Ultima IX: Ascension

aka: Ultima 9, Ultima: Ascension
Moby ID: 779

Critic Reviews add missing review

Average score: 71% (based on 40 ratings)

Player Reviews

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 104 ratings with 12 reviews)

Extremely bug-ridden game but its actually quite fun!

The Good
The game was fun to play as I played it all the way through with only the last and final patch from Origin. Its an experience worth going through only if you have been an Ultima fan from way back in the beginning. Truly an interesting experience.

The Bad
I did not like the way the game was handled and released by Origin. Its got a lot of bugs and playability might be impossible for some people. The storyline disappointed me a little bit as well but it was acceptable overall.

The Bottom Line
Its basically a Tomb-Raider like RPG set in the Ultima world. Its definitely worth experiencing if you've been a fan of the series. The sheer vast size of the world can seem quite amazing at times and the landscapes simply look marvelous.

This is the final game in the Ultima series. You once again become the Avatar and are warped to Britannia on your quest for the final battle between you and the Guardian. A long epic-like journey you will take through land, sea's and dungeons like no other Ultima and it culminates with a surprising ending.

Might be great for fans of the series but not much fun for everyone else. I personally liked it in a strange sort of twisted way as I've been contemplating finishing it again!

Windows · by cimerians (49) · 2002

Nail in the coffin - but what a nail!

The Good
I'm a big admirer of Ultima. I love the open-ended worlds, the meticulous interaction, the flexible role-playing. However, the hardcore elements of the series have declined over its course. Already the seventh game was less of an RPG than the sixth; and the eighth decisively shifted towards more streamlined action. Ultima IX is even less of an RPG: it is an action-adventure game with RPG elements - in fact, something not dissimilar in concept to Zelda games.

But to me personally, the Ultima experience never really depended on what you'd call core RPG traits: leveling up, combat, etc. When I want more dedicated role-playing (and that's what I always want) , I turn to something like Might and Magic. For me, Ultima was (and is), above all, about having my own adventures in a detailed, lovingly crafted world. When I play an Ultima game I want to do things just because I feel like doing them, playing with items and visiting every corner. In that respect, Ultima IX does not disappoint: it is a rich playground full of stuff to fool around with - only this time, realized in marvelous 3D.

Much has been said about the reduction of the game world; but did anyone seriously expect the developers to render in 3D the same amount of terrain as in Ultima VII? It's a wonder they managed to create what they have created using such an advanced engine. At the time of its release, no other 3D game came close to the sheer scope and magnitude of the world of Ultima IX. It was the most detailed, awe-inspiring fully polygonal world ever created for a game.

Ultima IX is the realization of a dream: this is probably how Britannia looked in the imagination of Ultima players, when they were playing the first Ultimas with CGA graphics back in the early eighties. Houses, forests, dungeons, mountains, rivers, seas - everything is absolutely gorgeous. There is an internal clock in the game, so you will see how the sun rises in the morning, or how the first stars appear on the sky, and so on. It is wonderful to see how everything moves and breathes in this world; butterflies fly around, skeletons wander near a dungeon entrance, waiting for their victims; people walk around in towns, the night comes upon Britannia; it rains, and the Avatar, equipped with his sword, is resting on the bed in Lord British's castle, gathering the force for his new quest. I really didn't want to leave this world. It was a pleasure just to run around, listening to the sweet orchestral music, and looking at everything around you.

Following the great Ultima tradition, Ultima IX is wonderfully interactive. Everything that is not nailed down can be examined, pushed, removed, and taken. You can interact with pretty much everything you see, exactly like in the previous Ultimas; the difference is that it feels absolutely awesome when it's all done in 3D. In addition to that, you also have physical abilities: jumping, climbing, and (for the first time in Ultima series) swimming. Every part of the game's world is therefore open now, and you can explore it physically. In every corner there is something to find and try, and at any point during your quest, no matter how linear its design is, you can just wander around and explore, admiring the lovely graphics and enjoying the amazingly high level of interaction.

You can jump whenever and wherever you want to. You can swim and dive everywhere there is water. You can climb on anything which can be climbed on. Most of the game is entirely physical; the dungeons are full of jumping or diving puzzles, but they are not nearly as frustrating as in some other games of this genre. Each time you are facing a puzzle you have to solve, like "how do I enter this dungeon if the entrance is sealed?", you can try many things, look for secret passages, underwater areas, try to cast spells, or anything else that comes to your mind. The new engine makes the game world physically immersive like no other game before it.

It is true that the gameplay is not as non-linear and open-ended as in earlier Ultimas; but it is still very much so for an action-adventure. There is plenty of ground to cover, and if you wish to see everything the game has to offer, expect to dedicate some time to it. The difference between its world and the much bigger playing area of, say, Daggerfall, is the fact everything in Ultima IX is hand-crafted. Every area in the game feels different, and you can feel how much love was put into details such as character animation, beautiful art decorating many rooms, atmosphere-enhancing objects in dungeons, and so on. Even in terms of quantity, the game trumps most of the competition. You'll be restricted at first, but once you get your ship, it's off to explore and have fun like before.

Combat is simple, yet dynamic and more rewarding thanks to the new engine: it doesn't have the intelligent elegance of earlier Ultimas, but I'd take it over the chaotic skirmishes of the seventh game and the frustrating clicking of the eighth any time of the day. The enemies look impressive and range from goblins and spiders to dragons and lyches, as well as cool creatures such as hellhounds and skeletons that fall apart and combine their bones again if you don't take some into your inventory.

There are lots of weapons in the game, also many secret ones, and most of them look cool and are worth looking for. In addition, you can cast spells using the complex system reminiscent of earlier Ultimas. You can memorize spells you find using the classic Ultima system of combining various ingredients scattered throughout the game. There will be surely many things you still haven't tried out after you have finished the game for the first time. In each town there are sub-quests to perform. Each location is full of unexplored areas, which you can search for some items, spells, or other things. Since the game offers you full contact with its world, there is always plenty of things to try.

