In this first part of a review for Amazon Ascension on Roblox, we will be rating the mechanics in the current version.

Amazon Ascension is a game about playing as animals in the Amazon Rainforest. Explore the rainforest, hunt for your food, escape from predators, and unlock new animals the longer you survive.
- official description

The mechanics in Amazon Ascension, we’ll be calling it AA for short, are interesting and offer a range of things to do in-game. I have listed ten of them for review in this blog, and at the end of this series we will add up the points to see the score I have given it. The ratings are of course my opinion, so your final rating on the game may be different.

Ascension

Being the main unique mechanic in AA, the Ascension mode is where you earn points doing certain tasks that the real animals participate in, and use the points to ascend to higher-tier animals.

As is visible with the tree, there are multiple tiers to ascend up to, 8 in total. You start at Tier 1, which is a squirrel monkey:

And from there you earn points to ascend to the higher ones, eventually getting to Tier 8, however it isn’t as simple as just going from bottom tier to top tier, you must make a choice at Tier 6 in which direction you are going:

Once you pick your Tier 6 you must stick to the path leading up, while not all are implemented right now there are still a fair few to choose from. To add a bit more complication and challenge to the Ascension when you die you go down a Tier.

You also have three save slots available, which can be reset at any time:

Rating

The animals that are selected for each Tier are fitting, and the high-tier trees are also well selected with what animal leads to another, and adds replayability to the game. I would rate the Ascension an 8/10 because going down the tree can be extremely enraging sometimes.

Tasks

The tasks in-game can range from travelling 300m to killing a player and are always based on the real-life activities that the animals partake in.

Some are more challenging than others and can get a little tedious at times such as rest for 30 seconds, you can only have two tasks at a time, and when you complete one a random new one will replace it. The points you are rewarded for completing one vary depending on difficulty and if you completed the same one recently.

Rating

The points you gain for each one are fair and vary a good amount, some are tedious but they are mostly fun and give you an aim while playing, which generally keeps me interested for longer than other animal survival games. I would rate Tasks a 9/10 because they can get a tiny bit tedious as herbivores.

Freeplay

If Ascension doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, Freeplay is the more casual option. In Freeplay, you can play as any animal that is not an Apex predator, Freeplay excludes all Tier 7’s and 8’s, while also excluding the Tier 6 Puma, and disables tasks.

Freeplay is a nice addition for those who prefer less frustration and challenge, I personally prefer Ascension mode, but plenty of people enjoy Freeplay.

Rating

It gives casual gamers the ability to play how they want, which is absolutely great, while also causing no balance issues by restricting the animals selectable. I would rate Freeplay a 10/10.

Skins

Skins are featured in many games, so it isn’t much of a surprise it’s in AA. The way they are implemented is interesting though. For a start, you can find Skin Crates across the map holding a skin for a specific animal.

When you click on said Skin Crates you collect them and they are added to your skin storage for later purchase with a currency called “Silver Dollars”.

The rarer a skin the more Silver Dollars it costs, the way you earn Silver Dollars is by Ascending to an animal for the first time and daily log-in bonuses, there will be more ways in the future. You may also buy a crate for 400 Silver Dollars, instantly giving you a random skin.

Rating

The skin system is overall fun to use, the only downside to it is that some of the skins aren’t very good, but the majority are amazing. I would rate Skins an 8/10 because some skins are not very good.

Minigame

The AA minigame is a bar with a green cube and a moving yellow line, the goal is to press spacebar when the yellow line is inside the green cube.

The minigame is used for multiple things, in this case, if you win you get food. The most common use of it is for combat when a player grabs another player, in which the fastest to complete it wins the minigame, and if they are the one grabbing they deal damage to the other, and if not the player who initiated the grab they will escape the other.

Rating

Overall the minigame adds a nice aspect of fun to the game, making feeding interesting for certain animals and combat more than just spamming mouse clicks. I would rate this feature a 10/10.

Sense

Sense allows players to see things far away from them without having to use a line of sight. It is used for sensing food, in the caiman’s case (shown above) it highlights a school of fish in blue that it can hunt. Other animals can use it to see corpses highlighted in red and the anaconda’s unique version can highlight any nearby animal in red, unlike water sense, which only allows you to sense animals in contact with water.

Rating

The Sense mechanic is useful for finding things that you otherwise would not have noticed, and is overall balanced well. The only issue I can see with it is that it sometimes cuts the animal’s highlighted silhouette in half. I would rate this feature a solid 10/10.

Special Abilities

Some animals are given special abilities that make them unique to play. The electric eel for example (as shown above) can use an electric shock at the cost of stamina to stun anyone trying to attack it. Another interesting ability is the tapir’s kick, which it can use to deal high damage to predators or to knock fruits out of trees.

Rating

The Special Abilities chosen are well-balanced and fun to use, resulting in an overall enrichment of the game. I would rate this feature a 9/10 because some abilities are not explained very well for idiots like myself.

Ai

Ai is a great addition to most games in general, and it is no different in AA, the game currently includes 3 kinds of fish and agouti’s as Ai. While not a lot of Ai, it does help the gameplay a lot. Mainly keeping the carnivores fed on something when there are no other prey players to eat.

The Ai have well-coded behaviours as well, such as the fish becoming evasive when you attack near them. And the Agouti’s only being able to sense predators when they are not crouching.

Rating

The Ai are a good addition, keeping carnivores fed and the world feeling more alive. I would rate this feature a 10/10.

Climbing

The climbing system in-game is really well made, consisting of these elements:

First of all, when holding left click a green line will appear, or red if you’re aiming too far, and upon pressing spacebar you will leap to the destination you are aiming at.

Once on the tree, you can climb to the top and hang off a leaf by pressing E. And from there you can climb to your hearts content.

Rating

The climbing system is very smooth and fun to use, it can glitch out a little bit sometimes though. I would rate this feature a 9/10 because it can get a little glitchy.

Flying

Last but certainly not least, flying. The flying mechanics in AA are well executed, like climbing. But a lot more difficult, I have killed myself a few times while learning the flying mechanics.

Flying goes as so:

1. First, you need to take off with Q and fly up to gain some altitude.

2. Once at a satisfactory height you can hold spacebar to not lose any altitude at the cost of slowly losing stamina. You cannot go up or down while holding spacebar.

3. Landing is where it can get tricky, you must hold E to slow down at the cost of rapid stamina drain before you hit the ground. If you are not slowed enough when you touch the floor you take damage.

Rating

Flying in AA is fittingly challenging, and you must keep an eye on your stamina at all times creating an immersive and interesting aerial experience. I would rate this feature a 10/10.

Conclusion

The Mechanics of AA are diverse and enrich the experience monumentally, they are well thought out and just as well executed, resulting in fun gameplay overall.

I’ve had hours upon hours of enjoyment playing this game, and it stands out to me as one of the best animal survival games out there, although the graphics are not the best the mechanics make the game the fun experience it is. Flying and Ascension are my favourite mechanics in the game, but I’d be interested to know which mechanics you like most in the comments.

Final Rating

The mechanics of AA as a whole gets a rating of 9/10.

I hope you enjoyed this little delve into Amazon Ascension as much as I did, and I hope to see you again soon :>

This is the first part of a five-part series exploring Amazon Ascension and it’s many interesting features