The Ascent vs No More Room in Hell 2

• Co-Op Teammates: The game supports 4-player local couch co-op and online multiplayer, allowing friends to synergize their cyberware abilities to dominate the battlefield.
  Other Players
• The Cyberdeck: Your constant companion. With a press of a button, it hacks nearby doors, ATMs for money, and turrets to turn them against your enemies.
  Digital Hacking Tool

• Cyberdeck Upgrades: Crucial modules hidden throughout the arcology. Finding them levels up your hacking device, granting access to high-tier loot chests and heavily encrypted doors.
• Orphan Skill Points: Physical skill points hidden in the environment independent of leveling up, rewarding players who explore every corner of the map.
• Datapads: Glowing lore terminals scattered across desks and corpses that provide deep background information on the alien species and mega-corporations of Veles.

• Gene Therapy Pills: Highly contested medical items found deep within dangerous zones like Beaulieu Hospital, strictly required to cure the zombie infection.
• Firearm Attachments: Suppressors and tactical flashlights looted from police cars or military crates that provide massive stealth and visibility advantages.
• Extraction Supplies: Objective-based crates that must be physically hauled to the extraction zone to secure account progression and better starting gear for future runs.

• Cyberpunk
• Dystopia
• Megacorporations
• Twin-Stick Shooter
• Sci-Fi Action
• Arcology
• Rebellion

• Zombie Apocalypse
• Permadeath
• Co-op Survival
• Infection
• Dark Horror
• Tactical Shooter

• The Dominator: Assault Rifle
  A rapid-fire ballistic weapon perfect for shredding crowds of unarmored gang members and low-level mutants in the slums.
• EBR Enforcer: Energy Burst-Rifle
  A highly accurate energy weapon that melts through the heavily armored corporate security forces and robotic enemies encountered in the upper tiers.
• Guillotine: Heavy Melee Sword
  Introduced in the Cyber Heist DLC, this massive, brutal blade completely shifts the dynamic of the game into a close-quarters hack-and-slash experience.

• Lead Pipe / Baseball Bat: Melee Weapon
  The essential, silent early-game weapons. Crucial for clearing out singular zombies without generating noise that would alert the larger horde.
• Pump-Action Shotgun: Close-Quarters Firearm
  A devastating, loud weapon that can clear a hallway of decaying flesh, but its massive auditory footprint practically guarantees more zombies will arrive.
• Molotov Cocktail: Explosive / Crowd Control
  An improvised incendiary device perfect for cutting off choke points during extraction or incinerating massive groups of the undead at once.

• Habber Dash Jacket: Standard, low-tier street clothing providing minimal physical defense but high mobility, worn by common workers in the Warrens.
• CorpSec Riot Gear: Heavy, bulky tactical armor looted from corporate security forces, providing massive physical and energy defense at the cost of evasion speed.
• Cyber Warrior Armor: A premium cosmetic/tactical set offering a striking, neon-infused Samurai aesthetic, providing excellent balanced defense for endgame content.

• Permadeath Caution: Players have very little physical armor. Survival relies on extreme caution, stealth, and situational awareness to avoid being grabbed or bitten.
• Gene Therapy Cure: The ultimate 'armor' against the infection mechanic. Securing and administering this rare item is the only way to stop a bitten player from turning into a zombie.
• Team Positioning: Standing back-to-back with your 7 squadmates in a narrow hallway is the only true defense when the dynamic horde descends upon your location.

• Cybernetic Tattoos: Extensive character creation options allow players to cover their avatar in glowing neon circuitry and gang tattoos.
• Transmog System: A heavily requested feature added post-launch, allowing players to equip high-stat, ugly armor but change its visual appearance to any cool outfit they have previously looted.
• Animated Weapon Skins: Purchasable or unlocked weapon paints that feature moving digital patterns, making your firearms glow brightly in the dark industrial slums.

• Civilian Survivor Gear: Standard, blood-stained civilian clothing showing the desperate reality of average people caught in the apocalypse.
• First Responder Uniforms: Paramedic, police, and firefighter outfits available as DLC or unlocks, representing the initial, doomed wave of emergency services.
• Surplus Officer / Military Gear: Tactical vests and helmets earned by keeping a character alive for multiple extractions, visually displaying your veteran survival status.

The Ascent features a deep ARPG progression system. Players level up to earn Skill Points, which are invested into attributes like Tactical Sense, Weapon Handling, Aiming, and Evasion. The game's defining feature is its 'Cyberware' system. Players can install active augmentations (such as launching a barrage of homing missiles or summoning an explosive spider mech) and passive modules (like increasing maximum health or adding dodge-roll evasion). Additionally, the 'Cyberdeck' acts as a hacking tool that players must continually upgrade to slice open high-level corporate doors, ATMs, and hostile automated turrets.

