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Category Archives: Cyberpunk

Next-Gen Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher 3 still coming 2021 …

Posted: October 19, 2021 at 10:01 pm

CD Projekt Red is still pushing to release next-gen versions of Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 in 2021or so the developer hopes.

As CDPR mothership CD Projekt Group held its H1 2021 financial earnings presentation with investors this week, it put its ongoing support for Cyberpunk front and center. The company's public report highlights the high number of patches and hotfix additions added to the game since launch, improved performance across platforms, and Cyberpunk's recent re-addition to the PlayStation Store after Sony pulled the title from its digital storefronts in December. The incremental experience fans have been getting, the report suggests, is slowly improving.

Joint CEO Adam Kiciski even reiterated during the presentation that continued improvements to Cyberpunk will be the company's top-priority for "as long as it takes." (He also noted that, despite its myriad issues, the game was the leading revenue driver for CDPR in the first half of 2021.)

But CD ProjektRed stopped short of offering a guarantee that its next-gen ports ofCyberpunk and Witcher 3 would absolutely be out this yearonly that "late 2021" was its goal. The public report gives little context for Cyberpunk personnel. Instead, it lumps together over a third of its current staff under the same yellow bar and says those employees are working on fixes for the current release and developing the next-gen version. The report doesn't differentiate the percentages of how much is going to each project or how many employees are working on these projects in total.

The call confirmed the ongoing situation, which is that the number of current employees supporting fixes to Cyberpunk would continue to decrease each month. This likely indicates a gradual increase of staff from the original release to the next-gen version. Whether or not that could change the outcome of the next-gen's eventual launch remains to be seen, though per the report, the company expects the number of developers working on Cyberpunk overall to increase to more than half the company's total number of employees.

While decidedly improved since its launch in November, Cyberpunk is still a mess. Players in the game's Reddit community continue to routinely share videos of their player-character (known as V) and other characters falling victim to random animation and physics glitches, cars spawning from out of the sky or getting stuck in geometry, and players' own rides even, uh, exploding out of each other if you try to summon too many at once. A bug that clones NPCs has plagued the game since launch, and the introduction of patch 1.3 in August seems to have, for whatever reason, made the bug even worse.

Cyberpunk 2077 isn't totally unplayable at this point. Its latest patch added a number of long-requested features, like an improved mini-map, more save slots on top of a new vehicle, and some cosmetic additions for Johnny Silverhand and V, which are the first of the many promised free DLC drops. Still, CDPR has a long road ahead before the game might be considered "finished"longtime Witcher fans may remember it took years for the developer to iron out all of Witcher 3's kinks. In the meantime, Cyberpunk fans at least appear to be having fun with the seemingly never-ending cascade of problems.

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Next-Gen Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher 3 still coming 2021 ...

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Lifepath | Cyberpunk Wiki | Fandom

Posted: at 10:01 pm

Lifepath is the player defined backstory to your characters. The Lifepath is featured in all forms of the pen & paper RPG Cyberpunk, as well as the 2020 video game Cyberpunk 2077.

A Lifepath is a system used in character generation within the Cyberpunk pen and paper series. It is a method for figuring out a character's background and personal history. The system works like a set of flowcharts, each numbered for randomly-generated results. This serves as a list of "plot complications" that helps round out a character so players are not left playing a nameless generic archetype.

The Cyberpunk Lifepath is very open to new players, in the way that that a Cyberpunk character cannot be killed or maimed in the middle of character creation.

The specific Lifepath options and topics deal with dress & personal style, ethnic origins, family background, personal motivations, major life events, as well as finding and/or losing friends, enemies, and lovers.

In Cyberpunk Red, the Lifepath system has an added Class Lifepath system, in order to determine how a player's chosen role functions in their job, with options and topics dealing in Runner choice, corporation employment, divisions, and morality, optional partnership, workspaces, clientele, equipment procurement, and personal relationships.

