Fans of 80s nostalgia and homages, the time is nearly here to experience the biopunk madness of Ascendant. It’s a PvPvE shooter in which your team must extract Biocores while sporting the most majestic mullets or wearing leotards straight out of those popular – and since heavily memed – aerobics fitness workouts.
With the Ascendant closed beta running between April 5 and April 6, we have 5,000 beta keys to give away via this link here. However, you’ll need to act fast as it’s first come, first served.
But what exactly is Ascendant? At its heart, it’s a squad-based FPS game set in an 80s biopunk world full of big explosions and brightly colored neon jackets. In the beta, you’ll play a different take on Capture the Flag, where players must deliver Biocores to their base while avoiding the other team’s fire and the ire of the mutant lizards and giant snails roaming the map. However, they can also inherit monstrous abilities to smash their foes to a pulp.
To accompany the beta’s announcement, a new features trailer goes over some of the game’s mechanics. While the beta will have just one map, the Game Director controls the experience. This can enable events in every match, such as where the teams start out, where the Biocores spawn, and which rooms are in action in that game.
Depending on which locations are available, you could get access to shops where you can buy powerful items and upgrades. The Game Director also handles events, such as giving players a spot on the map to capture for a benefit, deploying random air strikes, or releasing monsters to harass your team as you try to extract the Biocore. There’s even a room where you can neurologically link up with a monster currently in stasis and take control of it.
Similar games give players a huge number of customization options. However, in Ascendant, you don’t just tinker with recoil values. For example, you can turn a battle rifle into a submachine gun that spews poisonous rounds. Maybe you want your sniper rifle to have an explosive touch? Characters also have a Carrier Ability, two Combat Perks, and two Utility Perks that you can mess around with to create deadly and strategic combinations.
Ascendant also has a social lobby, where you and other players can check out the game’s arsenal and test them in small arenas to get your bearings. You can even forego the guns entirely in favor of parkour trials and small arenas where you can race against other players or even play hide-and-seek.
It’s a fun, silly time that you’re sure to get a kick out of, as our Ascendant preview attests to. Make sure you’re one of the 5,000 lucky winners by following our Ascendant closed beta test link and signing up. Remember that this explosive action will run from Friday, April 5 to Saturday, April 6. Good luck, and we hope to see you on the battlefield!
While you’re here, we have some suggestions for the best co-op games and multiplayer games to tide you over until the full release.