Progression is deeply intertwined with survival. Instead of a traditional RPG skill tree, players earn upgraded starting gear and distinct character perks by successfully surviving and extracting from missions. However, the game features a brutal permadeath system; if your Responder dies, all of their individual progress, perks, and accumulated survival experience are permanently erased. This high-stakes system forces players to carefully weigh the risks: do you push deeper into the darkness to secure better loot and save a teammate, or do you extract early to preserve your character's life?

Veles is designed vertically, separated into distinct 'Tiers' that represent the socio-economic status of its inhabitants. 'The Warrens' and 'Deepstink' are the lowest tiers, characterized by claustrophobic slums, raw sewage, and heavy industrial machinery. The mid-tiers feature bustling commercial hubs, neon-soaked nightclubs, and dense residential blocks. The absolute pinnacle, 'The Pinnacle', is where the corporate elite reside in clean, opulent, sunlit luxury. Exploring the map involves seamlessly riding massive elevators and traversing open urban battlegrounds filled with countless interactive NPCs, alien races, and destructible cover.

The game features 6 massive, richly-crafted maps that emphasize non-linear exploration and claustrophobic horror. Regions range from the sprawling urban decay of Broadway in New York and the quiet, fog-drenched streets of Lewiston, Maine, to heavily fortified government Bunkers, industrial outposts in Pennsylvania, and the terrifying, blood-soaked corridors of Beaulieu Hospital. Each map is dynamic, offering different times of day, varied weather conditions, and randomized objective placements that ensure no two extraction runs feel exactly the same.

• The Inter-Tier Transit Train: Public Transport
  The immersive fast-travel network players use to move between the massive horizontal districts of the arcology.
• The Arcology Elevator: Vertical Transport
  Massive, city-sized freight elevators required to travel between the socio-economic Tiers of Veles, bridging the gap between the slums and the corporate luxury zones.

• Ferals: Mutated Humanoids
  Rabid, heavily mutated creatures that hunt in massive packs in the dark, industrial depths of 'Deepstink', requiring heavy crowd-control weapons to suppress.
• Mechanical Spiders: Robotics
  Corporate defense drones that scurry across the ceilings and floors, harassing the player with energy blasts and self-destruct mechanisms.

• The Horde: Undead Swarm
  Not an animal, but the primary, ever-present antagonist. A reactive, highly sensitive mass of decaying humans that overwhelm through sheer, terrifying numbers.
• Infected Responders: Turned Players
  If a teammate succumbs to the infection during a match, they will rise as a highly dangerous enemy, forcing the squad to put down their former friend.
• Special Zombie Variants: Mutated Undead
  Unique infected that possess different behaviors or speeds, forcing players to prioritize targets in the dark before the line collapses.

• The Indent: Player Avatar
  An enslaved corporate worker who must utilize extreme violence and cybernetic enhancements to survive the collapse of their mega-corporate owners.
• Poone: Syndicate Boss
  The stressed, foul-mouthed leader of your home district who acts as your primary early-game quest giver, trying desperately to keep his turf from being overrun.
• Kira: Corporate Handler
  A highly capable, mysterious operative who takes an interest in your lethal efficiency, guiding you through the complex espionage of the upper tiers.

• The Responder: Player Avatar
  An ordinary survivor or emergency worker trying to salvage humanity. Their life is fragile, and dying means their story and progress end permanently.
• The Undead: The Enemy
  Relentless, flesh-eating corpses that still possess their hearing and sight, making every shadow a potential death trap.

• Mutual Dependencies: Early Campaign
  Fight through rival turf in the deep slums to restart the district's primary water supply, establishing your value to the local crime boss.
• Data Miner: Corporate Espionage
  A massive mid-game raid on a high-tech corporate facility requiring heavy hacking, culminating in a brutal boss fight against a heavily armed mechanical spider.
• Unhandled Exception: Story Finale
  The climactic final campaign mission requiring players to defend a central hacking terminal against endless waves of the most elite corporate security forces in the game.

• Find Your Friends: Early Game Survival
  Players are dropped separately into the dark map. Your immediate first goal is to navigate the shadows and use proximity chat to group up before being overwhelmed.
• Restore Infrastructure: Mid-Game Objective
  Venture into pitch-black basements or power stations to repair generators, restore lights, or unlock electronic doors to secure high-tier medical loot.
• The Extraction: Climax / Survival Siege
  Call for an extraction vehicle and fortify your position. The squad must hold the line against a relentless, massive wave of the undead until rescue arrives.

