Xbox Game Pass Just Added The Coolest Cyberpunk Looter Shooter

A bustling, neon-drenched city. An overstimulated society where the megacorporations reign supreme over the disgruntled human workers who keep the machine running. And a lone antihero who’s just trying to survive. This dystopian setting probably makes you think of CD Projekt Red’s 2020 masterpiece, Cyberpunk 2077. But years before the Polish developer managed to redeem its buggy mess of a sci-fi epic, indie developer Neon Giant’s debut game realized this futuristic fantasy better than anyone else.

Neon Giant was just 12 people in 2021 when its first game, The Ascent, came out and pulled off the impossible. It’s a game oozing with atmosphere thanks to its gorgeous setting. It has an interesting story that leans into all the right cyberpunk tropes. And most importantly, it blends an addictive looter-shooter loop with RPG progression mechanics to keep you coming back for more. It’s an underrated gem more people should know about, and now it just hit Xbox Game Pass.

The Ascent is an isometric shooter set on the planet Veles, which is ruled by a powerful megacorporation known as The Ascent Group. When the Group goes bankrupt, chaos descends as local crime syndicates, rival corporations, and lone wolves look to seize what’s left behind. Players take control of a former Ascent Group worker looking for answers on exactly what happened, and their investigation will send them across the world doing odd jobs that involve shooting a lot of bad guys and destroying a lot of stuff.

You and up to three friends explore city hubs, taking quests from vendors with access to cash and a hunger for power. In exchange for completing their dirty work, you’ll get better weapons, ammo types, armor, and abilities. When you shift to combat, The Ascent becomes a twin-stick shooter. You’re moving constantly, dodging enemy fire while volleying attacks of your own.

Every firefight is tense, but the world compels you to keep exploring. Veles’ techno-landscapes are all open to you from the start, so you can soak in the views and occasionally stumble into areas filled with enemies far above your level. Brute forcing your way into tough spots can be addicting, as the game does a good job of rewarding curious players with great loot.

It’s simply good fun to exist in a detailed, well-thought-out world, and in 2021, when Cyberpunk 2077 was still in shambles, The Ascent was modern gaming’s best representation of cyberpunk. Four years later, Neon Giant’s vision still holds up, with The Ascent’s sights perfectly matching the moody synths and pulse-pounding highs of Paweł Błaszczak’s (Dying Light, The Witcher) soundtrack. This may have been an indie production, but its presentation feels anything but.

A brilliant mash-up of old and new ideas, The Ascent has the satisfying loop of a modern looter like Destiny while playing like an old wave-based arcade game like Robotron: 2084. It’s an obvious labor of love from a small team that managed to make something that feels big and ambitious, and now one of this generation’s most underrated indie hits is available to Xbox Game Pass users.

The Ascent is available on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.