The Bad
It is quite clear that the most glaring flaws of Ultima IX are, for the most part, a result of the unfortunate rushed release of the game. Given the proper time, its problems could - and should - have been ironed out.

Interaction with NPCs has been greatly reduced, sometimes to the level of rather pointless information-hunting reminiscent of much earlier installments. While there are still a few interesting dialogues and books in the game, most of the writing lacks the depth and the refinement of the conversations in previous Ultimas. The dialogues in Pagan weren't better, but there, the writers had the excuse of setting the game in a hostile world. Back in Britannia, it looks like most characters have lost any charisma they might have had before. The poor voice acting didn't help, either. The formulaic, thoroughly old-school storytelling harks back to trite fantasy cliches, neglecting the clever touches of the Age of Enlightenment Ultimas.

The realistic character behavior of Ultima VII is gone: characters often don't move at all and don't seem to depend on the game's internal clock. Britannia is also severely underpopulated; combined with the lack of AI routines, it almost looks like the Guardian has not only deprived the inhabitants of Britannia of their virtues, but also reduced them to the "signpost" status they have enjoyed in Ultima IV. It's not even the smaller size of the world that hurts the hearts of fans, but the coldness and indifference of the characters populating it. I'm sure that, with a little more time in development, those issues would have been addressed.

The initial release of the game was infamously buggy, to the point of refusing to run on many machines. Subsequent patches helped greatly: but even with the latest patches installed, sudden freezes, collision detection problems, awkward movement, and an occasional corrupted saved game are not too uncommon. Be sure to install the community patch as well as fan-made enhancements to the poor dialogue.

The Bottom Line
Ultima IX fails to reach the level of its predecessors in gameplay depth, losing many essential design elements in transition. And yet, it blows every other 3D game of its generation out of the water in terms of interactivity and physical immersion. That says a lot about the incredibly high standards Ultimas had us accustomed to; but it also speaks for a game that was ahead of its time, breaking its own legacy to pave the way for modern 3D game design.

Windows · by Unicorn Lynx (181788) · 2017

George gives a blank stare at U9 box, CDs, and materials

The Good
Well, I just finished Ultima 9 last night. I've been an Ultima fan for a LONG time, and have always been interested in it. I wrote a novel-length fanfic about it, plus a shorter, humorous one. I'm working on a total-conversion of Warcraft 2 set in Britannia. I while away the hours on an Ultima-themed MOO. I argue Ultima philosophy with all my friends. Pretty sad, huh?

Anyway. Where should I start? I have a million mixed feelings about Ultima 9, very few of them are good. What did I like about the game? A lot of the graphics were pretty. A few choice moments during play I encountered a pretty thoughtful plot element. A few moments during play (probably a total of 10 minutes) I really felt like I was in Britannia.

But... that was about all. These topics are, seemingly, what Origin would like you to think is all that happens. But come on... those who have played it know there's more to it than this. And Origin's recent track record exactly create happy fans all around. So... onto my criticisms.

The Bad
One of the biggest features Origin touts about U9 is the immersive world. They insist it is the most immersive world in a computer game, ever. Most of my uses of 'immersive' don't seem to apply to U9, and I certainly wasn't immersed when I played it. So let's turn to Webster for a real comparison. My dictionary says to immerse is (the definition not involving water, anyway) "to involve deeply, absorb". How does a game involve or absorb the player? What exactly, about the gameplay, acts to involve the player in the world, or causes a suspension of disbelief so great that one becomes absorbed into the world?

One answer is atmospherics. Use sensory input to create the sensation of 'being there,' such as proper visual and aural input (via surroundings, characters, and story elements) that stimulates enough thought about the game world that the player (for the moment) forgets about real life and immediate surroundings. Thief: The Dark Project is an excellent example of immersion via atmospherics. Does U9 succeed in immersion via atmospherics? Not particularly. Suspension of disbelief is a very tricky thing to get right, yet some games do it quite well. A good example to use might be... you're sitting watching a movie, a really good movie. You're immersed. Someone in the front row stands up, blocks part of the screen, and burps really loudly. You're not immersed anymore. You're just annoyed. The bugs and annoyances in U9 ruined 95% of the immersiveness that was supposed to be there. Yes, I patched the game before I played it through. There are a lot of bugs still present, mostly annoyances that simply ruin the suspension of disbelief. Much of the story design, which is cliched and utterly predictable, the voice actors, 2/3 of which make my teeth grind in anguish, and enemy AI, of which there is seemingly none, ruin this idea as well. U9 is not immersive through atmospherics.

Another method of immersion is world interactivity. A world that thinks, and lives, can really cause a player to be drawn in simply through the detail inherent in an interactive world. Possibilities become actuality, through the player trying to accompish the action, such as eating edible items, igniting flammable items, crushing grain to make flour to make dough to make... bread. In this manner, the player learns the un-restrictiveness possible in an immersive world. Ultima 7 and even UO is a pretty good example of this. It is easy to wander and lose oneself in the pure depth of the world as one travels through it. This is a much more cerebral method of immersion. Does U9 succeed at immersion through interactivity? Not really. I can douse and ignite candles and braziers, I can sometimes sit down on chairs, but unfortunately, this seems to be the limit of affecting the world. U9 seems to be more about creating a simple world where your tasks are set, limiting possibilities of what you, as a player, can accomplish.

I don't know of another method of immersion, but it may be sufficient to say that while playing U9 I was not immersed, either via the variety of things I could do, or enjoying the visual and sound experience. I was annoyed nearly all the time at simply dealing with the world, like the bugs and out-of-place elements, and could not put myself into Britannia. For all the game touts itself as, it fails miserably, and I am amazed the developers and designers still say it IS immersive.

