In a truly disheartening turn of events, the fantasy PvE roguelike, Evercore Heroes Ascension, has announced its permanent shutdown, barely a month after exiting Early Access. Developer Vela Games shared the news on Steam, confirming that the world of Lumerea will soon fade away. The team explored options like switching to a peer-to-peer system to keep the game alive, but unfortunately, it wasn’t a sustainable path.
Evercore Heroes Ascension underwent significant transformations during its development. Initially envisioned as a MOBA-meets-MMO hybrid, it eventually pivoted to become a cooperative roguelike. While it initially generated a lot of buzz, even after this major overhaul, it struggled to maintain a player base throughout its early access phase.
A major indicator of its impending fate came last month with its 1.0 release, which notably removed matchmaking and the entire multiplayer component. What was meant to be a collaborative experience became a lonely single-player journey. While some single-player roguelikes are fantastic (Hades 2, for example), this was not the game’s original vision, and players were understandably frustrated about losing the ability to play with friends. Unsurprisingly, the game currently holds ‘Mostly Negative’ reviews on Steam.
Vela’s statement reads: “We came into launch with strong momentum and a lot of excitement, but the early reviews and reception hit us harder than expected, and we were never able to recover from that. With a small team and limited resources, we pushed as long as we could, but it eventually became clear we couldn’t keep the game sustainable.”
The Evercore Heroes Ascension servers are scheduled to close permanently on Thursday, October 30, 2025, at 4 AM PT / 7 AM ET / 11 AM GMT.
While game shutdowns are an unfortunate reality in the industry, the closure of Evercore Heroes Ascension is particularly difficult for me. Nearly five years ago, I had my first major industry interview with former Riot developer Travis George to discuss what was then known as Project-V. I was incredibly nervous, but George’s kindness and patience were remarkable as he laid out the studio’s ambitious vision for a competitive PvE game that wasn’t a traditional MOBA or MMO, emphasizing a focus on reducing player toxicity.
Later, I even had the chance to go hands-on with Evercore Heroes before the ‘Ascension’ moniker and the genre shift. I remained optimistic, as it seemed the Vela team was wisely acknowledging their initial scope was too vast for their size and was tightening their focus. But ultimately, it wasn’t enough to save the game.
Despite the outcome, Vela expressed their pride in the project: “We’re proud of what we built, and we’re grateful to everyone who played, shared feedback, stuck with us, and believed in what we were trying to do. The community may have been small, but it was passionate – and that meant a lot to us.”
Even though Evercore Heroes Ascension’s journey has ended, there are many other fantastic multiplayer games available to dive into. If you crave competitive action, explore the best MOBAs out there. Did you ever play Evercore Heroes Ascension? Share your thoughts on the game with us in our community Discord server.