The Ascent - Cyber-Heist

Cyber-Heist is paid DLC for The Ascent, Neon Giant's twin-stick action RPG set in a dystopian megacorporate arcology. If you finished the base game and wanted more time in that grimy, rain-slicked world, this is the package that delivers it, though with some caveats worth knowing before you commit. The DLC adds a handful of new missions, fresh environments, new enemy types, and the headline feature: melee weapons. That last addition is more meaningful than it sounds. The base game was almost entirely a ranged affair, and giving players close-quarters options changes how you approach positioning and aggression. Whether you want to wade in with a blade or use melee as a panic option when your guns overheat, it adds a new layer to build planning. For players who already sank time into augment and weapon setups in the main game, experimenting with melee synergies gives you a reason to revisit your loadout. The new environments are visually consistent with The Ascent's signature aesthetic: dense, layered, stuffed with background detail that rewards a slow walk-through. Neon Giant has a genuine talent for world-building through atmosphere rather than exposition, and the locations here carry that same lived-in quality. The enemy roster gets a few additions that require you to adjust tactics, which prevents the DLC from feeling like a simple retread of familiar fights. That said, the mixed reception on Steam is worth taking seriously. At roughly 339 reviews with 58% positive, Cyber-Heist sits in uncomfortable territory. The criticism that surfaces most is length: the content feels short for a paid add-on, and if you are not playing in co-op, the experience can feel thin. The narrative material is minimal. There are missions, there is context, but do not come expecting the kind of story beats that made the base game's corporate conspiracy compelling. If you are an RPG player who values dialogue options and character arcs above gunplay, this DLC is almost entirely on the action side of the genre ledger. The writing does not give you much to chew on between firefights. For co-op players, the value proposition improves noticeably. Cyber-Heist's missions are built with group play in mind, and the chaos of coordinated builds, one player going melee while another handles suppression fire, is genuinely fun in a way that the single-player experience does not fully replicate. If you have a regular co-op group that burned through The Ascent together, this is a reasonable evening's content. Bottom line: Cyber-Heist is a content drop for committed fans of The Ascent, not an entry point and not a must-own expansion. Treat it as a post-credits bonus chapter that adds one meaningful mechanical wrinkle (melee), some solid new locations, and a few hours of shooting before it ends. Arrive with calibrated expectations and you will probably enjoy it. Arrive hoping for a substantial RPG expansion with narrative weight and you will feel the runtime acutely.

Monika · Scout Team

RPGs

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