The frustration with dealing with the 'immersiveness' of U9 might sum up my opinion of it. However, my other main gripe with it is the story and characters. Within an hour of play, I knew how the story was going to turn out. U9 is sometimes praised as having deep, interactive characters. Uh, no. Nearly all the characters have limited dialouge, and the Avatar's choices are just as simplistic and 'forced'. NPCs in U9 have, for a large part, been reduced to the 'signposts' of Ultima 3 and 4. The storyline is, as I said, quite 'dumbed down' and is often 'forced' on the character, ruining any chance of 'becoming' the Avatar. I have no sense of having a choice about playing a role, I simply click along while the story is forced down my throat. This is the level of action/adventure games, not of Ultimas and other role-playing games of the past. I also found the story to be extremely manipulative - the role one is forced to play is cliche and meaningless, it is even insulting in some places, as if the designers did a half-assed job at creating that role - which is unforgivable for a group trying to make an RPG. The 'bad guy' of the game, the Guardian, is horribly weak. He is unintelligent, uninteresting, and is little more than a cliche fantasy villian. Ultima has returned to its roots, providing a 'Kill The Bad Guy At The End' game such as in U1 and 2.

A lot of U9 is simply half-assed. Some cinematics are used simply for filler material. Some make it obvious that the story was redone simply to include that movie in some manner, as if including the movie on the CD was more important than having a good, coherent story. So much of the story elements seem 'thrown' together, like some kind of whatchagot stew, then expected to taste like a gourmet meal. Game balance, such as with level design, combat, and spell systems, is obviously skipped over to simply finish the game. At times I had reagents all over the place, at others, I couldn't find some to use in the simplest of spells.

Overall... I found nothing to be true about what was touted by Origin to be in U9. It is not immersive. It does not have a grand, epic, storyline. It does not feature deep characters. It is not, as I've so often heard, a masterpeice.

The Bottom Line
My defining U9 experience happened last night, as I was finishing the last steps of the incoherent quest. I was walking through Britain on my way to the ship that would bear me to the last battle. I wanted to enjoy the world while I had the chance, experience the supposedly epic story. Instead, I saw bug after bug, characters repeating the same tired lines without any emotion in their voice, a static world that I, seemingly, could not enter into. At this point, my disappointment with the game became disillusionment, wondering what happened, why such a culmination of one of gaming's oldest series had become so... half-assed.

So, I went and finished it, utterly mystified by the direction of the plot, and sighing in frustration as the Avatar's role was thrust upon me. I watched the ending cinematic (still confused) and sat through the credits. I uninstalled it 5 minutes later.

I finished it because I'm an Ultima fan. I hate it for the same reason.

Windows · by George Shannon (113) · 2000

It has a LOVELY soundtrack!

The Good
The graphics are fantastic, sometimes even breathtaking, the music is wonderfully orchestrated, and the sound effects are nothing less than superb. Additionally, the box is very attractive. If Origin had put half the work into programming and gameplay as clearly put into making this game aesthetically pleasing, this game could have easily been one of the best of the year.

The Bad
Buggy, buggy, buggy. Aside from an extremely clumsy interface, this game will make your brand new PC act like a dinosaur, due to the massive amount of system resources and memory it hogs. Forget running any other applications; if you open up notepad.exe while Ultima Ascension is running, your computer is going to crash.

The plot is very linear, and because of this, you can only go where the game wants you to go – unless you think you can handle a dragon, or a small child who hurls Avatar-killing fireballs no matter what you do or say. In a world where multiple paths and endless possibilities are the watchword of RPGs, Ultima Ascension falls miserably short.

The Bottom Line
There’s something in this game for everybody to dislike, from the first-time RPGer to the die-hard pencil-and-paper RPG Addict. Fans of the previous Ultima Titles will not only dislike this product, they will be shocked and insulted, and may resort to doing something rash, such as burning Richard Garriot in effigy.

Windows · by Lothian (11) · 2001

Ahead of it's time, for good and bad.

The Good
An ambitious, quantum leap in scope; free-form movement indoors and out to an extent not attempted before. Next-generation graphics including spacious outdoor scenes, highly interactive, beautifully rich textures. Rich story, as with all Ultima's.

The Bad
Buggy and unplayable on systems at the time due to impossible system requirements. This game was released under pressure, full of bugs including (from memory) frequent crashes. But that hardly mattered, as virtually nobody could play this game on release due to absurdly high system specs. I had a reasonably high-end PC and it was virtually impossible just to move around. A workmate had a very high-end PC and it was hardly any better.

The Bottom Line
Beautiful, free-form role-playing game light-years ahead of its time (in 1999), but it's own ambitiousness was its ultimate downfall.

Windows · by tino rossi (1) · 2006

Ultima IX: growing stronger in 2001: Review update

The Good
I even loved the bugs... But most important: Ultima IX is still up to date and was clearly ahead of its time.

New (unofficial) patches are available from http://www.fansforultima.com/ They greatly improve dialogue and trading.

In general: Graphics are still among the best in its genre. The game leaves later releases like Summoner and all online games (among others Asherons call) far behind.

Game (engine) has a few novelties that are (as far as i know) still unseen in other games: - enjoy rpg under water! - pick up/move/throw all available items - realistic gravity. objects can actually tumble down stairs and you can slide down steep hillsides.



The Bad
It came to an end... Most reviews note 1)bugs 2) bad speech acting and poor AI. Personally I didn’t mind the speech acting and most bugs were solved by the official patch.

The Bottom Line
Best RPG ever. You're not playing a game: your on vacation. Dont go on vacation without insurance: download the official patch from www.ultima9.com and check out the unofficial patches at www.fansforultima.com

Windows · by frank rieter (146) · 2001

Everything you've heard about its beautiful aesthetics is true

The Good
As a fantasy adventure game, Ultima IX is terrific. There is so much to explore and there are so many subplots to discover, you will never ever see it all. (The only remote chance you have to see it all is to play it through as each of the 8 possible starting characters, and maybe not even then.) The music is wonderful, the world is suitably large, and the quests are complex. Contrary to popular belief, you can make a lot of decisions about how you complete the game. The plot is pretty linear, but how you accomplish each task is up to you, and there are different ways to approach the problems.

