The Ascent's cyberpunk city looks even better in first-person

In our review of The Ascent, Andy was particularly taken by the neon-soaked streets of the RPG's setting, a colossal tower called the Arcology. It's a cyberpunk adventure where the camera is set in a fixed top-down perspective, but YouTuber Griff Griffin (spotted by Kotaku) discovered a way to unlock the camera and explore the city on ground level.

Using a tool called the Universal Unreal Engine 4 Unlocker you can toggle the free camera option to freely glide around and, up close and personal, The Ascent's people-packed city is stunning. There's an impressive amount of slick detail that's you would never notice in the fixed camera mode. One detail that amazed me was the tiny ripples that raindrops make as they drop on different surfaces.

The obvious comparison is Cyberpunk's 2077 Night City, but it's the striking attention to detail that makes The Ascent's metropolis way cooler. If you wanna check it out for yourself, you can find instructions on how to use the Unreal Engine 4 Unlocker in the description of Giffin's video, and if you plan on diving in and playing yourself here's some tips to get you started and all the cyberdeck upgrade locations in the game.

And here are some screenshots Andy K took using the mod today.

Rachel had been bouncing around different gaming websites as a freelancer and staff writer for three years before settling at PC Gamer back in 2019. She mainly writes reviews, previews, and features, but on rare occasions will switch it up with news and guides. When she's not taking hundreds of screenshots of the latest indie darling, you can find her nurturing her parsnip empire in Stardew Valley and planning an axolotl uprising in Minecraft. She loves 'stop and smell the roses' games—her proudest gaming moment being the one time she kept her virtual potted plants alive for over a year.