The Cyberpunk 2077 video game offers three defining lifepath options to choose the backstory for the player character, V. The lifepath alters the beginning of the game, offering three varied opening chapters as well as offering additional benefits, quests and dialogue options throughout the game.

Cyberpunk 2077 Lifepaths

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Lifepath | Cyberpunk Wiki | Fandom

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Cyberpunk 2077: What We Want To See in The 1.4 Update – Gameranx

Posted: at 10:01 pm

Cyberpunk 2077 has been in repair mode since the day it was released. The buggy mess that was so bad, Sony pulled it from the PlayStation store didnt just miss expectations, it cratered any goodwill the game had pre-release. Since last year, CD Projekt Red has been working hard to try and get the game up to a functioning state.

As such, not only have we not seen any new content added to the game, but weve even seen some content removed while CDPR works on getting it up to scratch. Almost one year later, and the game is getting to where it needs to be. An awful lot of bugs have been ironed out, some of the biggest complaints about the game have been fixed and the next-gen update is still scheduled to release this year. So, what is next for Cyberpunk 2077?

Ideally, in the 1.4 update, we will start to see actual updates to the game rather than just fixes to what is already there. The patch notes for the 1.3 update were basically a whole book, so its not unreasonable to expect a lot from 1.4.

A recent hiring spree from CDPR suggests that extensive DLC is on the way for Cyberpunk 2077. CDPR has been hiring dozens of employees specifically for post-release content for the game. Perhaps that means that whatever is in the 1.4 update brings the game to a level where CDPR is ready to move away from disaster control. That doesnt mean we will see a whole host of DLC in the 1.4 update but it is a good indication of where CDPR is heading with the game. Its safe to say that we will likely see some kind of DLC in 1.4. In 1.3, CDPR dipped their toe in the DLC pool with some minor content. With the next-gen update still on the way this year, it would make sense for update 1.4 to start adding more major DLC to hype players back up for the game.

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Big Budget Games Including CYBERPUNK 2077, STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC + DEAD SPACE 2: Video Games That Cost More Than Movies – The Fan Carpet

Posted: at 10:01 pm

Whilst some of the biggest movies to be produced nowadays cost hundreds of millions of dollars, you may be shocked to know that some of the big budget video games are closing in - and even surpassing that cost.

Not all games cost a small fortune to make, however. Games like Counter-Strike were a mod of the original Half Life Games that first sprung onto our consoles back in 1998. Since then CSGO has transformed into a multi-billion dollar platform. CS:GO generates millions from their regular tournaments which are shown to hundreds of countries around the world. CSGO skins also make Valve a lot of cash and people can obtain new CS:GO items through the Steam marketplace or trading sites to get new skins which they can use in game.

The average big blockbuster film costs around $100 million to make - with DC comics, Star Wars and Marvel films putting that number to shame. Whilst most video games will come way under that number budget wise, some are surprisingly expensive to make. Heres a list of some of the most expensive games to make - with some that may surprise you!

Cyberpunk 2077 - $316 million

Aiming to set the bar for sci-fi role playing games, Cyberpunk was set to have it all. Customisable characters, branching storylines and even Hollywood legend Keanu Reeves as a main character to boot.

The story doesnt end well though. The launch in September 2020 proved the game was far from ready - even with the huge budget - and it was quickly shunned by the community due to its numerous bugs and the console version having graphics a mid-2000s Nokia could compete with.

Grand Theft Auto V - Up to $265 million

This game was obviously going to make the list. Spanning 4 different generations of consoles and still going strong with the online element after almost 9 years, Grand Theft Auto V - or GTA V - is one of the most expensive games ever produced, with estimates of costs going all the way up to $265 million.

The marketing costs alone are rumoured to be around the $100 million mark. Although unlike Cyberpunk 2077, this is still one of the most popular games around to play online, thanks to the impressive and extensive Grand Theft Auto Online element that is still being updated with new items.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - $250 million

The memories of this game are etched onto every FPS loving teenager's brain. Published by Activision and developed by Infinity Ward, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 built on the success of the first in the series, which was a groundbreaking first person shooter that literally changed the face of shooting games to come.

