rockerest’s Twitter Archive—№ 16,939

I'm going to start a thread of my stream-of-consciousness thoughts on The Ascent (NeonGiantGames), because if I wait until the end, I'll forget the little stuff.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood -1 🙁

…in reply to @rockerest
First of all I want to start with an overall positive: I love this game! It's _really_, *really* good! I thought I was going to play an hour or two yesterday and wound up playing 5 hours. It's FUN!
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood +13 🙂

…in reply to @rockerest
It's astonishing that such a small team has made something like this, and I'm anxiously looking forward to A) more content for this game (pls! 🤞🏻) and B) more games from Neon Giant.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood +2 🙂

…in reply to @rockerest
---- hard break ---- I'm learning that - apparently - the hardest things in games is navigation / maps. This is the second game in a row I've played where the maps were immense and twisty and clever, but the in-game map was nigh unusable.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood +1 🙂

…in reply to @rockerest
I _DEEPLY_ appreciate a fast travel system - especially when I can't make heads or tails of the map - but I'm always annoyed by systems that make me pay for it. Worse still, the fast travel system won't let me navigate among "tiers" in-game (these are essentially the "levels",
On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood -4 🙁

…in reply to @rockerest
with individual fast-travelable locations being points of interest within those levels). So ultimately - if I want to rapidly go from a high tier to a low tier - I'm still left trudging my way through a bunch of levels, getting lost, etc. Also known as: not rapid at all.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood -1 🙁

…in reply to @rockerest
I can justify this all sorts of ways in-game. For example: taxis and trains can't go "up" because of security levels or cultural norms or the technology just doesn't exist for slopes (??). Sure. But... like... also no. It's a game... you can tweak the world lore a tiny bit.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood +1 🙂

…in reply to @rockerest
---- hard break ---- One time, after the cutscene for a new boss (the Megarachnoid), the boss didn't actually spawn in, so I was just trapped. There was no way out of the boss arena, and I couldn't progress. I had to reset.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood -2 🙁

…in reply to @rockerest
Another time, I did an evade roll, cracked open some crates and I was left stuck in the environment. No amount of moving, crouching, evade rolling, etc. budged me. I had to reset.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood -3 🙁

…in reply to @rockerest
This is where I got stuck fwiw
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood -2 🙁
…in reply to @rockerest
These are BUMMER bugs. Fortunately, the autosave system is pretty forgiving (usually), so I often don't lose much progress, but it's still a BUMMER.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood +2 🙂

…in reply to @rockerest
---- hard break ---- While I'm thinking about it, I want to express a little bit of disappointment with the camera/isometric views. I understand the MANY myriad reasons for this choice, ranging - likely - from technical to simply aesthetic. This is the game they wanted to make.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood -2 🙁

…in reply to @rockerest
But... sometimes it doesn't work. Sometimes there are crates or interactables behind walls, and I can't see them. Worse, the interaction prompt is _attached to me character_ which is also behind the wall, so I can't see it either.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood -3 🙁

…in reply to @rockerest
If I could take control of the camera, that would be okay, but - again - I understand that in a game designed to be isometric, they just can't design a fully 3D world. But then we come to the points where - presumably for art direction reasons - the camera becomes AN ENEMY.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood -2 🙁

…in reply to @rockerest
Generally speaking, not being able to exert control over the camera means I'm often being shot from off camera somewhere, and - typically - I can't really solve that until I leave cover and... oops I'm dead. You added cover-based mechanics into this game because it's pretty cool
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood -3 🙁

…in reply to @rockerest
But now the camera is breaking that whole thing. But that's not the camera being an enemy, that's just a small annoyance. There was one moment when I was crossing a long walkway, and the camera pans down to a full profile of my right side as I run to the right.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood -4 🙁

…in reply to @rockerest
Presumably, this was _primarily_ an art direction decision, because as I run, cityscapes pan past behind my in the windows. Cool. The problem is that the game also spawns enemies along this walkway. So in a game built around twin-stick shooting, I'm left with no spatial
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood -4 🙁

