Which is a bit depressing, actually - and on launch,many players seemed to agree.

I daresay you’ve already seen the jokes and the"IT’S TRAUMA!"

memes, so forgive me if I skim over all of that.

Astrid and a strange peer out into the ashy fog.

years ago when I was eleventy thousand months pregnant and on forced bed rest.

Of all theSilent Hill-flavoured projects that Konami trumpeted a year ago, Ascension was the strangest.

There’s been a lot of confusion about it, too.

Cover image for YouTube video

The premise behind Ascension is a bloody good one, though.

Even the reasonswhyAscension was released before theSilent Hill 2remake or Townfall or F make sense.

The problem with Ascension, though, has been not its ambition but its implementation.

A humanoid face is encased in a skin-like shroud, covered in barbed wire behind a steel fence.

Man, that’s such a cool idea!

But what’s the point when the customisation options are so piss-poor, every single player avatar looks identical?

And for something its creator insists isn’t a game, Ascension sure feels like one.

The “endurance” challenge wherein you and the community fight to keep characters alive and with hope.

Even the community voting system - easily Ascension’s strongest pull - is unbalanced.

That’s anywhere from a 200 to 600 IP commitment.

I don’t even have that much IP, thanks to the app continually losing my progress.

The illuminating player leaderboard where you can see exactly how much some players have spent on each vote.

Yes, I know we can watch via catch up - there’s a whole tab dedicated to it!

Most of us can’t even enjoy the weekly “episodes” being streamed online, either.

Am I still curious about the story Ascension is trying to tell?

A selection of the games available to those with the Founder’s Pack. They rotate daily. Those without the Founder’s Pack can only access one or two of these a day.

The catch up menu which only lets you see the previous night’s episode. You need to go to “episodes” to see all cinematics

A vote screen. Here’s Karl must decide whether to take Eva’s gun away or train her. I’m still not even sure who on earth Eva is.

Astrid and a strange peer out into the ashy fog.

An example of one of the mindfulness games. Good in theory, bad in practice - there’s no indication of what order you have to hit them in.

One of the first cinematics. Rachel and Joy are about to start the initiation in The Foundation.

Some books, an old typewriter, and the prerequisite skull sit on a desk.

A skin and wire-bounded figure stands at a distance.

Karl Johansen looks on pensively. I’d be pensive, too, if I’d seen what he just did.