The Ascent features both single-player and up to 4-player cooperative multiplayer. Uniquely for a modern game, it fully supports 'couch co-op' (local multiplayer on a shared screen) as well as online co-op. Playing with a squad fundamentally changes the combat dynamic, allowing players to synergize their cyberware—such as one player acting as a heavy tank with energy shields while others use sniper rifles and hacking abilities to control the battlefield. Enemy health and spawns scale dynamically based on the player count.

The core of the game is its intense 8-player cooperative 'Scenario Mode'. Players are dropped into the map and must first locate each other in the dark using proximity voice chat and visual cues. Cooperation is absolutely mandatory; a single zombie can be dispatched easily, but the horde is reactive, meaning gunshots will draw an insurmountable crowd. Players must share ammo, heal each other, and coordinate defensive perimeters while looting. The tension peaks during the final extraction, where the squad must hold off endless waves to secure their survival.

The Ascent launched on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S (including Day One on Xbox Game Pass) on July 29, 2021, and later expanded to PS4 and PS5. The base game is sold standalone, but Curve Games also released the 'Cyber Edition' bundle, which packages the base game with the 'Cyber Heist' story DLC and several cosmetic/weapon packs, including the 'Cyber Warrior Pack' and the 'CyberSec Pack'. These premium packs offer unique Samurai-inspired armor sets, animated weapon skins, and tactical grenades.

No More Room in Hell 2 initially entered Early Access on October 22, 2024, before hitting its full 1.0 release on August 11, 2026. The game is available on Steam for a base price of $29.99. Publisher Torn Banner Studios offers several cosmetic DLCs, including the 'Punk is Life Pack', 'First Responder Pack', 'Surplus Officer Pack', and 'Veteran Survivor Pack', which allow players to customize their doomed Responders before heading into the fray. A Deluxe Edition bundle is also available, packaging the base game with multiple cosmetic expansions.

Neon Giant provided excellent post-launch support. The major expansion, 'Cyber Heist' (released August 2022), takes place immediately after the main campaign. It introduces new overworld locations, new main and side missions, and highly requested melee weapons like the Rock Crusher and Guillotine. Additionally, several cosmetic DLCs ('CyberSec Pack', 'Cyber Warrior Pack') were added, alongside free game updates that introduced a highly requested Transmogrification system (allowing players to change their armor's appearance without losing stats) and a New Game+ mode.

Developed by the team behind Chivalry 2, the game follows a live-service roadmap focused on horrific seasonal updates. Torn Banner Studios has released several premium cosmetic packs that add unique civilian and responder outfits. The developer actively listens to community feedback from the Early Access period to balance weapon degradation, zombie spawn rates, and introduce new, terrifying objective types and map locations to keep the permadeath loop fresh and horrifying.

• Q: Does The Ascent support local couch co-op?
  A: Yes! It is one of the few modern ARPGs to fully support up to 4-player local shared-screen co-op, as well as online multiplayer.
• Q: Is it a looter shooter like Destiny?
  A: No. While you do collect armor and weapons, it is a traditional ARPG. Weapons have fixed stats (which you can upgrade), meaning you aren't constantly grinding for randomized 'God Rolls'.
• Q: Is there a New Game Plus mode?
  A: Yes. A post-launch update added NG+, allowing you to restart the campaign with all your high-level gear and cyberware against significantly tougher enemies.
• Q: Do I have to play the DLC?
  A: The 'Cyber Heist' DLC is entirely optional but provides an extended endgame story, new locations, and highly requested melee weapons that change the combat dynamic.

• Q: Is there permadeath in No More Room in Hell 2?
  A: Yes. If your character dies during a mission, they are gone forever, along with their equipped gear and accumulated survival perks.
• Q: What happens if I get infected?
  A: If you are bitten, an infection meter begins to fill. You must find and use pills or gene therapy to cure it, or you will eventually die and turn into a zombie that attacks your teammates.
• Q: Do I have to play with 8 players?
  A: While the game is balanced around 8-player co-op for maximum tension and tactical play, the horror is heavily amplified if you are forced to survive with fewer teammates.
• Q: Can I go in guns blazing?
  A: You can, but it is a terrible idea. Zombies are highly reactive to sound. Firing an unsuppressed weapon will draw a massive, cascading horde from the surrounding areas.

