You have 30 seconds to save the world. That’s the elevator pitch of Ascend to Zero, a fascinating new roguelike that puts some inventive twists on proven formulas. Let me tell you, I’ve played it for a lot more than 30 seconds.
To be clear, runs in Ascend to Zero don’t literally only last 30 seconds. Your character has an ability that can stop time indefinitely. When you resume time, you deal damage to nearby enemies, and defeating certain foes can add more seconds to your clock. But 30 seconds is what you’re given from the jump, and runs play out with the explicit intention of extending that half-minute as long as you can — ideally, long enough to save the world.
Developed by Flyway Games and released July 13 for Xbox Series X and Windows PC (it’s also on Game Pass), Ascend to Zero is an isometric roguelike that mashes up a slew of obvious inspirations. It has shades of Vampire Survivors, in that you automatically attack waves of enemies and numbers go up, up, up. It has unmistakable nods to Supergiant’s oeuvre — not just obvious connections to the Hades roguelikes, but to 2014’s Transistor too, with its cyberpunk visuals and emphasis on stop-go tactical combat. And though I don’t think it’s intentional, I couldn’t help but think of Scarlet Nexus, Bandai Namco’s 2021 excellent “brain punk” action RPG.
Like Scarlet Nexus, Ascend to Zero is about the impending apocalypse. It’s set in the future, when humanity has advanced technologically by generations. One day, some plant…monster…demon…things emerge from interdimensional portals and start exploding everything. You play as a woman who’s part of a research group at an advanced laboratory; her colleagues all sacrifice themselves to push her into a time machine, with the general thrust of “only you can save us!” Thus the justification of an eternal feedback loop.
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