasy tropes with modern weaponry to create something to behold. The devastation that the rarer weapons unleash gives plenty of incentive to scour environments for secret stashes and take on side activities. I also enjoyed diving into smaller wave-based dungeons to earn items that unlock even bigger secrets. Thanks to smooth platforming mechanics and cleverly hidden areas, exploring the world is good fun. There's plenty to keep you occupied, including story-rich side missions that scale with you and never become too easy, and a great post-game dungeon called the Chaos Chamber that changes every time you enter it. This endless gauntlet is a nice way to grind out levels and unlock the Myth rank.

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Borderlands' DNA is recognizable throughout most of Wonderlands, except for the overworld, which has more in common with an old Final Fantasy game. The viewpoint switches from first person to isometric when you enter it, and you can no longer engage in combat. The overworld removes most of the downtime experienced in the Borderlands games. You move between areas quickly and within seconds can engage in any activity. The overworld holds many secrets, just as much humor, and does an excellent job of charting progress, so you know what you've accomplished and still need to mop up.

Wonderlands' cooperative play couldn't be any better, offering an experience where everyone has equal footing on the battlefield. A level 5 player will encounter a level 5 enemy, whereas that same foe reads level 20 for a level 20 player – meaning you don't need to grind for XP or power level to play with friends. Players can also determine how loot is divvied up, allowing for everyone to get their own drops or for it to be shared. Crossplay and split-screen are both offered, but I did not get the chance to check out either during my review.

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Wonderlands is upbeat and fun from start to finish, offering a rewarding adventure filled with goofy characters, imaginative bosses, and a great sense of ownership over your character through it all. Even with one of Borderlands' most loved characters leading the charge, this experience feels like the start of something new: a rare spinout from an existing series that deserves just as much of the spotlight. As someone who has played plenty of Dungeons & Dragons, I adored how often Wonderlands reminded me of rolling a 20-sided die with friends. It’s a love letter to on-the-spot creativity and friends enjoying each other’s company in a make-believe world.

Score: 9.5

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Kirby and the Forgotten Land Review - Stretching Into A New Dimension

Reviewed on: Switch
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: HAL Laboratory
Rating: Everyone 10+

Nintendo’s insatiable pink mascot finally has his first full-featured 3D adventure with Kirby and the Forgotten Land. After being sucked into a mysterious vortex (oh, how the tables have turned), he finds himself transported to what looks to be an unknown post-apocalyptic world. By building upon his old bag of tricks and adding successful new gimmicks like Mouthful Mode, Kirby makes a fantastic transition to the third dimension. 

Kirby’s classic suite of abilities are all here and are as fun to use as ever, only now he’s able to use them in 3D space. He can jump and float as well as vacuum enemies and items into his mouth to fire them out at targets. I rarely felt like I wasn’t in control and I’m able to platform with precision when it’s required. The series’ staple of copy abilities that let Kirby absorb an enemy’s powers and use them as his own is, as always, the foundation of his arsenal. These copied powers range from giving Kirby a sword, making him a Katamari-like rolling ball of needles, and creating massive, screen-clearing explosions with the Crash ability.

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Abilities can be upgraded in Waddle Dee Town after finding corresponding blueprints in levels. These upgrades add new twists and tweaks to each style of attack. My favorite is the evolution of the Bomb skill, which trades regular, rollable bombs for ones that chain together, causing larger explosions the more that are attached to one another. And later, another evolution allows for homing explosives. These more powerful takes on abilities are swappable with their earlier versions, but while there are probably use cases for each variation, I never found a reason to look back after upgrading. When Kirby’s natural talents aren’t enough to get him through certain obstacles, he can stretch into a new realm of transformations in the Forgotten Land.

Mouthful Mode is a new tool at Kirby’s disposal that allows him to vacuum up large objects with awkward shapes, stretching Kirby’s form around it to take control to solve puzzles. With a mouthful of traffic cone, Kirby can slam the cone-tip into cracks in the ground to break through to what’s beneath. Or, after eating a car, he can speed around the level and bust through obstacles with ease. These Mouthful objects are found in just about every level, and while usually confined to certain areas to be used for a specific purpose, the game allows for more flexibility to take these forms through levels than I expected. Just about every Mouthful form is great for taking out any Beast Pack minions in and around the area, and it's an opportunity I take whenever it's presented. Often, if a level doesn’t force Kirby to cough up one of these abilities when expected, there’s a reason for it, making for an opportunity to explore even further. Mouthful Mode is a lot of fun and does a great job of breaking up each level, and each transformation brings a different pace and gameplay hook to mess around with. Plus, it easily brings a smile to my face whenever Kirby finds another ridiculous and helpful gadget to envelop.

