My Favorite Ray Traced Games: The Ascent
The Ascent feels like one of those megahits that came and went; it exploded huge out of the gate last summer, but then got lost in the shuffle of the holiday release season. I’m here to tell you that you have to go back and play it. It was one of the first reveals for the current generation of gaming hardware that I was personally excited for, yet I only really dove deep over the last week — and I wish I had done so much sooner.
First released last summer for Xbox consoles and PC, and coming very soon to PlayStation hardware, The Ascent is an isometric action RPG/twin-stick shooter hybrid. It’s dripping with cyberpunk aesthetics and an astounding audiovisual package in spite of a tiny development team and budget. It’s a must play if you’ve ever been a fan of Diablo or Geometry Wars, or anything in-between. Development team Neon Giant clearly knows their stuff, and rather than hold back they’ve shot for a landmark graphical achievement. While the performance isn’t always awesome in the ray tracing mode, the effects they’ve implemented perfect the art package in such a way that it’s more than worth seeing.
