Ascendant is a fresh take on the extraction shooter that truly tests your ability to adapt, and you can give it a try this week. The punky FPS will enter a PC closed beta on April 5-6.
The squad-based tactical FPS hurls you into a biopunk world with a hint of 80s retro panache. While your in-game character has been on ice for millennia, the world has gone dystopian thanks to a cataclysmic event called the Cascade. There's good news for fans of 80s fashion, though, as that's one of the few things that survived – handy, too, as Ascendant is packed with plenty of character and weapon customization.
And the good news ends there. The biological over-engineering that was supposed to heal the planet has only succeeded in blurring the line between organic and synthetic life. As such, everything is out to kill you, and things rarely appear the same twice.
You and the squad butt heads with three other teams to extract materials known as biocores – and don't you just know it, there isn't enough to go around and no one feels like sharing. It's not just the other teams you must worry about. What might look like a safe room to hide in during one game may turn into a poison deathtrap in another game. Then there are the beasts you'll come across, like the Burrower, a giant turtle-like creature who breathes poison gas you'll want to avoid.
If you want to survive and win, you'll want to turn the negative into a positive. Take advantage of game-changing events to ensure that the other team is on the receiving end of an airstrike or cloud of poison gas and you might just make it out alive.
While the likes of Apex Legends and Fortnite allow you to form routines as you map out routes around familiar locales, Ascendant pushes the adaptation shooter to ensure you never quite have it all figured out.
If that sounds good to you, head to Ascendant's website to find out more about taking part in the open beta. You can also wishlist the punky FPS on Steam and the Epic Games Store to keep track of what's coming your way soon.
