Join The Club
I don't know what was in the air a few years ago, but climbing games are all the rage now. As soon as you reach the summit of one peak, another looms tantalisingly on the horizon. I may be 31, but I have absolutely no desire to go mountain climbing in real life, unlike my peers. But give me a game where the goal is to go up a big rock and I'm all in—eyes closed, head first, can't lose.
At the PC Gaming Show, we just got an explainer of Ascenders: Beyond the Peak from the creative director of developer Ludogram. Build a team and plan a route up a deadly mountain. Sounds simple, right? Well, actually, no it doesn't, and it's only going to get more tricky. Lovecraftian horrors await you, and monsters and the mountain itself will try to stop you reaching the goodies at the top.
You'll have nine different classes to choose from, each with different levels of mobility and abilities to utilise on your ascent. The catch is, you're all connected by a single rope, so if one team member is lagging behind, you may have to cut them loose and send them to their death. Brutal.
You can also use gravity as a weapon, though. Drop rocks or weapons on enemies to bonk them on the noggin and send them hurtling below. If you can position everything right, you might get a two-for-one kill.
Aesthetically, the game reminds me of Into the Breach, just vertical instead of horizontal. You move your team along a grid and can see warnings about environmental hazards such as avalanches and your own explosives' radius.
And, for the aspiring alpinists out there (that's a new word I just learned, it's a mountain climber who does high, difficult ascents), there's a whole base camp feature where you'll plan which mountains to climb, who to take on the expedition, and what gear you'll need. There are also rest stops up the mountains that will help you reset and recover, but not all of the classes get better at the same rate, so you may still end up taking weakened teammates on the climbs and have to make tough calls later on.
If that all sounds like your cup of tea, check out the Ascenders demo on Steam, and don't forget to wishlist the game ahead of its Q3 early access launch.
Check out everything revealed at the PC Gaming Show.
