UNLEASHING THE MONSTER WITHIN: ASCENDANT, A REVOLUTIONARY BIOPUNK ADVENTURE

A new monster has entered the popular squad-based tactical FPS game world, with innovative new game mechanics and a dynamic setting in BioPunk. Ascendant, announced at Summer Game Fest 2024 with a stunning new trailer, will take you to a world where adaptation is the only way to survive. So, what makes Ascendant a monster of a game, and why should you keep your eyes on it?

ASCENDANT: A MONSTER OF A GAME CHANGER

Aside from being yet another tactical shooter, Ascendant calls itself ‘the first-of-its-kind adaptation shooter’, a twist on the traditional Capture the Flag game mode that sees players fighting each other in 3v3v3v3 PvP battles to capture bio cores on a moving map with other teams trying to do the same.

THE MONSTER AWAITS: DYNAMIC GAMEPLAY AND STRATEGIES

The real genius of Ascendant comes from its gameplay mechanics. It’s never the same game twice, and the game shouts ‘Surprises!’ at you by changing different elements of the game to make things more interesting. Maps have flip sides, there are in-game events that change parts of the game mid-match, and suddenly you’re going for a bio core when two seconds ago you weren’t. A huge NPC could show up and swallow the core you were going after, making things much more interesting and forcing your squad to respond quickly.

TAMING THE MONSTER: WEAPONS AND ADAPTATION

It will require an arsenal as diverse as it is brutal to stand a chance against this beast of a game. From a Spore Barrel SMG that coats the user in deadly venom to a plasma rifle that literally breathes fire, weapon selection becomes integral to your strategy. Just finding these weapons is a challenge – bio cores, strewn across the map, and sometimes guarded by monsters hold the key to the game’s deadliest guns.

THE MONSTER'S LAIR: A CLOSER LOOK AT ASCENDANT'S AESTHETICS

The trailer, premiered at IGN Live as part of Summer Game Fest 2024, opens with a nod to 1980s television shows before launching into a synth-heavy ode to how Ascendant’s BioPunk world looks and feels. The game’s visuals – its character designs, its blooming yet gritty backdrops – come together to evoke not just the past but the feeling of a world and a technology that’s new, all while retaining a sense of timelessness. It plays as much as it is.

RALLYING THE MONSTER SQU prad: MULTIPLAYER DYNAMICS

Multiplayer is also a team sport. In Ascendant, there is a third party looking to mess with you. Namely, three other squads trying to kill you, each trying to be the first to 100 points. That means constant cooperation and communication with your teammates in order to achieve victory. Ascendant is a rollercoaster ride of team-based action, where the ability to pivot, plan, and prevail in the face of the chaos that your surroundings and your opponents will force upon you is the key to success.

WISHLIST THE MONSTER: AVAILABILITY

Keen to get your hands on the BioPunk pandemonium that is Ascendant? You can now officially wishlist it on Steam and the Epic Games Store. There’s more news about the beta coming soon, so if you haven’t already, sign up for the latest Ascendant updates by filling in your details in the form below. Ascendant: The world’s first BioPunk tactical FPS will soon shake up the genre.

UNDERSTANDING THE ASCENDANT MONSTER

It’s in this usage that Ascendant’s idea of ‘monster’ is liberated from its ghastly associations. The monster more or less stands in the game for its variable terrain, spontaneous randomness, impossible odds, making the player into something different, sloughed and coiled, to meet the crushing, merciless challenges of the open worlds of the game – whether that means the NPC creatures that inhabit them, or players themselves in the arena of the FPS. You are the monster within. Conform to it, change yourself to meet it. Ascendant’s tactical FPS odyssey will subject you to the lethal creative fluctuations of the battlefield.

In the world of gaming, Ascendant is a monster of evolution. Its adaptation shooter mechanics combine with its BioPunk setting to create a creature that will allow you to: ‘Rely on your wits, build strategies and outwit your opponents. Welcome to Ascendant, a world where adaptation is the ultimate strategy and there’s always a monster in your sights. In a crowded market of tactical shooters, Ascendant promises something different.’ Ascendant: a beast you must train to outplay its game. We’re all characters in an interactive species, a mere diversion in an ecosystem comprised of smaller distractions. These very distractions will become the instruments with which we fight the monster, and my kids will learn a new game, perhaps another game after that, and, in looking for higher scores and better strategies, they will become sharper, smarter. And evolution will continue to unfold.