As far as storytelling goes, there are very few things more stressful for your average protagonist than being entrusted with saving the whole of humanity from extinction. And in the case of Flyway Games’ Ascend to ZERO, the entire operation comes with a huge caveat - doing it all within a limited amount of time.

Thankfully, it turns out setting upon this herculean task happens to be a hell of a lot of fun. Ascend to ZERO combines the addictively repetitive cycle and slow character upgrade/growth systems of a roguelike with a charming aesthetic fusing both pixel-art and 3D elements, while the story mostly takes a backseat (though not nonexistent by any means) to the core gameplay – which is perfectly fine by me when it makes sense, as it does in this case. Expanding on the plotline I teased earlier on in the review, players initially assume control of the Chrono Child, tasked with going back in time to combat the hordes of hostile invading machines threatening life as we know it – with a mere 30 seconds available on the clock before you’re forced to try again.



Obviously, this is easier said than done and making as much progress as reasonably possible with the time you’re given by utilising the tools at your disposal is the meat and potatoes of Ascend to ZERO’s gameplay. If you’re a roguelike enthusiast or just thought Hades, The Binding of Isaac, and Vampire Survivors were pretty neat, you’ll be right at home with the core loop here.

Runs are initiated from the time machine within your base of operations in the distant future, requiring players to explore the map while eliminating groups of increasingly challenging enemies for level growth (both smaller and more powerful bosses known as Unbeatables that restore a small amount of time) and obtaining ability-granting enhancement items (or Tech Chips, sometimes offering a buff in exchange for a slight debuff) - completing any currently available mission objectives along the way for extra rewards and unlocks.



Once your allotted 30 seconds have expired or you die, you’re ripped straight out of the action and flung back to the future. Back at your headquarters, you’re free to spend your accumulated resources on numerous upgrades or pick up some much-needed equippable items – including devices (usually provide an increase to base stats like attack and defense, or even increase given time), weapons (typically augment your attack through percentage multipliers), armour (boosts your defense with multipliers, similar to the way weapons work) and gadgets, which come in both permanent and temporary forms – granting new skills/abilities and passives to the player. Inventory slot expansion is also required to equip more items, and they can get pretty dang pricy early on, requiring copious amounts of the primary Zero Coin monetary resource to unlock.

If you’re a roguelike enthusiast or just thought Hades, The Binding of Isaac, and Vampire Survivors were pretty neat, you’ll be right at home with the core loop here.

Going beyond your basic inventory, expanding your home hub area goes hand in hand with broadening your gameplay and upgrade options and is usually accomplished by rescuing one of your previously doomed companions while out and about on a run. In the same vein, unlocking upgradable avatars, or alternate appearances/characters with their own set of abilities, by completing designated objectives (like taking out a high-level enemy zone) allows for more freedom in playstyle experimentation, and is just one of many resource sinks you’re able to invest in – with each subsequent avatar upgrade boosting their related skillset, split into standard and hyper skills. Every avatar also comes with their own unique set of unlockable Tech Chips, ensuring you’ve got more than enough reason to try them all out.



To further work around the limited period of time imposed upon you out on the field, player avatars are granted the ability to pause time (cooldown dependent,). Upon unfreezing time (or sometimes even during), the appropriate avatar/hyper skill triggers, which obviously varies based on which one you currently control. For example, the default Chrono Child avatar skill does damage to nearby enemies within a specific range when time resumes its normal flow. Alternatively, stopping time is great when you need to hoover up the mountains of goodies dropped by the 15 bots you just destroyed without wasting precious progress potential.

Before hopping into the time machine, and after meeting the requirements early on, you’re able to modify your starting stats for further runs – including bumping up your maximum time even further, upping earned experience points and even starting at a higher level than normal. Naturally, this doesn’t come free of charge and requires an increasingly large number of Zero Coins for every added stat modification.



Ascend to ZERO’s actual combat flow is overall quite satisfying and can become incredibly chaotic when multiple tougher enemies swarm the area. The time-stop mechanic works well here by allowing you to inject some strategic positioning into your offense, while still dishing out damage (provided you haven’t already exhausted your cooldowns). The sweet satisfaction of agonizing over which Tech Chips should stay or go is great and can lead to some truly insane builds as more options become available over time – or you land the perfect set of complementary upgrades back-to-back. Throw in your ever-expanding selection of weaponry that, by design, float around your avatar and fire automatically, and you truly can become a force to reckon with. An alternate targeting mode can additionally be toggled at any point – allowing you to directly control what your arsenal should be focusing on with the mouse.

Ascend to ZERO’s actual combat flow is overall quite satisfying and can become incredibly chaotic when multiple tougher enemies swarm the area.

Unfortunately, Ascend to ZERO lacks any meaningful form of accessibility menu to adjust in-game text size, so if you’re playing on a smaller than average screen or have bad eyesight, you might struggle to read some of the descriptive weapon text/stat numbers as well. Most people will likely have little issues here, though. I also ran into some issues with certain interface elements in the inventory and while selecting a save that required a double-click on my part to work – and I’m not entirely sure if this is intentional or not.



Aside from the nifty time manipulation/combat integration, you’ve likely already seen the majority of Ascend to ZERO’s gameplay systems elsewhere before. This by no means diminishes the game’s enjoyment and fun factor, though, for those who don’t mind a title that leans heavily into gameplay over story or roguelikes in general. At a glance, it might appear to lack depth or come across as yet another roguelike you gloss over while browsing through your Steam search results, but I can assure you that Ascend to ZERO is a deceptively layered (and incredibly addictive) experience – one that I can easily recommend.

Review code provided by Flyway Games