The Ascent: Cyber Heist (Xbox Series X)

JusticeSte | September 1, 2022 | Review | No Comments

One of my favourite games of last year was The Ascent, initially I thought it was going to be a Cyberpunk Diablo, but it ended up being more of a twin-stick shooter with some RPG elements. It was a gorgeous little title packed full of energy. Stepping back into Veles after some time away from The Ascent was a real treat. The cheap (£7.99) new DLC has just landed on to our desk so lets go take a look.

First thing’s first, best make sure you’ve finished the main story for this DLC as it picks up right at the end, you’re sent to The Dark Playground to find a a weapon named Ruby, this is your main quest, and as the name of the DLC suggests, it’s a bit of a Heist to go get it. Obviously there’s some obstacles in your way, namely another group after the weapon, led by a new character by the name of Zell.

The DLC is more of the same, but now you’ll find you’re a bit less prepared with some new tougher enemies. Previously mentioned Zell is someone you’ll cross paths with and his back up, lots of the usual suspects you’ve seen in the main game and the new Skullcrushers. The majority of the DLC I did find relatively easy, it wasn’t until the last few areas the difficulty really jumped up to a lewd level. You’ll be retrying a few areas quite a bit so take this as a warning.

New additions include melee weapons, this adds some depth to the initial gameplay loop. Some additional close combat builds really change the dynamic to the gameplay. My personal favourite was the Guillotine, but there’s also a bat (Uplus Bat) and a sledgehammer (Rock Crusher). All of these are also upgradable like the rest of your weapons, so you’ll be slashing and smashing the toughest of foes with your new found equipment.

Unfortunately the game is still a bit janky, I found a few enemies hiding under the inaccessible floor, and I also managed to get out of bounds in one area. Luckily both of these only happened the once, and will hopefully be patched out in a future update. Another little thing I found was a little bit of syncing issues with some of the spoken cut-scenes. Finally that difficulty spike in the last area wasn’t too welcome, and the last boss fight is tough as nails.

Finally I will let you know, this DLC is still on a bit of the shorter side, the main story will probably do a good player 2 hours, with the side missions an extra few hours or so, though once you’ve done with this, you can start all over again with your gear on New Game +. It’s still really good, I’m glad I’ve dipped back into it as it’s absolutely mad and a hell of a good time.