Ascent - The Space Game

***NOTE**** GAME HAS PREMIUM ACCESS which is not made clear, the free version of the game is availiable on the website and runs EXACTLY the same as this version ie with the lag and bugs. By buying the game on here you are merely paying a 3 month subscription to the game and getting nothing any differnt to the unity browser game on the website. The game has amazing potential but atm its a total rip-off. All the people writing comments regarding my playtime, i played many hours BEFORE i got the steam version...... To state that the steam version offers more features less bugs etc is total balls, it plays exactly the same the only thing you get is MORE of the same whcih in an mmo these days is akin to Pay to Win. As stated hiding the fact its premuim access you are actually buying on steam is the issue that no one really has agrued with......

Ascent is a fantastic concept, a PvE version of EVE Online without the real time skill training. It is still early access, but it is my opinion that the direction of the game is going in such a way that a negative review was needed as a warning for future purchasers. If there was a "neutral" button for the review I would have used it. User Interface The game’s user interface is horrid. You will notice it the minute you hit the startup screen. Instead of a login and character selection screen it has a button series that looks like a single player game, up to and including a “LOAD” button. Fitting ship modules is a complex and clucky text selector box maneuver. Community The community is friendly, and will answer basic questions in game chat. There is only one “global” game chat, and no in-game guilds or other such mmo “norms”. Graphics The game uses stock Unity graphics for the most part. The ships and starbases may have been a unity resource pack purchase. The game...

Cons The game is limited in functionality due to "Premium" accounts. It requires you to send the developer a paypal transaction of 3$ to get full access to the game, per month. (This isn't listed on the steam page, I previously stated $8, however the store page is unclear in game) You can warp/fly through planets and stars, ships and asteroids, if they're in your way. Bugs galore. You may constantly need to restart the game while docked for it to see what items you have in your hull, or to fulfill a quest. [strike]No jettising of un-needed items.[/strike] See below, dev response. No idea how to do it. You must dock some where and drop off or sell everything you pick up. With this mechanic, everything left at a star port or base or whatever its called, you have to go back there to pick it up. There is no global inventory system. (This is good because each ship has a limited hull, just creates a headache.) Controls are a disaster. Graphics are horrible. Pretty much every quest is ...

I've been playing this game for about 2 weeks now. First I want to address the most common complaints: a) It's pay to win? The DLC Bowhead certainly gives you a lot of cargo space with which to make money, since the game doesn't lock ship size to any player stat other than affordability. But the game has access to bigger ships than the Bowhead, all without the DLC. Making credits is ridiculously easy. I have the next ship in size to the DLC one, the Archon, and could have an even bigger one if that's what I chose to focus on. That's after 2 weeks play. b) hidden subscription? The game does tell you that the $20 current purchase price includes 3 weeks of premium. Not having premium does restrict what class weapon you can mount (meaning you mount more, smaller weapons) and other restrictions. But the sub price is 1, 2, or 3 dollars a month depending on what you want to do in game. Really, I spend that much daily on coffee. Ever since I've been playing MMO's I've been used to $15 a mont...

Ascent made mining fun!!. Imagine that. I can't tell you how many hours I played EVE PVE and Mining. God, such a simple task and just plain boring after awhile. What no Ganking?? Freaking awesome!!. So I can have fun without someone always trying to kick over my apple cart... I don't care much for in-game corporations or groups. I just want to play w/o chatting or having to attended meetings. lol Their are a tone of pvp games out there. No need to make this one as well. Just sick of the pvp debates. open vs solo play in Elite Dangerous, EVE etc. Ascent is truly a breath of quiet fresh air...! Runs really well, no crashes, and the wife says I'm playing too much, so there ya go. Its a hit!! Keep up the good work Mr developer. See u out there...

For such a small development team with limited funds and an Early Access state, the game is amazingly stable. Granted I've played for about 4 hours as of writing this, but I have the graphics maxed out and have not experienced a single crash. The game could be a bit better optimized, but I wouldn't expect that at this stage. There's a few little strange graphical glitches but nothing game breaking. For example, if you buy a new ship your UI doesn't reflect the new stats unless you go back to the Main Menu and then load the map again. On that note, this reminds me of Eve. It's a massive grind to get good progress and the game is insanely overwhelming; however UNLIKE Eve, you can get a solid grasp on the game within a couple of hours and it's all easy from then on. If you have questions, the community is very nice and mature and is always willing to help you. So far I haven't had the opportunity to build anything yet, the few hours seem to be all about delivering goods and giving peop...

The developer of this game has many good ideas, but is trying to reinvent the wheel, and does it at a snails pace. Many people say "yes, but it's early access!", yes it is early access, it's been that way for a very long time now, and I suspect it will stay that way. Graphics, Interface, controls, documentation, storyline, and many other things are poor or missing entirely. Developer does not implement major game design based on the communities likes, nor takes ideas that worked well in other games, that people liked, and instead uses his own ideas to try and be "unique" or "innovative" regardless if people like the features or not. The mining mini-game is a good example. It's a good game if you don't mind 90's graphics and want to play a game for 20 hours before your awaiting release of another game comes.

My updated video review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0ZaF8WzqDo ------------------------------------ My older text review: Wow...where do I start? Absolutely amazing game. The game is very immersive. Asteroids orbit around planets, you can land on planets to build things there, the crafting system is very complex and interesting, and you can even build your own space station which you can expand with many different kind of modules. Pros: - Very immersive environments. The space art is very nice and the planets look cool. Asteroid fields feel 'alive' with a lot of movement. - Great mining system. Mining is terribly boring in EVE, X, Elite Dangerous and Starpoint Gemini. However, here the mining is spiced up due to two facts: 1) the asteroids have their own speed and your mining beam only has a 1km range, so you need to keep up with it (or fly very close to it) 2) The amount you mine is dependent on the temperature of your mining beam. Beam too little and your yield is bad. Beam...

So, I spent just shy of $20.00 to give this game a chance. And after 46 hours of total play time, I think I have seen enough. While there are a few good points to this game, it is clear that its sole function in the gaming world, is to provide ideas and lessons to other indie game developers out there of what not to do. Lesson 1: Have a plan for revenue development before launching a game. This game clearly suffers from lack of funds to be properly developed. And little sign of any significant updates down the pipe. The local diehard community of the game (all 4 or 6 of them) discuss in global chat ‘Go Fund Me’ schemes to be able to provide more content to said small community. Yet the last game news, dates to Nov 7th of 2016. If you are developing anything at this point. It should be for a wide audience. Not people who have clearly ground the hell out of the game, to be where they are now. Unless your point for having the game, is to have a small group provide you with beer m...

(Updated below) There has been mixed thoughts on the game so let me clear this up before you take the negative thoughts of the game and decide it's not for you: A lot of what people DISLIKE about the game is simply from misunderstanding the game and/or the game concept. Meaning the following: - It's not P2W - There is NO PVP (Weather they add a area for it in the future I am not sure) - You DO NOT have to pay a subscription fee, that is purely optional, if you do enjoy it though please do as it helps the dev team out a lot - It's ONLY $3 - Can't afford that per month? Then you probably shouldn't be thinking about buying a new game to begin with.. - There are bugs of course, it's still a new game - The dev is VERY active in game, forums and steam discussions. - If you can't do X because of X then make sure to use the ingame chat (see neg review about fitting modules to ships, I had same "issue" but chat told me how to do it in less than 30 seconds) it's probably not the game, just yo...