History VideoGame / TheAscent

''The Ascent'' is a mostly-[[IsometricProjection isometric]] solo and co-op ActionRPG developed by Neon Giant and published by Creator/CurveGames. It was released on PC and UsefulNotes/XboxSeriesXAndS on July 29, 2021 and March 24, 2022 for UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/PlayStation5. It is Neon Giant's first released game after they were founded in 2018, and is built on the Unreal Engine.

* DropTheHammer:
** Heavy melee enemies wield gigantic hammers that deal appropriately massive damage if you don't get out of the way.
** The ''Cyber Heist'' DLC introduced melee weapons for the player including the Rockbreaker, a similarly huge hammer that can one-shot most enemies below level 35. Its special attack is a GroundPound that sends out a linear shockwave with decent range.

* WhatTheHellHero: Later in the game, [[spoiler:after you get conscripted by yCorp, Kira]] will occasionally complain whenever you kill civilians. Gets grating after a while, given how many areas have tons of civilians who will invariably stumble into your line of fire or otherwise catch a stray bullet and instantly die on account of being a OneHitPointWonder.
* WhereItAllBegan: The final level is in the depths of the deepStink, directly beneath where you started the game. Your IMP even lampshades this, pointing out that you could have saved a lot of time by just taking the short route to there to begin with.

** The frequent level geometry-dependent instances of CameraScrew can suddenly turn the game into a top-down or side-scrolling shooter. If you don't expect it and fail to adapt quickly, you'll be in for a painful lesson.

* CameraScrew: That one long narrow corridor in the Cosmodrome, where the camera shifts into SideView to hide how underdeveloped the entire area is. Considering that aiming is aligned to the ground plane, trying to shoot the enemies that unavoidably appear in this area [[FakeDifficulty suddenly gets much harder]]. In other locations, the camera sometimes gets [[ObstructiveForeground obscured by bits of level geometry]], even to the extent of the entire screen going black due to walls going right in front of the camera.

* AbsurdlyHighLevelCap: The game has no hard level cap. Maxing all skills would require to reach level 54[[note]]not counting the occasional free skill points shown as special loot on the worldmap[[/note]] but reaching it requires a lot of grinding, and enemies' level have a much lower cap. The final parts of the game intend the player character to be around level 30.

''The Ascent'' is a mostly-[[IsometricProjection isometric]] solo and co-op ActionRPG developed by Neon Giant and published by Creator/CurveGames. It was released on PC and UsefulNotes/XboxSeriesXAndS on July 29, 2021. It is Neon Giant's first released game after they were founded in 2018, and is built on the Unreal Engine.

** The Recoil burst-fire rifle can be purchased at any arms dealer right off the bat. It's fairly expensive for a broke new player, but its DPS will easily carry you through the early and mid-game if you invest a few upgrade components in it.

* RandomlyDrops: Enemies ''may'' randomly drop the weapon they're using, thus saving you the money for purchasing it from a weapons dealer (and occasionally unlocking a gun early if you're lucky), or giving you a good source of income if you already have an identical gun in your inventory. They might also drop a random piece of armor appropriate to their level and faction, plus bits of cash and healing items. There're only a select few pieces of equipment that will never drop from enemies, such as the [[DiscOneNuke Recoil]] rifle or the Feud line of armor.