Reportedly, only around $50 million was actually spent on developing the game. The rest - a huge $200 million - was spent purely on marketing. The game took after its predecessor in popularity and managed to sell 4 million copies and rake in huge profits for Infinity Ward and Activision.

Star Wars: The Old Republic - $200 Million

Launching in 2011 as an MMORPG, this game ties into the epic Star Wars universe and expands on the premise of the films. The main plot is about the battle between the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic. Produced by Bioware, the actual budget for this game has never been disclosed, but sources have judged the game to be closing have cost somewhere to the tune of $200 million, making it one of the most expensive games of all time.

Most of that was spent on marketing, but some of the costs can be put down to the 800 employees that worked tirelessly on the game for 6 long years or the 1,000 different actors that were required to supply all of the lines of dialogue for the 4,000 different voiced characters!

Final Fantasy VIII - $145 million

The original Final Fantasy VIII is one of the most loved in the series that spans over 100 different games and spin offs. The hit role playing game was released back in 1997 and players quickly fell in love with the quirky cast of characters - from the huge sword wielding protagonist Cloud Strife to the stuffed toy thats controlled by a cat wearing a crown AKA Cait Sith.

Its no big shock that the budget was enormous for the sprawling tale that spanned 3 discs was reportedly $145 million, with $100 million of that solely on the marketing.

Destiny - $140 million

Released in 2014 for the most popular consoles of the time, Destiny allowed players to take up the mantle of a Guardian, a bad ass looking hero who had been tasked with saving the earth from different invading alien enemies. Having such a huge scope, the big budget was almost a given.

Rumours quickly circulated that Bungie, the studio behind the game, had worked up a whopping half a billion dollars - $500 million - for the budget. These rumours were shot down, and the real estimates for the production are around $140 million. As for the marketing, no one knows. But the game was a huge commercial success, raking in over $325 million.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider - $135 million

Tomb Raider has had a great run of success with multiple movies coming out starring A-List celebrities and 19 games in the series. This game, published by Square Enix and developed by Eidos is the second in the series reboot on new consoles and follows on from the 2015 game about Lara Croft's early days as an explorer.

This is one of the only games on the list that didnt spend most of the budget on the marketing - the estimated costs of $135 million were guessed to have been divided up with up to $100 million on developing and creating the game and only 35 million on marketing.

Dead Space 2 - $120 Million

The last game on our list coming in at a hefty $120 million estimate is the space horror game Dead Space 2. Published by video game giants Electronic Arts and developed by Visceral Games, this was the sequel to Dead Space, which was critically acclaimed for its unique space horror theme, creepy looking enemies and tense atmosphere.

The sequel added a few new elements into the mix - such as multiplayer - and brought back Isaac Clarke, the protagonist from the first game. Dead Space 2 didnt get as much praise as the first and was considered a commercial flop, not selling as many units as was projected - even with its 60 million dollar marketing budget.

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Big Budget Games Including CYBERPUNK 2077, STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC + DEAD SPACE 2: Video Games That Cost More Than Movies - The Fan Carpet

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Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.4: Will There Be More DLC Content? – GIVEMESPORT

Posted: at 10:01 pm

Cyberpunk 2077 is still being patched and CD Projekt Red are attempting to bring the game up to playable standards, but will there be more DLC with the new patch?

CDPR tends to offer a wealth of post-launch extras for their major titles, but with the botched release of Cyberpunk, it may take longer than expected for more content to be released as the game gets patched.

Heres everything we know about Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.4 and whether there will be more DLC content being released.

It was recently confirmed that CDPR is hiring for 60 positions in the company relating to 'Future Cyberpunk 2077 content.'

Most of these new roles appear to be animation-focused jobs, however it does appear to show CDPRs desire to add some substantial post-launch DLC content for the game.

Some believed that CDPR would be dropping the game altogether, considering the critical and fan reception to the litany of bugs that continue to plague the game as it stands.