Now, many of the complaints out there revolve around the differences between Ultima IX and the classic Ultimas I-VII. You have to let that go. In order to make the transition from top-down text to 3D third-person audio (or first-person, if you hit K), you have to give up things like an 8 member party, a name other than Avatar, and other things. This medium of game is more suited to visual exploration and spatial problem solving than stat-building, as in a "true" RPG. Myself, I love Ultima V. But you could never do Ultima V in 3D and keep it the same. There are tradeoffs for being visually and aurally immersed in Britannia.

And Britannia is glorious! Everything positive you've read elsewhere about the beautiful graphics, birds chirping and fluttering, atmospheric dungeon sounds, in-town music, etc. is absolutely true. It's very easy to believe that you've been somewhere else after you've played for a few hours.

Some people complain that the inventory system is cumbersome; they don't like to have to choose what to carry and what to leave behind. Hello! That's part of the game! One of the decisions (dare I say, roleplaying decisions) you have to make is what sorts of things you are going to carry or leave behind, and I love that. A warrior type might carry a lot of potions and bandages, while a mage might rely upon his spells for healing, thus freeing up inventory slots (at the expense of the many hitpoints a warrior might have). There are many points in the game where you will find yourself with a full inventory in the depths of a dungeon, and you come upon valuables or items vital to the quest. What to leave behind, what to take with you...

Some people complain about the spell system being cumbersome. I disagree. Casting a spell, once you bind it into your spell book (a nice ritualistic touch), is as simple as hitting the number of the spell level and selecting the spell. Or even better, keeping a shortcut to your spell in your tool belt, which you can activate by a function key. No problem.

The movement in Britannia is intuitive. Point where you want to go and go. Point and click to attack, with sword (or other melee weapon) or bow. Point and spacebar to jump. No worries. The hand-to-hand combat is pretty simple, but this is an adventure game, not an FPS where you need twitch reflexes. In other words, Ultima fans (or other top-down, turn-based RPG fans) who would like to experience Britannia, a fantasy RPG world, in beautiful 3D without becoming a Quake god to survive can do so with ease, and enjoy some good old adventure puzzles and dragon slaying.

In this game you: save the damsel(s), slay the dragons, thwart the pirates, return the church's stolen money, search for many a sunken or buried treasure (bet you never find them all), save a doomed race from extinction, journey to the planes of the four elements, inspire paladins out of retirement, find wondrous items and magical weapons, and pretty much save the world. If you are an Ultima fan, you will encounter old friends in surprising situations, have to make moral choices, hear familiar songs, visit familiar yet altered places, free the shrines once again, and experience the eight dungeons as you've never done before. Sound like fun?

The Bad
I have a few quibbles with the game, but bugginess isn't one of them. By now, any machine remotely worth its salt will be fine with Ultima IX, and the few crashes you do experience can happen with any game, save early and often as usual. Got better than a PIII 500? Got 256mb of RAM? Got a 3D card? You're fine.

I wish rats wouldn't give you gold when they die. That's just silly.

The taverns never seem crowded enough to justify the background sound of bustling conversation.

The directions other characters give you in this game are not very useful. Sometimes they are deliberately misleading you (not everybody is to be trusted), but often there is a lack of scale context, making some destinations hard to find. "In the mountains to the east of the city" doesn't say to me "East most of the way across the continent," but that's apparently what they meant.

I prefer the old-style keyword system of conversation. As reported elsewhere, the menu system of selecting a response can be cumbersome, and tiring when you are having a repeat conversation looking for missed information.

There is a dungeon whose design was so difficult, they ended up putting the exit in the middle, though you can go on and complete the rest of it if you want to. I wish there were some cool but nonessential incentive for completing it, like a great item or even just an easter egg.

The Bottom Line
Adventure gamers looking for a lengthy quest through a beautiful and believable world, or Ultima veterans willing to try a new format to visit old haunts and old friends in need of their Avatar would do well to experience Ultima IX. RPG purists who need to customize every aspect of their character should look elsewhere.

One last point: do you love maps? Play Ultima IX! There are maps of towns, maps for lost treasure, maps of Britannia... in full color on your screen! They work with a sextant to tell you where you are! Just one more immersive element to the game.

Windows · by Donn Thomson (4) · 2004

Once again, we see the genius of Lord British, the master storyteller.

The Good
Chances are pretty good that many of you have never played an Ultima game before. So, I will attempt to concentrate on this game’s good and bad points as if it were a stand alone game rather than comparing it with those before it.

(Note: I played using the official Origin patch (v1.18f) and several “unofficial” patches from fansforultima.com. I elected not to use any cheat codes, but did consult walkthroughs for help in finding some of the special weapons and armour and finishing side quests.)

Story
I thought the story was wonderfully engaging. Basically, huge magical columns erupted from the earth and the 8 Shrines of Virtue were destroyed. Thus the beliefs and thinking of the people of Britannia reversed over time. They became uncompassionate, greedy, dishonest, unjust, and totally disagreeable. To make them see the error of their ways, the 8 shrines must be “cleansed” by reuniting the Sigil and the Rune (glyph) and speaking the proper Mantra. Naturally, those three things are scattered, and finding them is your primary goal. In between, numerous other situations occur to diversify the plot (such as saving the Gargoyle race and restoring the Moongates).

The linearity of U9 didn’t bother me in the least. Sure, certain things must be done before other things happen, but that leads the plot towards the proper direction. There is plenty to do, loads of places to explore, numerous people to meet, and hundreds of monsters to fight so I was never bored. Whenever I got stuck, reading the Avatar’s Journal helped with the adventure aspects of the game.

