The Ascent: Sorry, where are it? | card

Jens was really looking forward to The Ascent and then a feature completely messed up the fun.

Actually, I wanted to get really deep in the Ascent. In advance, the twin-stick shooter looked absolutely fantastic with role-playing elements and open cyberpunk world - and I do not just refer to the pretty graphic. The gunplay already made a very good impression while watching, the chic world and the entire concept that addressed me from the outset. I really thought, with the Ascent comes to us one of the hits of the summer to us, who bridges the time to the game flood in autumn well. But I have been wrong.

Not all reviews released to the release on July 29 were lobes theme. But at least the Youtuber Skillup, which I usually trust very well when it comes to gaming scenes, was very enthusiastic. I looked at his video afternoon while working and thought, "Okay, now I'm looking forward to come home and talking even the creaking." And so it happened that on that 29 July two to three hours in the evening the Ascent played ... and then lost all desire to touch it again.

Map of gray

What happened that the game has lost me so fast? Well, The Ascent has such a few weak points, which are often criticized on the net. The technical condition, especially the version from the Windows Store, would be there. It is currently still without DLSS and Raytracing, and in explosions I had fundrates in my season. But that was just as little the reason why I lost the desire as fast as the story that did not succeed in drawing me in her spell.

My Nemesis regarding The Ascent is its map. And so I do not mean the game world itself, but really the in-game card. I mean, just look at you (a picture should say more than 1000 words):

This map is by far the worst that meets me in recent years. It is a prime example of why in such a case functionality should always take precedence over a harmonious look. Yes, the design of the card fits perfectly for setting the Ascent. Dark background, red area cracks, sometimes the picture crackes a little. Developer Neon Giant sets here for Cyberpunk typical retro futuristic. Stylistically, the map is chic, but the optics in this case is absolutely secondary. Readability is important and that is hardly given here. The main problem: The map shows only outlines of the territories. Right road trains are not to be seen, but only loud red rectangles, which are connected or stacked together. While the names of the different parts of the city are displayed and traders, quest transmitter and prey boxes are marked (where I actually find the latter again, because I want to discover the "treasures" in the game even), but that does not help much when the concrete ways On which one can move, are not drawn.

Where am I?

Already in the rightly manageable start-up level you come to such a few ways of movement. Although you always have a marking for your next main goal, but if you are such a player as I want to break every optional path before it runs to the target mark (you do not want to miss anything), you will still be quickly in orientation. . You take a way that is located in the opposite direction to the next main quest-relevant place and from which after a few meters two other ways branch off and all this is not shown on the map. Of course, this does not necessarily help you to stop you.

But it is really bad but only when you arrive in the central trading district of the game world. Here is noticeable how vertically the environment is in The Ascent. Each of the three major levels also has several sub-levels again. Without clew, it is hardly possible because the overview is to preserve. For me, that is so annoying, because it brings me in my explanatory urge. I want to look in every corner, go every way, because everywhere something good can wait for me. But if the card does not tell me exactly where I'm right now and how I'll find back, I just quickly understand myself. And that's exactly what happened to me.

The consequence I have drawn from it: I have sautéed to explore and just follow markers. And already the desire for The Ascent had passed. Finally, I do not need any Open World if I follow only stumps prescribed paths, especially in a game where just not the story and immersion, but the gameplay is the focus.

If the world is not easy to read, the map must be it

The Ascent suffers from that it connects such a lousy card with a difficult-to-read game world. Without any question, the environment looks great and thanks to the many NPCs also looks quite animated. I do not want to worry about the kind of design. But it's not a world where you would find out well without a map.

In this regard, a comparison with Control offers. The action game of Remedy Entertainment also has a bad card that offers far too little information. The difference to The Ascent: You do not move through a cyberpunk metropolis, but an office building. The world is significantly smaller and clearer. Here, moreover, everything is so well signposted that the overview map would not be necessary because you know without it anytime, where you are and how you come in the XY department. In Leveldesign, Control operates almost at the level of Dark Souls and there is a concept that you do not have a map.

Now the comparison between Control and The Ascent may be a little unfair because the one game has a third-person perspective and the other is a isometric camera. In addition, it is honest with me always easier to orient me if I either look at the shoulder about the shoulder or look at the world out of her eyes. In Diablo 3, I have to always look at the map. This does not change the problem of The Ascent, which I wanted to make it clear with this comparison again: The game world is instructed to be accompanied by a detailed map, unlike that of Control. Neon Giant unfortunately got into the bathroom here. And sometimes a bad feature is enough for a game to turn my back.

You may still hope

The good is: the developers have the opportunity to eliminate this problem. New to design a map and to supplement additional information is not even on a working day. However, there is also no profound intervention in the game mechanics or the concept of the game. If Neon Giant is willing to get the most out of the Ascent, you should necessarily improve here. Then I would have great desire to give the game a second chance.