Ascend: Hand of Kul has grave potential. It's unfortunate that it's lackluster in its own legion of logistics.
Ascend: Hand of Kul frustrated the hell out of me: it was a game with an awesome concept but suffered due to poor execution. Fortunately, I believe this is still in the beta stage. Don't get me wrong, the developers did an amazing job on the artwork and the atmosphere but the game itself lacks enemy variety. I found myself killing three types of enemies over and over again. It got tiresome fast to the point where I left the game due to boredom and disappointment.
Fortunately, there is a mechanical concept that will bring me back to this game in some time – and that is the multiplayer. For those of you who've played Dark Souls the developer pretty much hauled everything over but switched some things up. Players can't invade your world physically but they can make your game a lot harder with curses. Basically, it's throwing more enemies against your opponent. To be honest, it's quite satisfying watching your opponent's ghost take a beating. If you don't want to be the world's greatest douchebag, you can assist your allies with blessings. They range
from increasing allied health to increasing their attack speed or damage. It's fun.
There isn't much depth to the game: especially in its plot. Basically, the humans have been enslaved by the apex and titans and its up to huge warriors called Caos to diminish them from the world. After the brief introduction, you're thrown into combat and the story pretty much evaporates into dust (occasionally being treated to two or three dialogue
boxes).
Overall, you can't go wrong with a game that's free-to-play. Though, you'd be surprised at the things they'll charge you for. The in-game currency which is gold is the main micro-transaction of the game. You'll like Ascend: Hand of Kul for a while – but be warned: the enjoyment dies off quite quickly.
Positive experience:
- Addictive, and enjoyable, multiplayer
- Majority of the achievements are easy to obtain and fun to collect
- Fantastic artwork and environments
- Interesting concept
- An abundant amount of customization options
- Eating, crushing, and throwing puny humans
- The game is free-to-play
Negative experience:
- An abundant amount of loading screens (some of which take a while)
- Online-requirement to play the game
- Occasional slowdown and sluggish performance
- Lack of an narrative
- An astounding lack of enemy variety (three types covered in different skins)
- Difficulty-balancing issues
- Controls are a little awkward and take a while to get used to them
- "Boss battles" are unbelievably cheap, forgettable, and frustrating
- The entire game is easily exploitable
- Random server disconnects for no explained reason
- Frequent freezing and clipping issues