There is some hope for players, as another massive CDPR IP, The Witcher 3, got two massive DLC drops during the lifecycle of the game.

Granted, Witcher 3 was not released with the massive amount of bugs and issues that Cyberpunk was, but there is still an opportunity for the game to be turned around and patched to the point that the still fairly substantial fanbase can be proud of.

Read More: Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.4 Update: Release Date, Roadmap, Patch Notes and Everything We Know So Far

It has not been confirmed if any new DLC content is going to be released as part of Patch 1.4, although it is likely that this major new patch will be focusing mainly on the core gameplay and glitches that are still present.

It could be some time until CDPR feel they are in a position to roll out extra content for the game, which could still make a No Mans Sky-like turnaround in the next 6 months or so.

With the reported addition of new roles at CDPR for Cyberpunk, there will at least be new content released at some point and the project itself has not been droppedhopefully.

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First teaser trailer for the first-person sci-fi thriller from former The Witcher 3 & Cyberpunk 2077 devs – DSOGaming

Posted: at 10:01 pm

Last month, we informed you about The Invincible; a new first-person sci-fi thriller from former The Witcher 3 & Cyberpunk 2077 developers. And yesterday, Starward Industries released the first teaser trailer for it.

In this game, players will assume the role of a space scientist on a hostile planet. Players will embark on a mysterious mission to find the missing crew of your spaceship.

The game targets a 2022 release date, and below you can find its key features.

John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved - and still does - the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the "The Evolution of PC graphics cards."Contact: Email

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The most hyped video games that were underwhelming – For The Win

Posted: at 10:01 pm

When the world first saw the teaser for Cyberpunk 2077, nobody could believe such a game could be produced with todays technology. Well, nine years later, the game dropped in a wave of hype that felt more like a tsunami. Promotions, collaborations, exclusive merch, announcements, gameplay promises

Everything came to a halt when it finally came out. It might have had Keanu Reeves as one of the main characters, but there was something else from the John Wick star there, too a glitch in the matrix. Well, more than one, actually. Cyberpunk 2077 is more bug-filled than that Pixar movie about ants. Your character T-poses, naked out of the top of your car as you drive. NPCs drive through other cars on the road. Physics objects randomly shoot into the stratosphere before falling back down to ground level. It is chaos.

And thats not even counting the base console releases for Xbox One and PS4, where the game couldnt even load without culling most of the world. Playing the game on last-gen consoles is like going to a nightclub at 10 a.m.

CD Projekt Red will surely turn things around in time, but playing Cyberpunk 2077 at launch was like finding Keanu Reeves living in your head before realizing he actually hates you.

Written by Plamena Katsarova on behalf of GLHF.

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The most hyped video games that were underwhelming - For The Win

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Playing Cyberpunk 2077 How Its Supposed To Be Played Is Lifechanging – Forbes

Posted: October 11, 2021 at 11:09 am

Cyberpunk 2077

Yesterday, I got a new PC from PowerGPU after my old one died last week. I could have repaired it, and I probably still will, but I figured it was time for an upgrade anyway.

The first game I installed after I got it set up? Cyberpunk 2077. Not because Im dying to go back and talk to Hanako for the twelfth time, but because I wanted to see how it looked on my new machine. And what I found was further evidence of how badly CDPR screwed up this launch, and how things could have gone an entirely different direction.

Ive played Cyberpunk 2077 through about two and a half times now. My first playthrough was on my Xbox Series X running an Xbox One X version of the game. My second was on PC, running the game on my 2060, which was enough to make it certainly look better than the last-gen console version, and yet my build was not powerful enough to turn on raytracing without frames dropping into unplayability.

So, here we are nearly a year later. I now have a 3080, I am playing on a brand new $3,000 machine. We have had 10 months worth of performance patches and fixes.

And finally, finally Cyberpunk looks and feels like the transformative game it could have been, if it had resisted the temptation to both release too early and to cater to last generation consoles.