One of the coolest things brought out in the plot was love. At least 2 women told the Avatar they loved him (one from his past and one from his present). Although he never really reciprocated, it was an interesting twist to an already great story. (The cut scenes of him with Raven sizzled … literally.)

Gameplay
The gameplay as a whole reminded me very much of Redguard and even Sierra’s King’s Quest 8: Mask of Eternity, although your character cannot perform as many actions. He can walk, run, swim, strafe, climb and jump, but he cannot crouch, sneak or hang from ledges. I liked the beginning in-game tutorial which I thought was an innovative way to get familiar with the game controls.

When saving a game, there is plenty of room to type your own description and a picture appears at the top showing where you were when you saved. Assumingly, the number of saved games is only limited by your hard disk space as I had no problems saving anytime and anywhere I wanted. You always restart the game from your last save.

Graphics
The world as a whole was creatively drawn and lovely. The many islands and cities all have their own unique settings, terrain and building types. Nice as the graphics are, they are no more detailed or groundbreaking than, say, those in Outcast. They did a good job inside the dungeons and caves, which looked more realistic to me than some of the other areas. I would have liked a change of view to “top down” for the dungeons, since I was continually getting lost. Even a self-mapping feature would have been a nice addition.

When day turns to night, the sunsets are beautiful. The night skies are filled with stars and a big, bright moon. A rain storm can happen at any given moment during the day, turning the whole area appropriately dark. The storms are complete with lightning, thunder, raindrops and puddles. (I have never been fond of weather in games, but I admit that the effects were done very well in Ascension.)

However, monster and character graphics were only so-so, in my opinion, and appeared blocky and unrealistic. The Avatar’s face looks different in the video cut scenes than he does while you are actually playing him. (I thought he was more handsome, albeit angled, within the game than in the cut scenes.)

Music and Sound
The music was nicely orchestrated and different for each locale. The songs even changed after you had “cleansed” each shrine. I never got tired of it, and it did not interfere with sound effects or voices. All of those can be adjusted in the options menu.

Sound effects were appropriate for various actions and environments. When the Avatar walks on a wooden floor or a sandy beach, for instance, his footsteps sound correct. When you hurt an opponent, he/she/it will grunt, whine, groan or gasp. Sounds inside the dungeons were especially spooky and mood enhancing.

The character scripts were really good, and I liked the way they handled each of the virtues before and after the shrines had been fixed. The majority of the actors did a great job with their speech, incorporating the proper inflections and tones, and most of the voices were appropriate to the character you were looking at. I thought that some of the children were a bit stupidly portrayed though.

The Bad
Most of these things involve actual gameplay aspects. Some of them were merely irritating and just required getting used to.

  • Opening up the Journal every time I wanted to save was tedious. A single slot automatically named “Quick Save” would have helped tremendously to speed up saving and loading.
  • Not being able to escape out of long conversations or cut-scenes. This can be annoying if you are replaying a segment.
  • No description for inventory objects. Try to sell something at a shop and then you know what the item is.
  • Not enough room to hold your inventory. This means you are constantly looking for places to stash items or having to decide what to keep and what to throw away. I prefer combination inventory slots with a number count.
  • Fighting is simply “hack and slash” with very little strategy other than your approach and weapon. Odd viewing angles can make it harder than it needs to be.
  • Spellcasting takes too long to be useful in battle. Open book, turn pages, select spell, aim and fire. You must unarm your weapon before casting anything but healing spells, so offensive spells worked best for long range attacks.
  • Swimming is awkward at best. The waters can be dangerous, but the Avatar cannot fight while in the water. Nor can he swim any faster.
  • You can easily get stuck in the graphics. Fall behind a rock and you may find it impossible to get out of there.
  • Crashes to my desktop were common occurrences but I was always able to restart immediately from my last saved game.

    **The Bottom Line**
    Overall I enjoyed Ascension very much. I’m actually sad that there will not be any more of them since this one was up to par with other games having similar gameplay aspects.

    If you liked other 3rd person, single-player action/adventure/rpgs, and you have the proper system configuration, this game is worth playing (but be sure to install the latest official patch). It is not perfect and has its share of glitches, but none of those really hindered me. First and foremost, it is fun and will provide many weeks (maybe even months) of entertainment.

    For those of you who have played previous Ultima games, don’t expect it to look or feel like any of them. Consider the game as a separate entity and try not to compare it to its predecessors. You may be surprised at how much you like it too.

  • Windows · by Jeanne (75959) · 2002

    Rushed? Half-Assed? Too Ambitious? Disappointing.

    The Good
    The graphics were simply breathtaking in more than one location, the character creation was traditional Ultima which really made it special, the introduction was interactive; always a plus, the interface is simple enough not to be irritating and complex enough that it encompasses everything it needs to, the controls are thoughtful, the storyline is well written and well played out, the puzzling gameplay is nice to see in an action/adventure rpg.

    Awesome easter eggs. If you can find them, you'll be laughing your ass off. It's good to see that Richard Garriot never lost his sense of humor.

    The Bad
    The framerate before v1.18 is inexusable, especially since the requirements state 266 w/ 64megs RAM and an 8meg 3D Accelerator. At 2fps in a box that is Lord British's main hall, make damn certain that you have either purchased the remastered version or that you have downloaded and installed the v1.18 path (avalible at all fine file outlets such as ultima 9's website or fileplanet).

    Post Patch Ultima 9 has few problems to speak of save for the most irritating of all, the voice acting. While some of the characters are decent, and some are downright excellent, the good majority of actors come off as complete hacks! I was surprised to hear such underpar voice acting. In fact, I turned off the speech and simply spoke the words aloud MYSELF! Strange? Maybe, but hey when you're an Ultima fan you do strange stuff.