Despite being developed by an incredibly small indie team of 11 people at Neon Giant, The Ascent boasts 'AAA' visual fidelity. The game is played from a classic isometric perspective, but the camera seamlessly shifts and pans to showcase the breathtaking scale of the arcology. The environmental detail is staggering, with hundreds of physics objects, volumetric smoke, and neon signs reflecting in rain-slicked puddles. The implementation of Ray Traced reflections and shadows on PC is considered some of the best in the industry, making the grimy, futuristic city look hyper-realistic.

Powered by Unreal Engine 5, the game delivers a highly detailed, visually stunning, and grotesque apocalypse. The environments are terrifyingly dark, requiring players to rely heavily on dynamic, battery-draining flashlights that cast long, unsettling shadows. The gore system is incredibly visceral, featuring procedural dismemberment where zombies dynamically react to where they are shot or struck. The contrast between the mundane, everyday environments and the horrific bloodshed creates a deeply unsettling visual experience.

The auditory experience is a standout feature, headlined by a pulsating, heavy synthwave soundtrack composed by Paweł Błaszczak (known for his work on Dying Light and The Witcher). The music dynamically shifts from brooding, atmospheric synthesizer hums during exploration to aggressive, high-tempo club beats during massive firefights. The weapon sound design is incredibly punchy, and the diverse alien languages spoken by the ambient crowds make the arcology feel like a true melting pot.

Sound design is a core gameplay mechanic in No More Room in Hell 2. The zombies retain their senses, making stealth incredibly important; sprinting, breaking glass, or firing an unsuppressed weapon will trigger a cascade effect, drawing zombies from the entire block. The game utilizes proximity voice chat, which creates horrific, unscripted moments when a teammate's voice suddenly cuts off mid-sentence as they are pulled into the shadows. The soundtrack is sparse, relying instead on the terrifying ambient groans of the undead and the panicked breathing of the survivors.

The UI embraces the cyberpunk aesthetic with sleek, red-and-cyan holographic menus. In combat, the HUD displays a health bar, energy meter (for augmentations), and a tactical charge meter. One of the best UI features is the 'Waypoint' system; pressing a button projects a glowing digital line on the ground guiding the player to their next objective, seamlessly integrating navigation into the world without cluttering the screen with permanent mini-maps.

To maximize immersion, the User Interface is heavily minimized. There are no obtrusive mini-maps or giant glowing objective markers holding the player's hand. Ammunition counts must be manually checked, and the inventory system is grid-based and heavily restricted by weight, forcing players to choose between carrying extra medical supplies or a heavier firearm. The most terrifying UI element is the Infection Meter, which slowly fills if bitten, visually representing your impending doom if gene therapy is not administered.

The game offers standard accessibility settings including text scaling, subtitle backgrounds, and UI color adjustments. It also includes highly customizable aim-assist settings, which is incredibly helpful for players using gamepads in a fast-paced twin-stick shooter. Difficulty can be adjusted at any time, allowing players to scale back enemy damage if a particular boss fight proves too punishing.

The game includes standard accessibility options such as adjustable Field of View (FOV), key remapping, and subtitle customization. However, given its nature as a hardcore, permadeath survival horror game that relies entirely on auditory cues for stealth and proximity voice chat for coordination, it presents a very steep challenge for players seeking a casual or strictly visually-guided experience.

• System requirements are strictly verified against the official Steam store page. The Ascent utilizes Unreal Engine 4, featuring highly dense, destructible cyberpunk environments and impressive, hardware-intensive Ray Tracing capabilities for reflections and shadows.
• Laptop Performance Note: The extreme environmental density and massive amount of particle effects from explosions and lasers will heavily tax mobile hardware. Maintaining high frame rates is crucial for a twin-stick shooter, so managing thermals to prevent GPU downclocking is vital.
• Laptop Consideration: G P U T G P: A minimal TGP of 60W is required for 1080p rendering (e.g., GTX 1650/RTX 3050 Mobile). To maintain 60 FPS on High settings with Ray Tracing enabled, an 85W+ TGP (RTX 3060 Mobile or higher) is heavily recommended.
• Laptop Consideration: Cooling Thermals: The densely populated arcology features hundreds of AI NPCs and complex physics calculations for destructible cover. A cooling pad is strongly recommended to prevent thermal throttling during massive 4-player co-op firefights.
• Laptop Consideration: C P U Power Limits: Set Windows power delivery to 'Performance'. Restricting the CPU power can cause severe micro-stutters when transitioning seamlessly between the massive tiers of the arcology.
• Laptop Consideration: M U X Switch Optimus: Highly recommended to reduce render latency during fast-paced twin-stick combat, ensuring aiming and dodging inputs are instantly registered.
• Optimization Detail: Upscaling Tech: Supports NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR. Using upscaling is highly recommended to maintain 60+ FPS on mid-range hardware if playing with Ray Traced reflections turned on.
• Optimization Detail: Key Settings Impact: Ray Tracing (Reflections and Shadows), Volumetric Fog, and Post-Processing severely impact GPU overhead. Lowering these can yield substantial framerate improvements.
• Game Name: The Ascent