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While I enjoy just about everything about Kirby’s moveset, I have a couple of tiny grievances to air. One unfortunate side effect of moving to 3D is that Kirby sometimes has an arbitrary limit to vertical movement, capping his ascent far lower than expected. It’s not a huge problem, but it’s frustrating when I can’t jump up to a surface that looks scalable, while other times, I can make daring escapes from pits with ease. Also, the overall speed of the gameplay is much slower than other Nintendo platformers, making exploration sluggish. This is made up for a bit with fun exploration and abilities that can sometimes accelerate the speed at which Kirby moves throughout the varied areas of the new world he’s been stranded on.

Kirby finds himself in this land full of overgrown malls, towns, and theme parks; all of the original residents of these areas are long gone. The setting is quite different from the typical worlds Kirby visits, and despite the appearance of the lands’ society crumbling into ruin, the game doesn’t dwell on the mystery of why everyone is missing. That’s not to say it isn’t addressed, but the game instead focuses on the urgency of saving the missing Waddle Dees and recovering their ransacked village from the ones who kidnapped the residents.

Occupying the Forgotten Land now is the Beast Pack, a formidable force of animals led by tough monstrous bosses that have kidnapped the Waddle Dees and serve as tentpole boss fights at the conclusion to each world. Bosses are given open arenas to do battle in where the camera focuses on them, unlike the usually fixed camera angles present in the rest of the game’s stages. This gives them a big fight feel. At times, these bosses, like the agile cheetah Clawroline or goofy dancing armadillo Sillydillo, offer complex moves to evade and make battles pleasantly play out like a third-person action title rather than a platformer. I loved learning the patterns of these big bads and conquering them using whichever Copy Ability I happened to have on hand.

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Each level starts with a striking establishing shot to set the scene, often highlighting the beauty of the once-lived-in locations. Forgotten Land looks great, often merging Kirby’s typically whimsical style while accentuating the more realistic areas. Hal’s use of textures, lighting, and depth of field make the game’s environments and important cinematic shots shine. 

Once let loose on a stage, Kirby’s primary goal is to rescue the caged Waddle Dee’s found at the end of every somewhat linear, yet explorable, level. Additionally, there are a handful of secondary mystery objectives peppered throughout each area, offering even more Waddle Dees as rewards for completing them. I enjoyed seeking out secret rooms, finding and tearing down wanted posters, or consuming a certain number of donuts. It’s a natural way to extend my visit to each level, and I find myself returning to unfinished tasks to search every nook and cranny and fully complete a level. The mainline levels aren’t all that difficult, leaning more on general exploration than platforming prowess. That’s not to say there aren’t tough moments, but the difficulty I often craved was to be found elsewhere in the world.

Accompanying the standard levels in each world are extra stages called Treasure Road, which are challenges that I loved going out of my way to complete. These provide Kirby with a specific Copy Ability or Mouthful form the level is built around and tasks the player to finish the stage in a certain amount of time. Completing a level of Treasure Road supplies a precious Rare Stone, which can be cashed in for ability evolutions, making these side missions worth playing. These helped me recognize the nuances of Kirby’s many abilities and were a lot of fun to solve and complete the task at hand. Each Treasure Road level has an even tighter target time to hit, rewarding some additional coins, which keeps me coming back to try to hit those more demanding times.

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I enjoyed the loop of completing the main levels, hitting the Treasure Road stages that opened, heading back to Waddle Dee Town to see what new buildings were available, and evolving my Copy Abilities with Rare Stones and blueprints I found on my journey. There always feels like there’s something new to check out, fueling the urge to dive into another level. Even the minigames that unlock in town, like a simplified foodservice game inspired by games like Cook, Serve, Delicious or angling in a fishing hole, are fun diversions. More challenging tasks such as the boss rush available at the colosseum rewards welcome items like blueprints, coins, or other collectibles.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land is great and should not be missed for Kirby and platforming fans alike. This isn’t quite the pink puff’s rendition of Super Mario 64, but it brings the series successfully into the 3D realm and doesn’t need to rely solely on its latest entertaining gimmick. Kirby thankfully remains as charming as ever and this new adventure can effortlessly provide hours of glee.

Score: 9

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