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Absolver, the stylish kung-fu action game that launched to high praise last week, is having major server issues. Players have found themselves unable to log on for days at a time since launch, a problem with the online multiplayer-focused title that developer Slocap is promising to fix.
Not long after the game launched, players attempting to try the multiplayer campaign found themselves unable to on both PlayStation 4 and Windows PC. In North America, they couldn’t connect to servers; those in Oceania found that servers hadn’t even been deployed when the game went live.
As concerns about the game’s unstable online connection grew, Slocap responded on the game’s website.
“We are aware that some players are facing big lag issues, preventing them from enjoying the online experience in Absolver,” the development team wrote in a post one day after launch, on Aug. 30. “We apologize for the rocky start, the team is working night and day to improve this. We have a couple of major fixes in the works, which should be deployed next week and should improve these issues. Thank you for your patience!”
A patch went out on Sept. 1, which was set to improve “overall stability” and fix various other issues. But Sloclap admitted that it was continuing to stabilize the servers, which would take more time to be optimal.
Even with the patch, players continued to post on forums and tweet at the developer about their connection problems, which saw them being kicked out of laggy multiplayer matches, if they were able to get into any. To its credit, Sloclap has responded to many of these complaints, even the more impolite ones.
Hi! We're sorry to hear about any connection difficulty you're experiencing. We are aware of it and working hard to fix these issues.
— sloclap (@sloclap) September 4, 2017
Overall game stability is the top priority here, we apologize for the online issues you are encountering.
— sloclap (@sloclap) September 4, 2017
Another update is due out this Friday that should improve the situation, as well as minimize lag — and add some new gear, too. It sounds like players on places like Reddit are appreciative of the team’s transparency about the prolonged online problems.
“I am glad they have been putting a lot of effort in to keep their game running,” wrote one user regarding Sloclap’s promises of upcoming stability fixes. “It is frustrating at times but we are lucky for the fact that so many people got this game in first place. They are being active and [a] little patience is needed but soon we can hope to forget these launch problems and enjoy our amazing fighting game.”
For online multiplayer games looking to build up a long-lasting community, it’s critical that said community can actually, well, get online. Absolver is still in its early days, and Steam Charts stats suggest that thousands of people are still playing the indie game, in spite of finicky connectivity. We’ll see if Sloclap — an indie studio made its debut with Absolver — can turn things around sooner than later.
