ActionAdventureIndieRPG
The Ascent
Give it 10 hours
Gets good by 10h then rated almost like by veterans
Fully opens up by 20h rated like by long-time players
Reach the ending 13% of players who started
Started playing 90% of owners
Steam reviews 73% positive of 25,353
What the data shows
- In the first 2 hours 1 in 2 reviews are negative (54%); after 20h it's 1 in 8 (12%).
- Fully opens up by hour 20.
- The opening is criticised more than in 83% of games we track.
- 13% of players who start reach the ending.
- The biggest drop-off is between “Party crashed” (Complete Mutual Dependencies) and “A new friend” (Complete Trading Places): from 64% to 41% of starters.
- 90% of owners got the first achievement.
When it gets good
Share of positive reviews by how many hours the reviewer had played when writing the review.
before it gets good opening up fully opened up
Based on all 25,561 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 300 reviews: 8.6h for positive, 3.1h for negative. Almost every game is rated lower in the first 2–3 hours: that window includes refunds and quick first impressions. What matters is how deep the dip is and how fast the game recovers.
Where players quit
Share of players who started the game and reached each story milestone. 100% is the most common achievement (90.4% of owners), so people who bought the game and never launched it don't count.
- Started playing 100%
- What just happened? Complete Arcology Blues 81% −19
- Party crashed Complete Mutual Dependencies 64% −17
- A new friend Complete Trading Places Most players quit here 41% −23
- Power Hungry Complete Empowerment 35% −6
- Data Digging Complete Data Miner 31% −4
- Mnemonic Hunt Complete Foreign Code 27% −5
- Everyone's a smuggler Complete Trace Protocol 21% −5
- Magenta Power Complete Syntax Error 20% −1
- Nothing personal Complete Recompile 18% −2
- Severed Board Complete Board Meeting 17%
- Protocol 61A Complete Project MenShen#1 17% −1
- Something out there Complete Project MenShen#2 15% −2
- Win Complete all Main Missions 13% −1
story milestone ending biggest drop-off
Story milestones were labeled by AI from achievement names and descriptions; mistakes are possible.
All achievements (66)
story milestone ending side
- We're just getting started First enemy kill 100%
- What just happened? Complete Arcology Blues 81%
- Self improvement Allocate 3 proficiency points 81%
- Fair trade Sell Something 66%
- Drop your weapon! Make an enemy drop an exploding grenade 66%
- Party crashed Complete Mutual Dependencies 64%
- Getting things done Finish a side mission 63%
- Opportunist Kill 10 enemies using exploding barrels 63%
- Tourist Ride the Interlink Express 51%
- Curious consumer Read 10 datapads 51%
- Bounty Hunter Claim a bounty 50%
- Teamwork Start your first co-op session 43%
- A new friend Complete Trading Places 41%
- Added extras Equip two augmentations and a module 40%
- Fight smart Kill a robot with energy damage type 39%
- Fullchrome Equip augmentations and upgrade attributes resulting in the fullchrome appearance 37%
- Power Hungry Complete Empowerment 35%
- Next level AI Upgrade your IMP 34%
- Helping hand Revive a DBNO friend 33%
- Data Digging Complete Data Miner 31%
- Mnemonic Hunt Complete Foreign Code 27%
- Appreciation Get praise from Kira 27%
- Free candy Get the goods by both hacking and destroying vending machines 26%
- Getting out of the slums Collect 200'000 uCreds 26%
- Sashimi Get killed by a katana 25%
- Overkill Kill another enemy by overcharging an enemy while it's in stasis 25%
- Aficionado Fully upgrade a weapon 22%
- Everyone's a smuggler Complete Trace Protocol 21%
- Magenta Power Complete Syntax Error 20%
- Nothing personal Complete Recompile 18%
- Severed Board Complete Board Meeting 17%
- Protocol 61A Complete Project MenShen#1 17%
- Comprehensive Fill the Codex 16%
- Something out there Complete Project MenShen#2 15%
- Hygiene Use the sink after flushing a toilet 14%
- Win Complete all Main Missions 13%
- Anonymous withdrawal Hack an ATM 12%
- Flatliner Unlock all enemy Codex entries 12%
- Extreme Overcharge Deliver 4000 amount of stasis damage on one target 11%
- Omnihacker Hack at least one of each hackable category 11%
- Black ICE Deploy black ICE against hacker enemy 8.6%
- Explorer Discover all locations 7.1%
- Do Over Reset your proficiencies once 7.0%
- Brave New World Discover the Dark Playground 4.5%
- Snooze or lose Try Snooze 4.2%
- Karlan Engineering Destroy a Karlan controlled Siege Mech 4.0%
- One step forward Complete Find & Replace 3.9%
- Bring a knife to a gunfight Obtain your first melee weapon 3.5%
- Tenuous Grasp Find and then lose something valuable 3.5%
- Vice Express Take the train 3.4%
- Not so special Take down a member of Zells' guard 3.2%
- Suicidal Die more than 100 times 3.0%
- All the way Complete Critical Resource 3.0%
- Completed Main Mission Complete all Cyber Heist Main Missions 2.9%
- Zell is dead Take down Zell 2.7%
- Love Kills Completed Love Kills 2.5%
- For both our benefits Complete all side missions 2.5%
- Making Concessions Completed Making Concessions 2.4%
- Hammering Perform your first Hammer kill 2.3%
- Open Sesame Find a secret route 2.1%
- Big leagues Kill 50 level 35 or higher enemies 2.0%
- Complete all Side Missions Completed all Cyber Heist Side Missions 2.0%
- Unshackled Complete Unshackled 2.0%
- Completed All Missions Complete all Cyber Heist Missions 1.9%
- First Melee Special Move Kill Kill an enemy using melee's special move 1.9%
- VIP no more Kill a level 35 bounty 1.8%
Steam page Updated: 2026-10-18.