Cyberpunk 2077

With my PC now, I can play on max settings, and turn raytracing up to Psycho levels. Thats literally what the setting is called, Psycho. This results in dramatic transformation of the lighting in the game, particularly at night, where you can now see things like reflections of the neon street signs in road puddles and car windows.

In general, the game looks absolutely incredible now, and Ive been entertaining myself wandering around, taking the screenshots you see here. And its doing all of this while not dropping at frames at all, running smoothly.

The problem, of course, is obvious. I am on a computer that costs $3K. This is not the first game to run much better on an expensive machine, and yet the gulf here between not just an ultra PC and PS4/Xbox One, but also the current Series X and PS5 versions, or even a lesser PC, is massive. And what percentage of the playerbase has experienced a game that looks and plays like this? 1%? 0.1%? If that.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 should never have been released for last-gen consoles. Maybe that is incorrect from a sales perspective, as the game moved 15+ million units, many of those on those consoles, and yet from a reputation perspective, if CDPR had waited and produced a Series X/PS5 version that was close to this level of visual fidelity, the entire narrative around the game would have changed. And yet here we are a year later and were still not even sure that version is going to make it out this year.

I have never experienced a transformation quite like this, at least in terms of visuals. The core problems with Cyberpunk 2077 remain of course, and are not PC-dependent (enemy AI, game difficulty), but this could have easily been highly praised for a host of other reasons had it not released on consoles where it looked terrible and barely ran at all at launch.

My advice remains not to pick up Cyberpunk if you havent yet until the Series X and PS5 versions come out, as if theyre anywhere close to this, it will be a transformative experience. Everyone should get to experience the game like this, but only a tiny fraction ever will.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels theHerokiller series and its audiobook, andThe Earthborn Trilogy, also onaudiobook.

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Friendship Ended With Cyberpunk, Now ANNO: Mutationem Is New Best Friend – Kotaku

Posted: at 11:09 am

Gif: Kotaku / ThinkingStars

During the Steam Next Fest, a week-long event featuring demos and previews for upcoming games, one game called out to me from the crowd: the cyberpunk role-playing game ANNO: Mutationem. The trailer alone felt specifically designed to lure me in, with its rhythmic soundtrack, its neon-drenched cityscape, and its badass female lead chopping up mechas with a laser sword. I was smitten.

Designed by ThinkingStars, ANNO: Mutationem is an action-adventure game in which you play as Ann Flores, a highly-skilled combat-trained lone wolf, as she faces off against mega-corporations in pursuit of her missing brother. If her description reminds you of Ghost in the Shells Motoko Kusanagi, well, youre not off-base. Right off the bat, ANNOs aesthetic recalls the iconic cyberpunk stories that came before it like Ghost in the Shell, The Matrix, and Blade Runner. In the demo, Anno even wakes up from bed and opens her blinds just like GITS Major Kusanagi, wears a similar skin-tight combat suit, and has a scripted scene where she looks out at the citys skyline, like a pixel art version of Rick Deckard looking over Blade Runners dystopian Los Angeles. ANNOs obvious inspirations dont dip into parody though; instead they provide a familiar foundation from which the game jumps off to tell its own story.

READ MORE: Heres Everything You Can Play During Steams Big October Event

An iconic moment from the 1995 film Ghost in the Shell where Motoko Kusanagi greets the morning from her apartment. Screenshot: Kotaku / Production I.G

Similarly to Kusanagi, Anno awakens from a dream to see the false night sky of Skopp City. Screenshot: Kotaku / ThinkingStars

The demo follows Ann as she visits Alan Doyle, her cybernetics doctor, to discover who has been hacking her virtual assistant. Naturally, the good doctor wants to run some tests through combat simulations, and Ann obliges. In what I can only describe as a cyberpunk magical girl transformation, Ann dons her combat suit and dives into the simulation like Neo in The Matrix. A+ for style points.

