The Ascent has a lot going for it, from its excellent, dense world to its thrilling combat to its engaging role playing mechanics, but Neon Giant’s cyberpunk action RPG launched with quite a few technical issues that have been bogging down the experience for some players. The developer promised upcoming fixes for the game last week, and its first major patch has arrived with various issues being addressed.
There are several patches specific to PC, and quite a few others that apply to all platforms, with everything from Ray-Tracing performance being fixed, to those playing via Game Pass also getting Ray-Tracing at last (which was previously only available with Steam). There are also several stability fixes, several bugs and glitches being ironed out, loading being better optimized, progression bugs being squashed, and more. You can check out the full patch notes below.
The update is live now for Steam users, and Neon Giant has said on Twitter that it will soon be live for Windows 10 and Xbox players as well, as soon as certification is done. Meanwhile, The Ascent recently also added difficulty options on Xbox versions.
The Ascent is available now for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. The game raked in over $5 million in revenue during its launch weekend. Read more on that through here.
UPDATE NOTES:
Performance (PC Steam & Win10 only)
- Fixes to improve performance in DX12, also with Ray Tracing.
- Note to Players: on first running of the update, there will be a 20-25 second ‘stall’ on loading to Main Menu to allow some caching to happen before you play. This is a one time event.
- Ray Tracing is now available to Players on the Windows Store.
- Improved loading in of NPCs
- CPU performance mode for lower-end PCs
Stability (all platforms)
- Numerous instances of ‘one time’ crashes have been fixed in both Single Player & Coop on ALL Platforms. (some other instances remain, we are working hard to resolve these for the next update).
- Local Coop fixes where Player 1 and Player 2 have controller focus issues on certain menus.
- Numerous other crash-fixes have been made to improve the stability of both local and online Coop, including fixes when disconnecting controllers, issues when 3 Players start a new game, and fixes when the internet connection becomes unstable.
- Fixed an issue where in certain circumstances a black screen would appear at the end of Mission 12.
- Fixed an issue where sometimes it takes too long to return to the Main Menu after gameplay.
- Fixed issues where Area loading is slower for the Client joining the game after the Host is using the Taxi.
- Fixed some Weapon replication issues in Online Coop.
- Fixed some issues around cross Platform hotjoining where Clients had trouble connecting to the Host.
Save Progress (all platforms)
- Introduced a new system to circumvent situations where save files could become corrupted.
- Fixes to situations in Coop where the Host leaving the game could cause the Client to lose progress.
- Fixes to situations in Coop where Players may experience progression blockers in certain situations.
- Fixed the issue where a Client’s items would unequip after a Host disconnects.
- Fixed an issue where a Client may lose connection when hotjoining a game in progress.
Gameplay (all platforms)
- Fixed an Achievement issue where you could unlock Main Mission and Side Mission under incorrect conditions.
- Fixed an issue where the mission objective during ‘Go To Grinder’ in Mission 2 would not update.
- The issue where multiple bosses could spawn has been fixed. e.g. Papa Feral, Megarachnoid (Spider Boss), Gun-Dolph.
- Fixed the Casino Courier Side Missions 1 – 5 where you could sometimes be unable to proceed due to missing NPCs.
- Fixed the custom camera for ‘Dark Horse’ Side Mission.
- Fixed the custom camera for Bartender in Stimtown.
- Fixed the situation where sometimes ‘Dark Horse’ could not be completed due to the NPC remaining in a frightened state.
- Fixed an issue where the Volatile Augmentation when used on neutrals had no effect.
- Fixed an issue where the Siege Mech in the Prison could despawn after a Player died.
- Fixed the issue where the Snooze Dealer’s Journal map icon was a white square.
- Fixed damage scaling on the Pocket Mech minigun to make it more powerful as you level up.
- Allows the use of certain augmentations while rolling.
- Balanced cost/cooldown/efficiency of Life Transfer, Neutron Beam and Overclock
- Fixed issues with PLUG Cyberdeck not cracking ICE 1.
Translation (all platforms)
- Lots of fixes have been made to address instances where English would appear instead of the correct language.
- Further work is continuing to improve the quality of the translations as well as further general bug fixes.
- Fixed an issue in Japanese where text overlapped in the intro cut-scene.
Assorted other fixes (all platforms)
- Fixed an issue where sometimes in Dreamworld, shooting SFX without enemies being present could be heard.
- Fixed an issue where the death-screen replaced the SFX & VO after defeating the Megarachnoid.
- Cyberdeck visible in Journal
- News now plays in the Taxi
- Film Grain toggle added to the Graphics menu
- Fixed the Dismemberer shooting SFX that could be missing for Clients.
- Fixed previews for Auto Turret and Pocket Mech in Vendors.
- Fixed Cluster 13’s Metrolink entrances collision box.
- Various UI fixes.