Astral Ascent is the perfect game to play with someone you love

Or at least someone you love to boss around.

Image via Hibernian Workshop

I live in a two-gamer household. My partner and I both play a fair number of video games (although I’m definitely more obsessive about it than he is), and for the most part, this works out just fine; I tend toward single-player games, often on handheld consoles like the Switch or Steam Deck, while he’s more likely to take the TV and gaming headset to play online with his friends. 

It’s anthropologically fascinating to watch him sit on the couch speaking to someone I cannot hear. A not-uncommon interaction: “Yeah, the new job is good, I’ve mostly just - ON YOUR LEFT! SHOOT HIM, NOW! Shit, that was close - yeah, I’m settling in pretty well, how was Mexico?” It’s a complete 180 from how I usually play games, locked-in and solipsistic, with the express intention of shutting out the world as I usually experience it. The thought of having to communicate with someone else — not to mention navigating their play styles and decisions while juggling my own — has always frankly been something of a turn-off to me, an inveterate control freak, and a major reason why I haven’t delved much into mega-popular franchises like Fortnite. 

Lately, though, that desire has begun to shift, thanks to a somewhat under-the-radar game called Astral Ascent. It came out toward the end of last year, and has quickly become one of the games I’m most likely to pick up when I have a spare hour. It’s fun to play alone, but it’s even better in what’s known as couch co-op: with someone else sitting next to you rather than over the internet, the kind of game kids can lose entire weekends to playing with a friend. It turns out that IRL connection, applied to a game as engaging and layered as this one, is what I’ve been missing all along. 

Astral Ascent is a roguelite, a genre of game where you attempt a series of levels over and over again, gaining experience, upgrades, and skill with each run. It’s clearly inspired by Hades, one of the great entries in this genre; Astral Ascent is the first game I’ve felt is a comparable successor since Hades’ release in 2020.

There's a cast of different characters you can play as, all trapped in an Edenic space prison. On each run, you try to escape, fighting Zodiac-inspired bosses until you — most of the time — die and return to space prison, to strategize and try again. Along the way, you gain bits of information about the various characters, your surroundings, and your foes, as well as permanent upgrades like increased health, more in-game currency, and stronger, more varied attack options. The loop is satisfying and addicting, the way the best entries in this category tend to be. 

All of that would make Astral Ascent a clear recommendation in its own right (with the caveat that the systems are a tad complicated for a total beginner to the genre — Hades is considered the best for a reason). What’s made it one of my favorite games in recent memory, though, has been the experience of playing it with my partner, and with a handful of friends — both experienced gamers and not — whom I’ve been luring to my house one by one. 

The gameplay itself doesn’t change much in co-op mode. Instead of one character jumping around and fighting enemies, there are two, arcade-style; instead of one set of available upgrades, there are often (but not always) twice as many to choose from. One player remains the primary character, able to tug the other along onscreen if they lag too far behind, and at the end of a run whatever points you’ve accrued are applied to your stash as they would be in single-player mode. In other words, having a buddy pretty much only helps, and the intention is to assist rather than compete against one another. 

Part of what makes Astral Ascent in couch co-op so pleasurable is that feeling of working together. So far I’ve played this game with people I’m close with — my partner, my best friend — and have been struck by how our gameplay roles coalesce. I, the obsessive planner, the lover of systems and details, call the shots when it comes to making decisions: which spells and upgrades to select, how to allocate money, which room to enter next. My coplayer, invariably more chill and more interested in smashing bad guys, focuses on just that. We both get the gameplay experience we want; mine is, in fact, better for it because I get to interact with (okay, boss around) an actual person I care about rather than solitarily deploying commands to a computer. We get to go through the motions of problem-solving together without the stakes. 

That’s a more interesting proposition to me than direct competition when it comes to couch co-op gaming. I’ve seen glimpses of it in cooperative games like Overcooked 2 and Unrailed, where you and your fellow IRL players must execute a series of timed tasks to keep systems in motion (culinary and locomotive, respectively); honestly, though, I’ve always found those both stressful and repetitive.

Astral Ascent requires alertness and reflexes, but the moments when it becomes overwhelming are rare and considered, not the prevailing tone. It’s difficult, to be sure, yet always clear how you can get just a little bit better next time — a hallmark of a good roguelite, and why this genre in particular feels like such an interesting fit when it comes to two-player games. 

The first and only time I’ve ever beaten the game’s final boss was alongside my partner. We didn’t even realize we’d won at first, two hours after sitting down for what we’d expected would be a quick run. The gameplay had felt good the whole way, the synergies of our particular characters’ abilities melting wave after wave of enemies. It wasn’t the same feeling of seamless flow state I felt when I played on my own; it was more like a dance, a pattern, an if-then statement performed in tandem with this person beside me, who I’d already learned to collaborate and communicate with against obstacles big and small. It felt like a real victory.