After completing a combat tutorial and cutting your teeth on a kaiju battle, you discover that Ann is suffering from Entanglelitis, a cybernetic Mechanika virus that has gone viral in the games world. Anns Entanglelitis flares up when fights get too intense, causing her vision to distort. Ann then decides to see her brother, whom she hasnt heard from in ages. She discovers hes wrapped up in the citys criminal underworld, and finds herself targeted by the same slew of cybernetic goons that are hunting him.

The games combat is just as smoking sexy style as the trailer makes it seem. Although it took a bit to figure out the timing for dodges, I did a serviceable job of pulling off sick laser-sword combos on a bunch of enemies, which was satisfying as hell. Theres also a hacking mechanic that lets you not only unlock new story pathways, but also scan an enemys stats before you hack and slash your way through them.

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This all takes place in a world so packed with intriguing details that you could easily miss many on your first playthrough. I usually get my fill from a demo by playing it once, but I was compelled to play this one multiple times to hunt for new item details, dialogue options, and weapon upgrades.

Coke probably isnt the best choice of food, Mysterious Sewer Guy. Screenshot: Kotaku / ThinkingStars

ANNO: Mutationems demo has dialogue options for players to choose from. Screenshot: Kotaku / ThinkingStars

Has Alan Doyle tried unplugging his super computer and plugging it back in again? Preferably without Ann still inside it. Screenshot: Kotaku / ThinkingStars

Players wont traverse the game alone. Ayane, Anns plucky sidekick assists her throughout the game and provides much needed cuteness. Screenshot: Kotaku / ThinkingStars

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Players can use Anns hacking ability to unlock items in the game and assess enemy stats. Screenshot: Kotaku / ThinkingStars

My efforts revealed additional lore, more characters to interact with, and weapon upgrades Id missed, though the demo locks you out of gaining enough credits to buy them, and, tragically, of feeding the mysterious person in the sewers who is worried about their bubbly farts.

The stunning pixel art mixes 2D and 3D elements seamlessly in a way that reminds me of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, my 2020 game of the year. The demo suggests that ANNO: Mutationem could be a breathtakingly beautiful RPG with a strong female lead and a combat system in which I can express myself. Hopefully the full game will live up to that promise.

ANNO: Mutationem is slated to release sometime before the end of 2021.

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Friendship Ended With Cyberpunk, Now ANNO: Mutationem Is New Best Friend - Kotaku

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Shooting up The Ascent’s Beautiful Cyberpunk World – Gameindustry.com – GameIndustry.com

Posted: at 11:09 am

If you are looking to get your cyberpunk fix, The Ascent will make that happen. When the game first unfolds we are shown a huge multi-story arcology owned by The Ascent Group, which is where the game gets its name from. But unlike most titles these days that use amazing backdrops as window dressing for much more limited worlds, in The Ascent you will actually be exploring and fighting within a true, fully realized environment that can actually be considered almost a true megacity in size.

There is not a lot of plot to be found in The Ascent, which is a little disappointing because the game world is literally filled with thousands of interesting nooks and crannies that would be perfect for an RPG. But developer Neon Giant instead chose to concentrate on making a capable twin-stick shooter for its first venture into the game industry, and given the smoothness of combat and the ridiculously beautiful (almost fully destructible) world given to players, this was a good decision.

In The Ascent, you begin the game as a low-level corporate worker, which means that you were brought to The Ascent arcology from another planet with all of your expenses paid so that you could start a new life. The only catch is that now you are an indentured servant to the corporation, which is pretty much one step above being a slave. You get assigned to perform mostly dirty and possibly unsafe maintenance tasks in the lowest and dirtiest levels of the city, with your first task being to basically unclog your bosses toilet, which has somehow merged with his shower for a really stinky experience. For whatever reason, this seemingly simple task involves rebooting a reactor-size machine surrounded by monsters in the dingy basement levels of the city. But it also acts as a good tutorial on how to play the game.

