In our review of The Ascent, Andy was particularly taken by the neon-soaked streets of the RPG's setting, a colossal tower called the Arcology. It's a cyberpunk adventure where the camera is set in a fixed top-down perspective, but YouTuber Griff Griffin (spotted by Kotaku) discovered a way to unlock the camera and explore the city on ground level.
Using a tool called the Universal Unreal Engine 4 Unlocker you can toggle the free camera option to freely glide around and, up close and personal, The Ascent's people-packed city is stunning. There's an impressive amount of slick detail that's you would never notice in the fixed camera mode. One detail that amazed me was the tiny ripples that raindrops make as they drop on different surfaces.
The obvious comparison is Cyberpunk's 2077 Night City, but it's the striking attention to detail that makes The Ascent's metropolis way cooler. If you wanna check it out for yourself, you can find instructions on how to use the Unreal Engine 4 Unlocker in the description of Giffin's video, and if you plan on diving in and playing yourself here's some tips to get you started and all the cyberdeck upgrade locations in the game.
- Avowed fooled us all into thinking you have to commit to playing in first or third person, but you can actually swap on the fly like in Fallout or The Elder Scrolls
- I became a domestic terrorist to steal a lightbulb in the best immersive sim I've played this Steam Next Fest—and it isn't even a Next Fest demo
And here are some screenshots Andy K took using the mod today.
