'The Ascent,' an arcade shooter throwback, is my favorite game of 2021

Neon Giant flirts with open-world concepts by creating several "town" areas where players can rearm and reconstruct themselves or pick up side missions and flavor text about the world. Like with the skill and weapon improvements, the game is light on role-playing mechanics, but that helps it achieve its mood and pacing. It gives players time to soak in the atmosphere and take stock of the environments and absorb its booming soundtrack. While action sequences thump with bass, the quieter moments are backed by music like the Buddhist prayer chants in anime films like "Akira" and "Ghost in the Shell." If "The Ascent" has one big issue, it's that its aesthetics are almost too obviously referential.