    The character interaction is subpar. I've found that the conversation systems are in sour need of an overhaul simply because I can ask a person their name in the initial conversation, and either ask them their name AGAIN three topics into the conversation or end the conversation and then talk to them again as if I had never met them before. These are mainly inconsequential characters which have little to nothing to do with the storyline, but it's a sad note to hear in such a marvelous symphony as Ultima: Ascension (the ninth installment in a grand series).

    There are a LOT of glitches in this game. I don't understand why, but it seems that when the Origin team gets together for the development of an Ultima game they think about what kinds of bugs they can deliberatly throw into their software. I'm serious, there are a LOT of little glitches, snags, bugs, and just plain errors that need ironing out! These cannot be named simply because they are too plentiful, but after moments of playing you will spot at least a few of them, and by the time you've finished the game, you'll have spotted a thousand of them. While flaws in the level design are few and far between, don't expect not to get stuck in one area or another on some strange obstruction. Save OFTEN and if you become stuck, either reload, or play around and try everything to get free, sometimes you can pull yourself out of a snag by doing whatever crazy shit you can think of (casting spells, jumping, attack air, running and then reversing and then running...etc...)

    The character creation, while groovy, is lacking simply because you can't name your character or pick your gender. True the game couldn't allow this due to the speech, but the voice acting sucks anyhow, I would have been happy with text alone!

    Artificial Intelligence. There is none. Your enemies harken the days of Wolfenstein 3-D (even Doom enemies were smarter. they could find their way around obstacles). Your enemies are dumb as doornails and that way they stay until the end of the game where the Guardian, who is cool, is also simply a moron with a script. Nevermind the NPCs all throughout the realm. I saw a beggar asking a chicken for alms. No joke! I've never laughed so hard in my life, but there he was 'please sir! please...please!!!'

    Finally there is the interactivity which is limited at best. Buggy and lacking, you can sometimes sit on chairs/lie down on beds, and some things that you'd expect to be able to do, you simply cannot! For instance, the ever famed turning grain into bread from U7 is not here. There is the ability to distill potions through alchemy sets, but nothing like UO.

    And while on the subject of UO, the sound effects in U9, along with a good number of graphics were obviously lifted from UO to create U9's environment. I recognized many terrain textures, along with 'gump' (backpacks, chests, bags, menus, etc...) after 'gump' and the fonts as well! The sound effects that were taken from UO are horrid. Bassy or static-ridden, amateurish stuff!

    All these gripes seriously detract from the magnificence that is Ultima: Ascension, thus reducing my love for the game.

    The Bottom Line
    All in all, Ultima: Ascension is a must have for the Ultima fan/Hardcore RPGer and more of a bargain-op for the RPG enthusiast. If you like Zelda, you'll love this bad boy!

    Personally, I just bought this game and while the bugs are plentiful, I'm still enjoying the game. But then, I'm an extremist when it comes to games such as Ultima, and Zelda (I completed Zelda 64 with 96 gold skulltulas).

    Overall, post-patch Ultima has good performance and a nicely reduced bug quotient but if you have no patience for a thousand niggles, avoid it. Love Ultima? Love Zelda? Buy it.

    Windows · by tantoedge (19) · 2000

    Sucks to be you Avatar!

    The Good
    For years Mr. Garriot had to submit his creative impulses to immense technological limitations, yet as with most games of those years, the player's imagination managed to patch up the holes and bring forth the ideas and concepts in the developer's mind. No more!

    With ever-increasing processing power, gigantic data storage possibilities, humongous production values (courtesy of EA as usual) and the new possibilities brought forth by the 3D revolution, Origin and Richard Garriot finally set out to deliver what the world had been waiting for all along: the final "next-gen" Ultima game... if only we had known...

    Anyway, first what's right: the graphic and physical design of the game is fabulous. It's hard to believe that one could ever have believed those clunky sprite-based flat backgrounds could have immersed anyone in it's gameworld, everything is shattered the first time you fire Ultima IX up. Done in full 3D, the game is Extremely easy on the eyes, proving to be one of the most impressive pieces of eye candy in it's time (and still holding it's ground to this day). The 3D environment brings Brittania to life like never before, not just by allowing you to see the same locations you know and love from a much closer and detailed perspective, but also by giving the land a facelift with hills, mountaintops, valleys and all sorts of detailed accidents that make exploration a much more involved and rewarding experience. Following that line of thought, Ultima IX's 3D environment also allows the player to interact with the world like never before, as the avatar now has to navigate a true virtual world that calls for him to run, jump, swim, climb and generally explore as never before.

    But before you think this is just a flat-shaded polygonal upgrade to the classic Ultimas you should know that the graphics are fully textured and even feature some impressive special effects that remain spectacular to this day (check out the specular glow on the plate armor!). To it's credit the game's artists managed to exploit some barely impressive 3D tricks like volumetric fog and other niceties to create truly unique effects that compose Brittania's magical surroundings. Dynamic lighting and particle effects make spell effects a sight to behold, and the descent to a dangerous dungeon with only a torch to light your way brings new meaning to the word "ambience".

    The gameworld also has it's unique day/night cycle, which cycles the sky textures and the ambient lightning accordingly, and you also have a nice collection of weather effects that go beyond being just eye candy and actually help increase the game's more dramatic elements (the localized weather around the corrupt shrines being the foremost example). But enough about the amazing graphics, the sound department is no slouch either, with one of the most pleasing instrumental soundtracks developed for a game of that time that dynamically changes according to the situation at hand.

    Uh... well, I guess that's were I stop for now. I can point out other interesting details, such as the nice ritual-like way you have of binding the spells to your spellbook (which includes hunting the ingredients and then chanting the correct incantations by typing them down), as well as the interesting and often challenging traps found on the many dungeons, which make each one a unique experience regardless of their common objective; the mapping of each of the F-keys to a quick access item; the lovely made tutorial intro that starts you in modern day earth and includes the classic meeting with a fortune teller; or other subtle details such as armor bringing you down when you swim, etc... I don't know, I could continue to point out other elements that brought forth tremendous quality for the game such as Raven's boobs and the ocasional interesting quest, but unfortunately they are isolated patches of greatness when one is confronted with the overall reality of the game.

