Ascendants Rising

My honest first reaction to Ascendants Rising was cautious curiosity, quickly tempered by a Steam community thread that asked, bluntly, whether the developers had abandoned the project. That question, raised by players pointing to no updates since around August 2021, is the most important thing anyone searching for this game needs to know before spending a cent. This is an Early Access title that entered its public phase in June 2021 and, based on all available evidence, has seen little to no development activity since. There are zero Steam reviews, no Metacritic score, and community discussions that have gone unanswered. In the co-op RPG genre, a dead community is not a quirk, it is a deal-breaker. That said, the underlying concept is worth understanding, because the bones are genuinely interesting. Ascendants Rising casts players as Incarnates, powerful figures drawn from across a multiverse spanning Medieval Fantasy, Lovecraftian Horror, Sci-Fi, and Urban Fantasy settings. The role architecture is split across three broad archetypes: Healer, Striker, and Protector. But the classless build system is where things get more clever than expected. Rather than locking you into a role, the game lets you mix spells, weapons, and perks freely, so a sword-swinging support hybrid or a gun-toting backstab build are both viable on paper. Character power is tied to Artefacts, weapon-like items that can be infused and upgraded using interchangeable gems, which gives the progression loop a tangible crafting angle rather than a straight numerical treadmill. The stated design philosophy explicitly resists level-gating, putting the emphasis on build decisions and teamwork rather than hours-grinded numbers. Three modes are included: Dungeons, Raids, and the arena-style Coliseum. Boss encounters and environments are procedurally generated, meaning repeated runs should, in theory, feel mechanically distinct each time. For co-op RPG fans who want something closer to a streamlined dungeon-runner than a full MMORPG, the pitch is coherent. The problem is that none of this matters if you cannot actually get a match started. The game requires a full group of four players assembled through Steam invites, with no in-game matchmaking functional at launch. Community feedback flagged that players could not progress past the tutorial without a pre-formed squad. In 2025, with no visible player base and no matchmaking, that four-player requirement is effectively a wall. Character creation was described as thin even during the beta window, and pre-release coverage flagged that the content depth read more like a pre-alpha than a polished Early Access release. For an RPG specialist, the lack of meaningful narrative hooks is also a real miss. The multiverse premise had room to do something genuinely strange with its Lovecraftian and sci-fi theming, but there is no evidence the writing ever got past a framework-level pitch. Build variety and procedural bosses can carry a co-op action game a long way, but they need a living game around them to mean anything. Buying Ascendants Rising right now means betting on a dormant Early Access project with an unconfirmed development status, no solo option, no matchmaking, and a silent Steam community. If Limitless Games resurfaces with a meaningful update and a populated server, the design premise is worth revisiting. Until then, the risk is entirely on the player. Monika, Scout Team