Following its appearance in the XBOX Partner Preview back in March, I shared that Ascend to ZERO began with one small question – what would it feel like to stop time in the heat of battle? Chasing that question has helped us build the game we’d been hoping to make.

In that first piece, I focused on where the game came from. This time, I want to focus on what it actually feels like to play: how a single run unfolds, and how we sharpened those 30 seconds right up to the final moment.

How A Run Unfolds

At its heart, Ascend to ZERO is about doing as much as you can inside a sliver of time. Each run is short and fast, with all of the action packed in that time. Once the rhythm clicks, “just one more run” becomes very hard to resist. Here’s how a single run actually plays out.

The time limit. The very first run starts with 30 seconds on the clock. That’s how long the time machine can hold you in the past, and it shapes every decision you make. You fight, level up, and grab upgrades against that countdown, and the moment it hits zero, you’re pulled back to the present. Taking a lethal hit shaves seconds off the clock, so staying alive and managing your time are really one and the same. It sounds punishing, but that pressure is exactly what makes every second matter.

Time-Stop. This is the core of the game, and what sets it apart from the crowd. Press the button and everything freezes, including enemies, projectiles, and even the clock, while you alone keep moving. That frozen moment is entirely yours. Grab the experience points scattered across the field, slip past an attack you’d never have dodged in real time, and position yourself exactly where you want to be. Then let go – once time resumes, your Avatar Skill and gadgets all fire at once, turning a desperate scramble into a single decisive strike. Learning when to freeze time and what to set up before you release it is where the game truly opens up.

Combat and Movement. Your weapons aim at nearby enemies and fire on their own. Instead of tapping an attack button, you’re free to focus on the decisions that matter more. Where to stand, when to stop time, and what to equip shape the action moment to moment. When enemies flood in from every side, you can reset the board with Time-Stop or cut a path open with a well-timed dash. Positioning is ultimately everything.

Leveling and stat scaling. Growth here is explosive. Within a single run, you can climb from level 1 into the hundreds of thousands, watching your numbers swell in a way few roguelikes ever let you experience. The tougher the enemies you take down, the more powerful the items that pour out, and when luck is on your side, a great drop can vault your build forward in an instant. Every Avatar grows along a different curve, so the character you choose changes which stats spike and how the whole run plays out. Add the weapons, chips, and gadgets you collect along the way, and no two runs ever build quite the same.

A Better First Run for Everyone

In March, I talked about rebuilding the early game so players feel its appeal from their very first run. Ahead of launch, we went back over the whole experience once more, with a single goal in mind: making sure that first run lands as well as it can, for every kind of player.

We started with character balance. Rather than steering everyone toward a single “right” pick, we made sure every Avatar feels distinct and genuinely worth playing. We added a difficulty system so you can choose the setting that fits you and ease into the timed-run structure at your own pace, and we built an in-game play guide that helps you grasp how things work as you go. We also overhauled the handbook, so every system, chip, and unlockable is easy to find right when you need it.

A Late Game That Never Lets Up. We turned our attention to the late game as well. What we most wanted to grow there is the thrill of routing, deciding where to go and in what order. As a run wears on, the map grows more dangerous and rewards slip away if you don’t reach them in time, so you’re constantly weighing what to grab and what to leave behind. We fine-tuned the pacing and difficulty so that the tension feels like a thrill rather than a burden. The final stage shifts from exploration into a boss showdown, where everything you’ve built converges on a single fight, and we reworked it again and again so that last decisive moment truly lands.

That small question from March grew into something far bigger than where it started. We kept refining the experience right up to launch, until that very last second landed the way it should. Every run is a sprint, every second is a weapon, and every attempt makes the next one stronger. I can’t wait to see how high you climb.

Ascend to ZERO is available now on XBOX Series X|S, XBOX on PC, and XBOX Cloud. It’s an XBOX Play Anywhere title and available day one with XBOX Game Pass.

Ascend to ZERO

Flyway Games

☆☆☆☆☆
12

★★★★★

$11.99

PC Game Pass

Xbox Game Pass

Free Trial

[Game Overview]
Ascend to ZERO is a time-bending roguelike where you have the power to manipulate time and fight your way to the top. Play as unique avatars, wield powerful weapons and items, and experience fast-paced progression as your build evolves with every run.

[Story]
In the year 22XX, humanity built a vast underground Time Lab to master time travel. However, when the portal to the future finally opened, it wasn’t hope that greeted them—only despair. A legion of unidentified mechanical monsters poured through the portal, laying waste to civilization.
To prevent the impending apocalypse, humanity created the “Chrono Child”—the only being capable of traveling back through time. The mechanical legion raided the lab on the day of her awakening—as if they had foreseen her birth. In a desperate attempt, the lab’s director cast the “Chrono Child” into a rift in time to save her from the invading machines.
Now stranded in a ruined future with her memories fragmented, she stands as the last survivor. With the help of a mysterious aide, she must embark on a journey back through time to defeat the monsters and restore a shattered world.