    The Bad
    Well... the final entry in the Ultima series pretty much serves it's purpose as to be the final nail in the coffin of an aging and ultimately forgotten rpg series. Plenty of old geezers might be willing to rip me to pieces for having the balls to uther those words, but not even the most jaded Ultima fan is able to ignore the dismal flaws in it's final title.

    Yes, I've never been a "true" fan of the Ultimas, disliking their goody-goody approach at gameplay and it's stories (only being able to really enjoy the spinoffs from the series such as the genius Underworld games), but before you go on and dismiss me as just another one of those stupid kids that have no respect for "ye olde ways" let me tell that that is EXACTLY why you should listen to me: after all I couldn't care less about what it does with it's virtues or parties or rpg angles or whatever regarding it's previous outings. I only regard Ultima IX for what it its: and that's a boring, generic, fantasy-adventure failure. And a buggy one too!

    First of all, one of the cornerstones of every game of this kind is it's story. After all it hasn't been long since medieval/fantasy developers realized that we have played one too many generic fantasy games about the valiant knight rescuing the kingdom, so from that point on they usually try to deliver something more in the way of premise and storyline.

    Not so for Ultima IX, oh no. Ascension harkens back (almost in an intentionally retro way) to the generic fantasy games of yorne, and while that might have it's charms it's undeniably dumb and boring in these days. Not just because of the basics (good and honorable land in distress needs the help of a saviour that must defend everything that is right and destroy the evil, evil bad guy that caused all the problems), after all those are the primordial elements of every Ultima, but because of how it's additional elements are brought into the new age: the kingdom's inhabitants are bidimensional goons that can barely open doors without the aid of the mighty Avatar and await, devoid of any emotion, the arrival of "He who shall fix things". The bad guy is your typical evil evil EVIL badass that awaits you sipping a daikiri while he sits comfortably in his Caribbean island (no, really, he awaits you in his "Island of Evil" (tm)) and not even the use of a devious henchman and the involvement of the whole good vs evil, virtues, et al in your final confrontation can change the fact that the Guardian is your typical cardboard cutout fantasy bad guy (fact that most fans sniffed out early on back in the Black Gate).

    I really don't know what else to point out story-wise, there's just nothing more! Basically the bad guy fucked up the land and you have to go around fixing his mess as an excuse for us to see all over again those virtues and how they work and marvel at Mr. Garriot's finely crafted moral values... right. I'm not even going to get into that...

    Most people like to point out the many encounters with familiar Ultima characters and seeing how they fared and what revelations they have as a way of compensating the storyline, but these amount to barely more than in-jokes and extra info for those who care. I do not, and can clearly see how they bring nothing to the game. Oh but wait!! There's the love story!! What a fantastic collection of scripted events that is! Let me run you through it: Basically the pirates need your services at one point in the game and in order to fetch you the pirate leader sends his daughter your way to save your life and take you to him (you can tell early on that she's gonna be a romantic interest thanks to her massive boobs and her propensity to lean forward and show you her cleavage). After that she becomes sort of your ferryman in the game with the only interaction between the two of you being you asking her to take you to x place, and after clearing out a number of shrines she tells you that she has feelings for you after all the things you've both been through (??). From that point on the "romance" develops with the same credibility as a late-night Cinemax movie, with Raven going all "I have so much feelings for you" and the Avatar retorting with such genius "passionate" phrases such as "Hey... waddaya say if we go below deck and...(nudge-nudge, wink-wink) huh.. "Drop anchor".. heh <wink>"... (I swear I'm not making that up, save for the gestures, the line is taken verbatim from one of the game's most... uh... "romantic" moments).... anyway.

    So much for the game's plot, what about the gameplay? As stated elsewhere the game takes a departure from the previous installments in the series by forgoing practically all of it's rpg elements in favor of a more simple 3D adventure design. Once again, I couldn't care less if the Ultima legacy is roleplaying. Well actually I lie, as I did care somewhat, mostly because I enjoyed the amount of depth it brought to the games. But I was prepared to let that go and heck, if I had to be content with a PC version of Zelda then I could do that, I have done worse really. Unfortunately as far as gameplay goes Ascension doesn't even come close to being a sub-par clone of Zelda.

    Basically the game is a glorified scavenger hunt in which you have to go around the gameworld looking for a pair of magic items that when used in conjunction allow you to cleanse a virtue shrine, usually each of these items are held in a dungeon or similar location that you must clear out and then take the magic pearls of the dragon or whatever it is you went looking for to the shrine, clear it out and repeat.... for about 8 TIMES. And then when the developers get really creative they have each of these magic items locked in some special way that requires you to find another group of magic thingamathingies and on and on and on... It's Outcast all over again! But this time it also teaches you morality in the way... yay!! See? It makes you cry, but it also makes you think!...

    Anyhow, while that is the basic gameplay concept, the rest is based around having inane conversations with the many stupid npcs (whose dialogue trees reset after you talk to them, so you have to go through introductions again and again and again just so you can get to whatever mr. signpost has to say) in order to find out what it is you need to do to find those stupid thingies, and then you proceed to trek around the gameworld hacking away at the most braindead enemies you can find this side of Robotron, with the world's most sluggish combat engine (there goes your action gaming), and possibly the worst non-customizable control scheme ever built for a game of this type (mouse button for movement instead of a "forward" key? Genius!), I mean, my memory is a bit rusty here but I think I needed to press like 8 keys plus the left mouse button to make the Avatar walk backwards...

