TechRaptor reports that The Ascent has achieved sales of 5 million over the launch weekend.
More information.
The Ascent - Sales of 5 Million
- Thread starter Silver
- Start date
And in other news the entire GTA franchise has sold over 350 million copies.
axellslade
No Title Please
I encountered so many bugs in the first few hours of gameplay I had to refund it.
And the game is more a twin shooter than an RPG, in my opinion.
And the game is more a twin shooter than an RPG, in my opinion.
I wonder how big the team is for GTA.
My same exact experience. It's marketed as an ARPG but it's more of a Co-Op twin shooter. Seems nothing can account for the tastes of modern gamer's nowadays.
Must be a slow period as well given no big RPG has released for months.
Meh, doesn't look good to me. I'd rather play the Alien Breed sci fi top down shooter series if I want to play that type of game.
Alien Breed isn't really comparable. The gameplay is similar, but the production values of The Ascent are miles beyond that.
D
DArtagnan
Guest
People seem a little misinformed about this, not that it's a surprise. Some people even seem to want to be misinformed about it.
I'm glad that kind of ignorance didn't spell misfortune for this little team, as I think their work is very promising indeed.
Game does have its issues, though - there's no denying that.
Also, as a developer - would you rather be on a team with a gigantic publisher controlling the income as well as all future development and 1000+ developers and sell 350 million copies over the course of many years - or on an indie team of 12 with 5 million copies sold in the first couple of weeks?
It doesn't take that much of a brain to choose, I don't think
Hint: The latter will earn a shit ton more money and be able to pick and choose whatever project they want for the future. 99% of the former will get as little as humanly possible to keep them working (unless they're fired because they're no longer needed) - and they sure won't have any say in what they're going to crunch on next time. Most likely the next GTA - so you can repeat your slave-tasks for another 6 years or so.
I'm glad that kind of ignorance didn't spell misfortune for this little team, as I think their work is very promising indeed.
Game does have its issues, though - there's no denying that.
Also, as a developer - would you rather be on a team with a gigantic publisher controlling the income as well as all future development and 1000+ developers and sell 350 million copies over the course of many years - or on an indie team of 12 with 5 million copies sold in the first couple of weeks?
It doesn't take that much of a brain to choose, I don't think
Hint: The latter will earn a shit ton more money and be able to pick and choose whatever project they want for the future. 99% of the former will get as little as humanly possible to keep them working (unless they're fired because they're no longer needed) - and they sure won't have any say in what they're going to crunch on next time. Most likely the next GTA - so you can repeat your slave-tasks for another 6 years or so.
mbuddha
Sentinel
Looks like a lot of combat, which could be fun, but it would be nice if there was more exploration and world interaction in this environment (one reviewer said there is some from time to time). Either way I'll check it out eventually, the atmosphere is compelling. But there's been enough reports of bugs that it can wait.
D
DArtagnan
Guest
There's a decent amount of exploration and world interaction for what's basically an action RPG. The twin-stick shooter thing I consider incidental. It would have worked just as well as a straight up Diablo sci-fi game.
The world is certainly unusually large and diverse for this sort of game - with this sort of budget. Considering the asset fidelity and atmosphere - there's a surprising amount of variety.
For another thing, it has got this absolutely insane Codex library - with an absurd amount of background info for a game like this. Every character and little thing gets its own relatively meaty text entry - with history and lore behind it.
I have no idea why they went out of their way to implement such a thing - in a game like this, but I certainly appreciate the effort.
Now, they just need to wise up and implement proper replayability incentives.
The world is certainly unusually large and diverse for this sort of game - with this sort of budget. Considering the asset fidelity and atmosphere - there's a surprising amount of variety.
For another thing, it has got this absolutely insane Codex library - with an absurd amount of background info for a game like this. Every character and little thing gets its own relatively meaty text entry - with history and lore behind it.
I have no idea why they went out of their way to implement such a thing - in a game like this, but I certainly appreciate the effort.
Now, they just need to wise up and implement proper replayability incentives.
I agree. Because of this I didnt buy it.
SSIGuy
An Islander Returned
Well, I'm only a couple hours in but no bugs so far and I'm enjoying it.
It's a great looking game... the cyberpunk aesthetic in it is super cool imo and the combat seems fine to me.
I'm not certain why people are dumping so much on the game, as if it doesn't live up enough to some RPG pedigree.
The first line on the Steam page is: "The Ascent is a solo and co-op Action-shooter RPG set in a cyberpunk world" and then later it says:
RPG ELEMENTS
Customize your character with cyberware that suits your playstyle. Allocate new skill points as you level-up and try various augmentations to take down your enemies in new creative ways.
Seems accurate to me so far. Do people not read these descriptions?
It's a great looking game... the cyberpunk aesthetic in it is super cool imo and the combat seems fine to me.
I'm not certain why people are dumping so much on the game, as if it doesn't live up enough to some RPG pedigree.
The first line on the Steam page is: "The Ascent is a solo and co-op Action-shooter RPG set in a cyberpunk world" and then later it says:
RPG ELEMENTS
Customize your character with cyberware that suits your playstyle. Allocate new skill points as you level-up and try various augmentations to take down your enemies in new creative ways.
Seems accurate to me so far. Do people not read these descriptions?
