Set in a neon-saturated and beautifully realised cyberpunk world, The Ascent is a twin-stick shooter action-RPG that delivers the satisfying ultra-violent augment-enhanced power fantasy you're looking for.

It's hard to overstate just how well the developer (Neon Giant) did in realising a gritty, violent and desperate dystopian future. The world of Veles, in the corporate-provided Ascent Group Arcology (the structure designed to house and provide for its millions of inhabitants), is utterly brutal. Cradle-to-grave corporate indentured servitude is the norm, and your life can be ended in an instant by gang violence, technological mishaps or corporate indifference. Your own murderous encounters with the various gangs and corporations will leave thousands of innocents dead, It is impossible to escape violence on Veles. Mix this organic living world with a decent story, good voice-acting and one of the best Blade Runner inspired OSTs and you have an experience that oozes atmosphere and immersion.

The core gameplay loop of appear, annihilate and repeat is deeply satisfying. The Ascent provides a great arsenal of problem-solving tools to befit your fixer-like role. Guns and augments sound impactful and meaty, giving the sense that you could produce carnage and mayhem at the drop of a hat. A wide range of play styles is facilitated, with some great flavour added in (for example, an Assault Rifle with homing rounds, bullet-ricochet SMG, etc.) to really mix up the experience.

Character progression is simple, taking the familiar but satisfying skill-points-per-level approach. Crafting is limited to using 3 types of components to upgrade weapons with flat stat increases up to 10 times. Loot is bespoke/named, so don't expect variable affixes, suffixes and levels that you see in more traditional RPGs.

Whether you like the game will largely depend on how well you managed your expectations heading in, here are some of the most relevant points to help you with this:
- Make no mistake, this is more twin-stick shooter than action-RPG so don't expect any deep RPG systems at play here
- Your character is the strong silent type - expect no personality, voice lines or back story
- There is no "end-game" content, no NG+ or harder difficulty, no multiple endings - in other words, no compelling reason to replay the game, or continue playing once you've beat it

This review was written within 4 days of the initial release, and there were quite a few technical issues with the game that you need to know:
- Inconsistent FPS performance with some micro-stuttering when things get busy on screen
- Difficulties getting co-op to work (what fixed it for me was disabling all other network types in "network connections")
- Widescreen is poorly supported, your FOV is narrowed down to accommodate the wider screen which is an unacceptable compromise in a game like this (I used a programme called Universal Unreal Engine 4 Unlocker (v3.0.19) by Otis_Inf to manually change the FOV and it worked a charm)

The Ascent is a visually and audibly beautiful, and has a well-realised cyberpunk theme in the dystopian corporate-dominated future that awaits us all. A fun and frantic twin-stick shooter gameplay loop is complemented by a simple but satisfying progression and loot system, and all adds up to an experience completely worth your time.