…in reply to @rockerest
cohesion at all, and I kind of just have to spray bullets around wildly until I make contact with an enemy and then lock in on that aim. So in a cover-based, twin-stick isometric shooter, the isometric camera has now broken both the cover mechanic and the twin-stick aspect.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood -1 🙁

…in reply to @rockerest
The camera USUALLY works. I know now that I don't love isometric games, but it's generally _fine_, and the rest oft he game more than makes up for it. But since the camera is omnipresent, it's hard to forgive it for being annoying.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood -3 🙁

…in reply to @rockerest
I don't know how far I am through this game, but taking a peek at the wiki, it seems like I've already discovered most of the locations. I'll update with any additional thoughts as they come.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood +2 🙂

…in reply to @rockerest
Ope. Just encountered another one that I had forgotten about. Game-stopping tip overlays pop up - seemingly randomly? - no matter how many times you've stepped over the trigger. My current mission is Data_Miner (Story #5?), but I got the "here's how armor works!" popup just now
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood -1 🙁

…in reply to @rockerest
when I went to the armorer in Cluster 13. Didn't the game force this to make sure I saw it during the FIRST story mission in Cluster 13? This happens other times, too. Seemingly every time I go across a certain bridge, I'm told how cover works, and I have to hold space to exit.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood +1 🙂

…in reply to @rockerest
But then... it's not always! I've been to this armorer 4 or 5 times, and only seen the popup... 3 times? Does it reset all the flags whenever I quit the game? 😬
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood 0

…in reply to @rockerest
Oof. Just spawned in and my equipped weapons didn't spawn in with me. Could only get a weapon by choosing a new one from the loadout menu. Didn't get a chance to try to switch back because I died from the interruption / worse weapon.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 6 Mood -6 🙁

…in reply to @rockerest
Welp, it's not just on spawn. My weapons will regularly DESPAWN while I am actively in the world. To get them back I have to go into my inventory and shuffle everything around.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 7 Mood 0

…in reply to @rockerest
I also have the skins problem that many people have reported: all of your weapon and clothing skins are completely deleted any time you... Die? I've never seen the dozens and dozens of cosmetics I've picked up in my inventory.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 7 Mood -5 🙁

…in reply to @rockerest
The final mission(s) are awful. The vast majority of this game is "run-and-gun." It's a twin-stick shooter after all, but to "increase the difficulty" or something, the last sequence of missions forces you to sit in one spot and soak up dmg.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 7 Mood -2 🙁

…in reply to @rockerest
It's a TERRIBLE, AWFUL, LAZY game design choice, and it's compounded by the fact that you are BLOCKED FROM LEAVING. That's right, you can't come back and finish up the story missions later, you are stuck in this hell-level until you beat the game or uninstall it.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 7 Mood -10 🙁

…in reply to @rockerest
The augmentations, tacticals, modules, and weapons I have at this point in the game are insufficient to beat the last boss (it's really just a random spawner that forces you to sit in one spot while it throws hordes at you, but you can't shoot!).
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 7 Mood -1 🙁

…in reply to @rockerest
So I'm just stuck. Can't progress, can't back out.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 7 Mood -4 🙁

…in reply to @rockerest
BUT.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 7 Mood 0

…in reply to @rockerest
I found an exploit. It takes about 60 seconds to farm 300,000XP stuck in this hell-land, and all I have to do it intentionally crash the game at the right time. So I'm sticking my middle fingers up at the devs and I'm maxing every stat using this exploit.
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 7 Mood -8 🙁

…in reply to @rockerest
If I still can't beat the level, I'll just uninstall :D
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 7 Mood 0

…in reply to @rockerest
(I found this exploit by messing around in the memory and Assembly code - trying to give myself infinite health and ammo - which caused a crash, exposing it on next load. I actually can give myself ♾health, which would be enough to get through the story, but at this point I
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 7 Mood -5 🙁

…in reply to @rockerest
want to take advantage of the exploit to level because this game has been so extremely rude to me.)
Permalink On twitter.com 2021 Aug 7 Mood -1 🙁