I think there is a misdirection in the title. They didn't sell 5 million copies, they sold 5 million dollar worth of copies. So according to the price, they must sold 200k copies. Still great for an indie company though.
Has anyone tried playing with mouse and keyboard? Or do you need a controller?
You don't need a controller. I played with M+K and it felt fine. Not sure if a controller would be better, but I doubt it.
I'm playing on GP, which I can't recommend enough, because it lets you demo or fully play games without throwing down. I still buy plenty of games but for games where I get enough after a couple dozen hours, have no replay, or for demoing, that 10/mo is worth it (I don't need ultimate which costs more).
IMO The Ascent dramatically overrated. It's good but it has things about it that turn me off.
ACG's review is so out of character and stupidly over the top it feels bought. I guess dude REALLY likes cyberpunk atmosphere.
It's interesting how hype works. When that Loop Hero game came out I thought it was OK but mostly overrated and hyped, while at the same time The Last Spell came out and is a ridiculously good (and similar indie) game that I've put 136 hours into and still playing. Marketing budget? Probably.
Now this game comes out and while it's good...I think it's getting the hype train. While I'm trying it I'm feeling like I'd rather be playing Vault of the Void which also just came out and I've already put ~30 hours into it. It might be the 10,000 deck builder I've bought (just this year) but it's also one of the better ones. It's incredibly well done and full of so many good and slick ideas for that genre.
Anyways, The Ascent...
...is a mixed bag. There are many elements of the game that are over the top ridiculously well done - like AAA quality and WTF is it doing in this game (the map, the codex, the music, the seamlessness of the insanely massive map areas (you never really notice loading). There's solid cutscenes and VO work. There's a decent story.
But ultimately it IS a twin stick shooter with a whole lot of very repetitive and samey combat. Those huge maps are a lot of open space with a pack of mobs ever X pixels and a whole lot of generic loot.
There's (better than most RPG) fast travel (train stations, hail and pay for taxis, but no magic teleportation). But you spent a LOT of time just running around SLOWLY.
Loot system is very generic. Where the map/codex UI are over the top good there's plenty about the UI that's bad. No hotkeys for UI actions. No tool tips. Inventory UI is bad in a badly done controller/console kind of way.
Music is good.
Atmosphere is awesome - especially for ISO. You can't play atmosphere though. And after you've seen one massive cyberpunk map full of nothing you've seen them all.
IMO The Ascent dramatically overrated. It's good but it has things about it that turn me off.
ACG's review is so out of character and stupidly over the top it feels bought. I guess dude REALLY likes cyberpunk atmosphere.
It's interesting how hype works. When that Loop Hero game came out I thought it was OK but mostly overrated and hyped, while at the same time The Last Spell came out and is a ridiculously good (and similar indie) game that I've put 136 hours into and still playing. Marketing budget? Probably.
Now this game comes out and while it's good...I think it's getting the hype train. While I'm trying it I'm feeling like I'd rather be playing Vault of the Void which also just came out and I've already put ~30 hours into it. It might be the 10,000 deck builder I've bought (just this year) but it's also one of the better ones. It's incredibly well done and full of so many good and slick ideas for that genre.
Anyways, The Ascent...
...is a mixed bag. There are many elements of the game that are over the top ridiculously well done - like AAA quality and WTF is it doing in this game (the map, the codex, the music, the seamlessness of the insanely massive map areas (you never really notice loading). There's solid cutscenes and VO work. There's a decent story.
But ultimately it IS a twin stick shooter with a whole lot of very repetitive and samey combat. Those huge maps are a lot of open space with a pack of mobs ever X pixels and a whole lot of generic loot.
There's (better than most RPG) fast travel (train stations, hail and pay for taxis, but no magic teleportation). But you spent a LOT of time just running around SLOWLY.
Loot system is very generic. Where the map/codex UI are over the top good there's plenty about the UI that's bad. No hotkeys for UI actions. No tool tips. Inventory UI is bad in a badly done controller/console kind of way.
Music is good.
Atmosphere is awesome - especially for ISO. You can't play atmosphere though. And after you've seen one massive cyberpunk map full of nothing you've seen them all.
Same. The kb/m controlls are simple and all easy to manage. Not really much going on in this game beyond shoot and scoot. My only recommendation is to remap the quest ping thingie from 'O' to something not stupid.
From what I've read it's harder with controller (a refreshing concept in another otherwise console feeling game).
The combat is fast and with terrain/camera issues you often need to move, re-aim, and you connect best aiming "just before" targets and aiming "center mass" - which is easy to manage with a mouse but with flick/snap "aiming" on a controller, probably not so much.
You also have mobs magically materialize behind you in fights - one of my least favorite "mechanics" (dev cheese) so you'll be nicely positioned in cover plinking away at max range only to suddenly have to melees up your butt from behind (it's as wrong as it sounds in the game, trust me) and needing to suddenly fire in the opposite direction (and then flip back to the original mobs who will be on you in 1 second). Again, on a mouse this is nearly instantaneous. On a controller - this is why I no longer play active games that are controller-centric - eff that noise.
How would you compare this to something like Grim Dawn or Path of Exile? I know the combat is a little different, but those games don't have much outside of combat either.
The graphics, the world size and the quality of the maps are stunning! Hard to believe they could achieve that with such a small team 
I'm playing with M&K also. Hasn't encountered any problems. Some key mapping might be needed though, especially for crouching.