New sci-fi shooter 'The Ascent' comes to Xbox Series X and PC

The Ascent video game
(Image credit: Curve Digital/Neon Giant)

"The Ascent," a new sci-fi action-shooter role-playing game (RPG) from game developer Neon Giant and publishers Curve digital, was released Thursday (July 29).

The game, set in a dystopian cyberpunk world, is available to buy on PC and Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One, as well as via an Xbox Games Pass subscription. "The Ascent" has both single-player and up to four-player game modes that allow the player to take control of a worker enslaved by the company that owns you.

The player belongs to The Ascent Group — a corporate-run metropolis — but following a series of catastrophes that leads to the collapse of your district, you must take up arms to survive, fight off rivals and find out what started the collapse in the first place.

Related: EA unveils 'Dead Space' remake plans for next-gen game consoles

The cyberpunk action-shooter is the first title from Swedish indie studio Neon Giant, a 12-person studio composed of gaming industry veterans who are some of the minds behind the "Gears of War," "Wolfenstein" and "Bulletstorm" franchises. 

In the game, you start off as an enslaved worker but by completing missions and progressing through you become more powerful and unlock shiny new guns, toys, armor and augmentations. Throughout the game you will also come across characters who have not only learned how to survive but thrive in a twisted and hostile world.

Powered by Unreal Engine, the game will fully support gameplay in 60 frames per second and 4K on the Xbox Series X and will help elevate the genre to the next level by offering top-quality visuals and high levels of gameplay performance for next-generation console players. 

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Alexander Cox
E-commerce Staff Writer

STAFF WRITER, E-commerce — Alex joined Space.com in June 2021 as staff writer covering space news, games, tech, toys and deals. Based in London, U.K. Graduating in June 2020, Alex studied Sports Journalism in the North East of England at Sunderland University. During his studies and since his graduation, Alex has been featured in local newspapers and online publications covering a range of sports from university rugby to Premier League soccer. In addition to a background in sports and journalism, Alex has a life-long love of Star Wars which started with watching the prequel trilogy and collecting toy lightsabers, he also grew up spending most Saturday evenings watching Doctor Who. 


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