Shorter than some elevator rides.

Savant: Ascent is an arcade-style game for fans of the artist's (Savant's) music. In that respect, it's a clear victory, with action and aesthetics that seem very well-suited to its high-energy soundtrack. Aside from its musical association, though, there isn't really much here of value. To put it another way -- the game is currently going for $2, and that seems like a pretty appropriate price.

The gameplay itself is similar to a twin-stick shooter, but with restricted player movement: you can only move between two spots on the screen, to dodge enemies when they lunge towards you. (This is also used to fair effect in a boss battle at the end.) Otherwise, you'll just hold the mouse button to shoot at enemies that swarm around you, and occasionally use a special powered-up shot to deal more significant damage.

Ascent has a "story" mode which uses hand-drawn scenes (which, honestly, don't look nearly as nice as the in-game sprites) to tell a vague story about the player character being thrown from the tower he must subsequently ascend. There are only three "levels" in the story: one at the bottom, one on an elevator that climbs upward (this is the fun-looking part from the game's trailers), and one at the top with a boss fight. I hesitate to even call these levels, really, since you can't start at any particular one; you can only continue from the most recent one if you die during the ascent.

There are a few different types of enemy, although the only one that's really meaningfully different from random-flying-object is a snake that needs to be dodged and beaten down a bit. And the boss battle is neat, although it was also a bit dumbfounding for me until I looked up the necessary technique for defeating its final form.

There are extra modes for high scores and collectibles and so on, but personally I feel - having put about half an hour into finishing the story mode - that I've gotten my fill of Savant: Ascent. I appreciate the effort that went into producing the game, and it's a nice bit of fun for what it is, but it's hard to see as anything more than a bonus for Savant's fans.

Better than: a behind-the-scenes video, or some other dumb pack-in album bonus.
Not as good as: a real, full-fledged video game.
It would be pretty interesting-slash-cool: if this companion-game idea caught on for music.

Progress: Finished story mode once.