The Ascent

(meant to come to boards to shout out to the game but i think boards was upgrading at that time lol)

Ya I am sure I am not the only one - THIS is the cyberpunk game of the year. Absolutely stunning visuals and a passion project from the team that puts so much thoughts and hearts into the world building. The game is short (20+hours including clearing all side quests) but ya i think more contents can be expected from the small team.

I run the game with AMD3600 + 1650Super and i get smooth gameplay experience - I am absolutely in love with the world setting, everything looks so beautiful and the details are just...mesmerising. I literally spent the last few hours to walk around (doing side quests) and I enjoy seeing all the things happening to the people in the game - some rando group of people sitting drinking at their balcony and i was eavesdropping. Beautiful. I can't wait for more contents from them.

I haven't played any new game for years tbh (last was...Bayonetta 2 i think lol), nowadays i play more remake/remaster etc. Gameplay wise is ok, again, pretty visuals but ya could use some depth and honestly they should set up some proper memorable boss fights - but again, to me that world building is on another level that they could build so much on it if they want (DLC or sequels etc). This studio truly put some AAA studios to shame.

Yes fully agreed there. I wrote quite a long review on steam lmao saying on the gameplay could be improved and they should just hire some writers to expand the story more.

Loot wise, aye this is touching another big issue that I am not sure this could be fixed in this game - maybe they can do that in the sequel or something ha. I farmed like 20 of those superior components (using the glitch at the final stage) and then i finished the first playthrough without maxing out any weapon, I mainly used Overwhelmer (got it early while suiciding myself to all those level25 enemies at the Edge) and the Bitsplit vs robots (pre order weapon that i didn't even pre order ha, just lucky with the key i bought) throughout the game. And then i go back to get the 'hidden' Dealbreaker and maxed out the upgrades for a couple of these high tier weapons. That's all - for a game designated for 20+ hours gameplay, this is ok aye but definitely the loot system is not designed for the game's replayability. Shop yes, mainly use them for selling loots that they should give us some ways to spend our ucredits lol.

I am actually waiting for my brother to play co-op ha. I heard it is buggy as well so we didn't bother. Quite surprising that we cant play with strangers also hmm.

All in all, it felt quite rushed as well towards the end that leaves a lot of room for improvements (story + gameplay). But i can totally understand for such a small studio to do such project basically as their off-work hobby for like 3 years - they need to release it to get some cash flow going and go serious with their studio. So ya i look forward for new dlc etc, big fan now to this team ha.