Everything You Need To Know About The Ascent

Despite all of the first party studio acquisitions made by Xbox in recent years, exclusive titles have been hard to come by. Enter, The Ascent.

The Ascent will release soon and we're going to run you through everything you need to know about the cyberpunk inspired Action RPG (ARPG).

The Ascent Release Date

The Ascent will release on Thursday, 29 July 2021. It is being developed by Swedish studio Neon Giant and published by notable indie developer Curve Digital.

The Neon Giant team is comprised of just 12 developers who have a long history with successful titles like Wolfenstein and Gears of War.

Is The Ascent An Xbox Exclusive?

Yes, The Ascent is an Xbox console exclusive meaning it will also release on PC, but not on PlayStation or Nintendo consoles.

There is no work on whether this is a timed-exclusive title. For the time being it's believed to be entirely Xbox exclusive until the developer or publisher says otherwise.

Is The Ascent On Xbox Game Pass?

Yes, the game will launch on Xbox Game Pass. In line with Xbox's promise to bring all exclusive or first-party titles to Xbox Game Pass, The Ascent will be available on day one.

The Ascent Gameplay Trailer

We have seen plenty of gameplay from The Ascent over the last few months and their Twitter account posts frequent clips and snippets of gameplay to keep the excitement high.

The most recent trailer shows off plenty of action gameplay while teasing the story and possible decisions that you'll face while playing the game. The Ascent also supports up to 4-player co-op throughout the entire game so you can grab some friends to explore Veles with.

What Is An Action RPG?

Action RPG, or ARPG is becoming a more common way to place certain games into a genre. As opposed to a more traditional RPG where the narrative is what drives the game and gameplay takes a back seat, whereas an ARPG flips the script. The Ascent fits this perfectly.

That's not to say narrative isn't important, but there appears to be a greater focus on the gameplay in between the story progression points. Other examples of ARPG titles include Diablo, Path Of Exile and Torchlight.

As you will notice with some of the titles listed, ARPG's tend to have a raised camera perspective rather than a first or third-person view.