• System requirements are verified directly against the official Steam store page. No More Room in Hell 2 is powered by Unreal Engine 5, featuring highly detailed gore, dynamic lighting in pitch-black environments, and massive swarms of undead that heavily tax both the CPU and GPU.
• Laptop Performance Note: Coordinating 8 players and calculating the pathfinding for hundreds of zombies simultaneously requires significant CPU power. Maintain proper cooling to prevent thermal throttling, which can cause severe frame drops during massive horde encounters.
• Laptop Consideration: G P U T G P: A minimal TGP of 60W is required for 1080p rendering on low settings (e.g., RTX 3050 Mobile). To maintain 60 FPS on High settings during intense zombie swarms, an 85W+ TGP (RTX 3060/4060 Mobile) is recommended.
• Laptop Consideration: Cooling Thermals: The dense environmental rendering and complex AI behavior require stable CPU and GPU thermals. A cooling pad is strongly recommended to prevent throttling, which can be fatal in a permadeath game.
• Laptop Consideration: C P U Power Limits: Set Windows power delivery to 'Performance'. The game utilizes advanced dynamic lighting where using a flashlight in the dark places immediate stress on the rendering pipeline.
• Laptop Consideration: M U X Switch Optimus: Highly recommended to reduce render latency during fast-paced melee combat and frantic shooting.
• Optimization Detail: Upscaling Tech: Supports standard upscaling techniques (Super Sampling). The official minimum specs target 1080p 30Hz on Low with Performance Super Sampling, while recommended specs target 1080p 60Hz on High with Quality Super Sampling.
• Optimization Detail: Key Settings Impact: Shadow Quality, Volumetric Fog, and Zombie Corpse limits severely impact GPU and CPU overhead. Lowering these yields substantial framerate improvements.
• Game Name: No More Room in Hell 2

• Upscaling Tech: Supports NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR. Using upscaling is highly recommended to maintain 60+ FPS on mid-range hardware if playing with Ray Traced reflections turned on.
• Key Settings Impact: Ray Tracing (Reflections and Shadows), Volumetric Fog, and Post-Processing severely impact GPU overhead. Lowering these can yield substantial framerate improvements.

• Upscaling Tech: Supports standard upscaling techniques (Super Sampling). The official minimum specs target 1080p 30Hz on Low with Performance Super Sampling, while recommended specs target 1080p 60Hz on High with Quality Super Sampling.
• Key Settings Impact: Shadow Quality, Volumetric Fog, and Zombie Corpse limits severely impact GPU and CPU overhead. Lowering these yields substantial framerate improvements.

• G P U T G P: A minimal TGP of 60W is required for 1080p rendering (e.g., GTX 1650/RTX 3050 Mobile). To maintain 60 FPS on High settings with Ray Tracing enabled, an 85W+ TGP (RTX 3060 Mobile or higher) is heavily recommended.
• Cooling Thermals: The densely populated arcology features hundreds of AI NPCs and complex physics calculations for destructible cover. A cooling pad is strongly recommended to prevent thermal throttling during massive 4-player co-op firefights.
• C P U Power Limits: Set Windows power delivery to 'Performance'. Restricting the CPU power can cause severe micro-stutters when transitioning seamlessly between the massive tiers of the arcology.
• M U X Switch Optimus: Highly recommended to reduce render latency during fast-paced twin-stick combat, ensuring aiming and dodging inputs are instantly registered.

• G P U T G P: A minimal TGP of 60W is required for 1080p rendering on low settings (e.g., RTX 3050 Mobile). To maintain 60 FPS on High settings during intense zombie swarms, an 85W+ TGP (RTX 3060/4060 Mobile) is recommended.
• Cooling Thermals: The dense environmental rendering and complex AI behavior require stable CPU and GPU thermals. A cooling pad is strongly recommended to prevent throttling, which can be fatal in a permadeath game.
• C P U Power Limits: Set Windows power delivery to 'Performance'. The game utilizes advanced dynamic lighting where using a flashlight in the dark places immediate stress on the rendering pipeline.
• M U X Switch Optimus: Highly recommended to reduce render latency during fast-paced melee combat and frantic shooting.