I can’t think of a worse name than for a game about high-action, tactical shooting, PvPvE chaos on a procedural map with a brash and loud, 80s inspired aesthetic. Like, what does Ascendant Infinity even mean? It’s a nonsense name that really doesn’t sell how energetic and fun this upcoming title can be!
A quick search in our CMS brings up a bunch of games with ‘Ascend’ in the name – Ascend New Gods, Ascend: Hand of Kul, Ark: Survival Ascended, Astria Ascending, Tribes Ascend, Underworld Ascendant. They’re all as uninspired as Ascendant Infinity and honestly, the word Ascend is the ass end of where you should be looking to find a standout name for a game like this one.
Ascendant Infinity is such a snoozefest to read that my eyes nearly glazed over when I read the invite to the recent hands-on session that I attended. If it hadn’t been for the cheesy, 80s sitcom stylised trailer that accompanied the email, I probably would have politely declined it, but you know what? In the end I’m glad I didn’t because, as bad as Ascendant Infinity’s name is, I had a lot of fun playing two matches of the game’s core multiplayer mode, Battle for the Biocore.
Now, I’m a sucker for 80s nostalgia. Far Cry Blood Dragon, Stranger Things, Turbo Kid, anything like that instantly has my attention and, as you’ll see from my gameplay, Ascendant Infinity is dripping with neon pinks and purples, synthwave soundtracks and more glam rock mullets than you can shake a spacehopper at. That also means that, if unlike me you hate that kind of thing, you are not going to like this one bit – that faux 80s aesthetic is everywhere and I mean everywhere – especially when it comes to character customisation.
Ascendant Infinity’s core gameplay is based around a mode called Battle for the Biocores. Here, 4 teams of 3 battle it out on a single map called Harmony in order to steal and process things called Biocores, which hold a super vaulable resource called Amber. Depsite the tactical nature of the gameplay, Ascendant Infinity is an arcade shooter a heart, so that means things like no fall damage and no friendly fire. Think Apex Legends but without the ‘royale’ part.