The Ascent's cyberpunk metropolis is way cooler than Night City

The Ascent is set in Arcology: a massive, monolithic skyscraper home to hundreds of thousands of beings from all over the galaxy. Consider a city built vertically. It reminds me of the notoriously dense, overcrowded Walled City of Kowloon, with so many people squeezed into a cramped, dilapidated space, intersected by Akira's futuristic, neon-spotted Neo Tokyo. And it's one of the most impressive settings I've come across in a video game. The game itself is great: it's a brutal, satisfying action RPG with some spectacularly violent, meaty combat. However, the intricately detailed Arcology with its various regions and palpable atmosphere was what really caught my imagination.

Your character in Ascension is a migrant worker paid for by a mega-corporation to Arcology, located on a distant planet called Veles. And now this company, Ascent Group, wants you to work to pay the astronomical cost of the ticket. I always imagine this when I see the balloon advertising extraterrestrial colonies in Blade Runner: "A golden opportunity and a chance to start again in a land of adventure!" The glittering promise of a better life, but truly a way for a large, soulless company to find another lifetime employee, forever overwhelmed by debt.

As you make a name for yourself as a mercenary as you progress through the story, your character literally rises - from the dark, crowded depths of Arcology to the glittering peak where the rich enjoy space and a life of luxury. And as you move the building upwards, the aesthetic and mood of the city changes around you. This is most striking when you access an area called Highstreet within a few hours. Until then, you've been wandering around the lower floors—in places like the brutal, industrial Deepstink—but suddenly you find yourself staring at a misty valley of skyscrapers and neon billboards.

This is an amazing world-building and stage-setting piece, and the game repeats this trick a few more times, giving a real insight into the scale of this enormous vertical city as well as its unique geography, history, and social divisions. There's also an impressive amount of diversity in the city, including Coder's Cove, a filthy hideout for hackers in the flooded Black Lake area, the luxurious Golden Satori casino dominated by giant golden Buddha statues, and Onyx Void's HQ. The gang is hidden inside the head of a huge, smiling cat.

Ascent's environment is impressive on a grand scale when you're exposed to one of those majestic cyberpunk landscapes, but it's just as impressive on a micro scale. The environments are cluttered, lively and convincingly lived. Mountains of garbage, dirty apartments visible through dirty windows, flying cars speeding between buildings, maintenance robots repairing broken street lights, screens showing garish advertisements... So much is happening on every inch of the screen. It's not just the intensity that impresses, it's the art as well. The costumes, company logos, machines, cars, machinery and buildings are all obscenely detailed and cleverly thoughtfully designed.

So yes. It's safe to say I love this setting. And while playing The Ascent, I couldn't help but think about the time I spent with Cyberpunk 2077. Last year, I wrote about how I found Night City, which, despite making a strong first impression, was ultimately rather shallow and superficial. I never believed as a medium: a feeling that gets stronger with the more hours I spend there. Ascent, of course, is a completely different type of game. It's an isometric shooter rather than a massive open world RPG. But I was surprised (and to be honest, a little bit surprised) how much more evocative and intriguing I found its setting.

The concept of a city tucked into an enormous skyscraper is immediately more interesting and creative. Remove some video billboards and holographic neon signs and Night City could be any modern metropolis. Future, but familiar. Still, the idea of ​​this high, multi-level Arcology, filled with life from every corner of the galaxy, where each level represents a different social stratum, is incredibly compelling. And I love the idea that these include Veles; This Arcology, with all its life and drama, is just one of many vertical cities polluting the planet's polluted surface.

And by adding some elements of sci-fi—namely, a bunch of weird, shadowy aliens from the Mos Eisley canteen—The Ascent brings something a little different from the well-known cyberpunk genre. It's a lively, vibrant fusion of the cynical, anti-corporate cyberpunk of the '80s and the seedy, filthy criminal underbelly of the Star Wars universe. There's also the grotty, punk feel of '80s comics, like something taken from the yellowed, jagged pages of 2000 AD or an old issue of Heavy Metal.

Cyberpunk 2077 is also a game where you feel like you're trying really hard to be cool. There is something contrived about Night City's futuristic fashion and street slang - it feels unnatural and forced. Ascension, on the other hand, is much better at pulling you into its world and making you believe in it without feeling like you're trying. Simply stylish; A word that doesn't really exist in Cyberpunk's vocabulary. When I spend time in Arcology, I don't question anything in it - I just accept it. It's a thoughtful and fully formed environment, while the environment of Cyberpunk is filled with inconsistencies and the feeling that the developer has bitten off more than they can chew.

The only real gripe about The Ascent is that it's not an adequate RPG - certainly not at the level this favor deserves. There are some side quests and a few chatty NPCs, but they're all pretty trivial. This is an area where Night City excels. While Arcology is a really beautifully designed backdrop for a fast-paced shooter, here you can explore, interact with things and uncover stories. I'd love to see a future Ascent game (if they make one) become more of a CRPG with deeper roleplaying. But despite this limited level of interaction, it's still my favorite cyberpunk city on PC.