The Ascent's launch hasn't been as smooth as Curve Digital and Neon Giant were probably hoping. For example, co-op in The Ascent has been a struggle at times, as parties formed between Steam, Windows 10, and Xbox versions of the game led to serious connection issues. A new patch for The Ascent just for the Windows 10 and Xbox versions of the game was planned to solve those issues. However, some fans of The Ascent are reporting that it may have caused more problems than it fixed.
Reddit's community for The Ascent has been filled with many different posts that have called to attention an issue with the new patch causing performance issues, particularly in the Windows 10 version of the game. Specific issues include very low frame rates after updating the game, as well as stuttering issues even with cutting-edge PC hardware. These issues appear to have been introduced entirely in the new patch, even though there were performance issues that existed prior.
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Some The Ascent players on PC do claim to have discovered at least one specific and fixable issue. That issue being that The Ascent is defaulting to having ray tracing enabled, even on PCs with graphics cards that don't support ray tracing. Worse, if users go into their settings for The Ascent, ray tracing will be grayed out so that it can't be turned off. In order to switch off the feature, users have to first switch from DirectX 11 to DirectX 12, then turn off ray tracing, and then switch back to DirectX 11.
Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be a similar solution for the stuttering issues in The Ascent. The stuttering goes through regardless of whether players change it from Low to Ultra settings, or anywhere in between. Some users say they're even experiencing the stuttering on their older Xbox One consoles.
For a game like The Ascent, where earning players at launch is such an important aspect of success, these technical problems could be disastrous. Luckily, The Ascent is said to have been a big success for publisher Curve Digital. That success will hopefully enable the team to address these frustrating technical issues without too much of a financial burden.
It also helps that The Ascent is by all accounts a very good game, with a rich cyberpunk setting and a compelling science fiction story. The technical issues are so frustrating for so many because most people just want to play more of The Ascent. Hopefully, they'll be rewarded for continuing to try soon.
The Ascent is available now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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