Ascent of Ashes is a harsh survival sim born out of a RimWorld mod

Developer Vivid Storm released a new gameplay trailer showing Ascent of Ashes, the company’s X-Com meets RimWorld colony simulator, in action.

Ascent of Ashes is a post-apocalyptic game that puts the player in charge of managing a community of colonists under constant siege by raiders, aliens, and other forces. And that means the player needs to protect all of the colonists under their care. Which means you’ll need to build a settlement that can sustain the populace and hold off outside threats. And that means you’ll need to strike back as well, by sending your soldiers out on expeditions.

Vivid Storm was born from a popular RimWorld mod, Combat Extended, which completely overhauled the game’s combat. Instead of a percentage based shooting system based off the pawn’s stat, Combat Extended added a ballistic shooting model, rebalanced the game’s weapons and armor, and made tons of other balance changes. Ascent of Ashes takes those changes even further, evolving into its own game.

Ascent of Ashes will force players to be very careful with combat, which plays out in real-time. You can pause at any time to consider the battlefield, which could be against some simple rascals like raiders... or hyper-intelligent alien predators. It only takes one or two shots to snipe off a colonist. Stressful! Luckily, it looks like there are some relaxing elements to the game as well. Colonists will need to grow their own food and build their own barracks.

I’m definitely interested to learn more about this game, which is due to release later this year. Ascent of Ashes is also host to the chillest pig I’ve ever seen in my life, who doesn’t seem worried about any of the robots or raiders outside his little green field.