    Moving on, after you get tired of shaking down giant rats and spiders for their lunch money, you'll get to whatever dungeon you were supposed to get and then it's time for platform puzzles!! Oh boy, let me tell you, you don't know what excitement is all about until you point your target across a pit, hit the space bar and watch as the Avatar winds up for a full second and makes a fool of himself and an entire generation of gamers by attempting to do something that barely resembles a jump...

    Forget about any promises of non-linearity, there is only one way to play the game and it only admits minor variations such as doing one shrine first before the others or doing/not doing the stupid sidequests. The different classes offer only a different starting point, but the Avatar you finished your game with is pretty much the same as my Avatar, as the only "extras" as far as character advancement goes revolve around doing more sidequests and thus getting a bigger karma, or finding all the trainers or every piece of the Blackrock armor. And after you've had enough of the "fetch me this, fetch me that, FedEx quests" you'll see why the little karma points they give you are not worth the hassle (neither are the many treasure hunts as you have a ridiculously low money cap, and killing enough rats can make you just as rich in the end).

    Furthermore, blatant design flaws manage to drive what little enjoyment is to be had in the ground. The Journal is a useless piece of crap, as it just writes down whatever happens without following any sort of ordering or logic (not to mention that you can never go directly to the last entry, in order to do that you have to go to the next topic [the bestiary] and then turn the page back.... How lame can you get?) really, anyone who thinks Morrowind's journal is a mess should check out this bad boy.... Do you know the difference between a scimitar and a longsword? Neither do I, or the Avatar, or the manual. You have to equip each item to figure out for yourself if it's any good for you! Don't you love shopping in those conditions? Need to pull a lever underwater but you dropped into that pool while in combat mode? Sucks to be you pal, you can't change modes while underwater and need to reload :). Want to take another potion with you? Forget it. Items are non-stackable and you have barely enough room as it is (but don't worry, a battleaxe takes the same space as a pearl. Isn't that nice?). Do you want to know how to keep track of your position in a map? Duh! On the patched readme they explain how you need a sextant in your inventory to do so... Couldn't you figure that out on your own? Pffff...! Do you know what time it is? Neither does the Avatar, good luck figuring out how much you need to rest to recover your health.

    And last but certainly not least you have the bugs. Ohhhh the bugs. Do I need to elaborate on this? I played this game twice: upon it's release and early this year (finally finishing the bastard). The original release is UNPLAYABLE. Period. The final .18 patch and the unnoficial patches move the game up towards "Barely Playable", really, to say that Ultima IX is buggy is an understatement, to say that it's "just as buggy as every other 3D game" is a blatant lie. Ascension is probably the buggiest game I have ever encountered in my gaming career.

    One just has to assume that the code must be irrevocably fucked up and there's just no way to fix it without rewriting the whole thing, as even with all the fan made patches the Avatar still gets stuck on pixels, enemies swim out into the air, and entire areas need to be cheated out of as they become corrupt and kick you out whenever you want to access them. Other assorted nightmares come in the form of corrupt savegames (and since the game automatically loads up your last savegame on startup guess where does that lead us to..?) Oh, and don't forget about those lovely and completely unpredictable times when the game just decides that you've played enough and kicks you back to Windows! Don't you love those? Only Adobe Premiere kicked me out so much, and that's saying something! Really, some people say bugs shouldn't affect your enjoyment of a game. To those people I say: play Ultima IX.

    Oh and the voice acting is even worse than in the horrible (yet groundbreaking) opening for Ultima Underworld, ironic, isn't it? Truly horrendous too, but ironic.

    The Bottom Line
    I think I've written more than enough. Ultima Ascension has it's share of interesting details, and for what it's worth, it's probably the first game of it's kind to provide gamers with a physically impressive gameworld free for exploration.

    Unfortunately since it happens to be dull as a rock, buggy as hell and is about as fun to play as hammering your testicles to a wall, I would say that there are better things to do with your time. Then again if you are into that sort of simpleminded, retro, naive, fantasy heroic thingie... well, you should really get your hands on the latest Zelda game.

    Windows · by Zovni (10504) · 2004

    The final proof that Ultima is dead

    The Good
    It was called Ultima. The intro sequence in "the Avatar's house" was pretty cool, including some nice special effects.

    The Bad
    Buggy as the Everglades. The descent to a platform jumping game, started in Ultima VIII, is complete - there is almost nothing left except place and character names from the "real" Ultima games. Real-time 3D blah blah, no character development, no story except "on to the next level, I mean dungeon". Ultima used to be about free-form exploration of a simulated world, with a plot that was mostly optional and served as a tourguide. This monstrosity has none of those elements.

    The Bottom Line
    A waste of bits you could use to store last year's shopping lists.

    Windows · by weregamer (155) · 2003

    Well seeing as I could hardly even play it...

    The Good
    Boy, that's a tough one. Um... the design on the box?

    The Bad
    Soon after my first day of adventuring, I didst maketh a fastinating discovery: Ultima IX sucketh! It appears that you need to have all of the most advanced peripherals and about a bazillion gajillion megs of ram just to be able to play this game without it randomly crashing. It appears that either Ultima IX is holier than thou and cannot be played by us meager peons with only Direct 3D accelerators and 96 Mb rams, or it was made by a team who obviously wasn't paying attention to a lot of important details.

    The Bottom Line
    If you're a big fan of the Ultima series... then that doesn't even matter. The bottom line is, Ultima IX is too demanding and too bug-ridden to even play and have fun with. Just don't bother with this one.

    Windows · by Sam Tinianow (113) · 2001

    Contributors to this Entry

    Critic reviews added by Virgil, Scaryfun, Wizo, Patrick Bregger, Alsy, Xoleras, vedder, Klaster_1, Unicorn Lynx, Cantillon, Apogee IV, Jeanne, eradix, Plok, DreinIX, Tim Janssen, mo&nbsp;, ti00rki, Cavalary, CalaisianMindthief, Foxhack.