I mentioned that The Ascent is a twin stick shooter, which is a game where using one stick on the controller is for movement and the other is for your facing. And given that The Ascent started on the Xbox console before moving to Steam, this makes sense. However, with the PC version you can use a mouse and keyboard for the controls instead. For most games like this I would not recommend doing that, but it works surprisingly well in The Ascent. The mouse aiming is much more precise when playing the game this way, although using a controller was far more comfortable so I often opted to play that way. Either way, combat in The Ascent is amazingly smooth.

That is not to say that The Ascent is easy. The combat is smooth, but that is absolutely necessary here because of the sheer volume of enemies the game throws at you. Even wandering the city (which again is literally almost the size of a real city) can trigger fights with gangs that dont like you passing through your territory, so you will be in combat a lot. Your helpful and ever-cheery PDA sometimes warns you when you are approaching a bad area. It will say something like, This area is known for having a high population of young entrepreneurs looking for unwilling investors.

Those random fights can get kind of crazy, but the scripted ones are even more brutal. If you are about to engage in a boss-type fight, you can bet that lots of other enemies will start crawling over the side of the railings, running at you from areas you thought were already clear and even dropping down from hovercars to try and smash your face or shoot your head. Almost every combat turns into one of those wild battles.

Oddly enough, the game really pushes its cover mechanic where you can stoop down behind something (although you need to be careful because many things in the environment are destructible) to absorb bullets. You can then hold your gun over your head and safely shoot over your cover. It sounds good in theory, but I almost never used it. There are too many enemies spawning from every angle in most fights. By the time you get set up in cover, there will be two or three people coming up from behind you to render your little makeshift fortification useless. Instead, I spent most of the game backpedaling and shooting all the trailing bad guys coming up behind me. You can also dodge, which helps when someone tosses an explosive or you just need to break out of the line of fire for a second.

Improvements to your character are almost completely gear based in The Ascent. If you want to get more powerful in combat, you need to find a better gun or more effective armor. Thankfully, the guns can be modified and improved using components you find as you adventure. This means that even your starting weapons can have a lot of longevity and usefulness. Indeed, a heavily modified early weapon is going to often be a lot more powerful than baseline equipment you find even later in the game. Yes, those more advanced weapons have the potential to be total butt-kickers, but you probably need to hold onto them until you get to a modding station before you can start to really rip things up with new gear.

As you progress in the game, the amazing environment continues to be the star. Moving up higher in the arcology brings with it new maps, new environments and more wealthy accommodations. Its really interesting that the higher you go in the games world, the better things look. There is less trash and debris on the streets and everything just seems much nicer, which is especially evident in the little town-type areas you come across.

And you will also experience higher quality enemies, like corporate security and well-funded combatants that make the early bruisers you face seem like a warmup exercise. Thankfully, by that point in the game your character should also be getting much more powerful to match the increased challenge. Its clever that the world changes a bit the higher you go, which may be another reason for the title of the game beyond just the name of your corporation.

I played The Ascent in single player mode, but the game also supports multiplayer with up to four people. Given the size of the environment, its probably best if you play with a tight team so that you can all fully support one another. Doing that would likely add another element to The Ascent, sort of like an action-based MMO. So if you have good friends who play these kinds of games, The Ascent could make for some good times.

For a first outing, Neon Giant has done an amazingly good job with The Ascent. Sure there are quite a few bugs here and there. At one point we could not continue a quest because the enemies we were supposed to kill simply didnt spawn in the area where we were supposed fight. We had to exit the game and reload before they actually showed up. Maybe they were afraid of us?

But in any case, The Ascent is a really good title when its working properly. I honestly cant think of another game with such a beautifully rendered and realized world. Its a lot more interesting to look at than the world we got with Cyberpunk 2077.

Give The Ascent a try. Its a fun game, offers smooth combat and one of the most eye-popping cyberpunk worlds you can experience right now. Like The Ascent Corporation itself, there is a lot of little flaws and ugliness down below, but taken as a whole, its quite an impressive offering.

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Shooting up The Ascent's Beautiful Cyberpunk World - Gameindustry.com - GameIndustry.com

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