The Ascent has been out for a little while now, it's also playable on Xbox Game Pass on PC and Xbox. For this review though we were waiting on the Day One patch (and post-launch patch) to get ray-tracing and DLSS working properly on PC. Which was a good thing because with all the settings cranked The Ascent is one of the most visually impressive games you're likely to see.

Shame the RPG side of this action-RPG is under-cooked.

At its best The Ascent is both figuratively and literally a blast, twin-stick evasion and cover-based shooting where skill and strategy trumps things like level-gating or even where to spend your next batch of Skill Points. Although the design and isometric perspective points to The Ascent being Diablo meets Cyberpunk 2077, the end result is something of a mixed bag on that front. The RPG side lacks depth and sometimes outright clashes with the often challenging twin-stick action.

Take weapon upgrades, which are carried out using different tiered components. These are found in various crates and chests, dropped from named Bounty enemies, and are then spent to add some DPS to a particular pistol, assault rifle, or shotgun you like. The problem lies in their scarcity and why you can’t get them from something like breaking down duplicate gear. Instead you sell things, and money isn’t all that useful.

Our Full Review of The Ascent