Ascendancy

aka: Ascendancy: De Galactische Uitdaging, Ascendancy: Macht der Allmacht
Moby ID: 257
DOS Specs
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Description official descriptions

Ascendancy is similar to, but nevertheless very different from, Master of Orion. You play one of many races, each with a special ability and special character traits, who set off to explore space, erect colonies (which can each have individual purposes, depending on their raw materials) and engage in battles when you clash with others who have the same goals. Weapons on the ships use power, which has to be supplied somehow.

This game introduces many original concepts, such as the Research Tree - a special scientific display in which discoveries are depicted as icons connected by lines to the "parent" technological breakthroughs and "child" ones, similar to the technology advances in Civilization, but presented in a much more visual way.

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Credits (DOS version)

31 People (23 developers, 8 thanks) · View all

Created by
Made possible through the efforts of
Additional support and content provided by
Packaging and Manual Art Direction and Design by
Packaging Illustration
Manual Digital Enhancement
AIL and VFX libraries by
Special Thanks to the Brøderbund Team
AIL and VFX libraries by
  • Miles Design Inc.
Design & Artwork Coordinator
Design
  • Bill Smith Studio - London
Photography
Package Design Art Direction
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 78% (based on 15 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 71 ratings with 14 reviews)

A good, addictive space sim

The Good
This game kept me awake for days and nights, until finally I beat it on a very dense quadrant, peaceful galaxy, and playing as the Govorom (efficient planets, it's better to have a few quick shipbuilding planets than a lot of slow ones)

The aliens are creatively made, each one having a different ability: block starlanes, compress time, turn planets into eden, instant research, invulnerability for a day, infinite population, etc. This should give a different playing experience, but it doesn't, most of these qualities are worthless/unnecessary against the very clever AI.

The Tech tree is 3-D, zoomable and rotatable. Each node may have multiple roots and multiple children - technologies are creatively diversified and scientifically believable.

The research through the discoveries made at buried alien sites is rather unbalanced. You may end up having a very powerful weapon/shield/artifact, but a weak power source - rendering it unusable in a given ship (all your ship power may never be enough for that hyperwave nullifier). Some weapons do not require power, and there is no relation between weapon strength, power used and the tech level.

There's a graphical representation of power used/produced when building ships, instead of plain numbers. Each ship is unique in its design, making easier to correct errors. There's no way of telling how a device will precisely work (i.e. range, strength, power used) in the field.

Combat is well-made and AI is competent. Lots of times I saw it making a retreat or blocking the starlane to its systems (even though you can't tell what the effective range of your weapons is.)

The Galaxy looks huge because of the very restrictive starlane system. Often, you'll spend hundreds of days marching through them and finally arrive in a system very near to your home planet (but the AI forgot to place a starlane between the stars).

It's fun to use your special power when it finally arrives (after 150,68 or 83 days)

The Bad
It's very, very, very boring after you set 7-10 colonies to get reports EVERY day about finished constructions. Some have free pop, others don't, to go there and instruct them to build another facility on another coloured area

So, you automate most of the planets and concentrate on 1-2 to grow and become ship-builders, only to see that all the other planets filled up with lots of missile launchers, surface shields and orbital shields, so you have to scrap all obsolete facilities and let the AI to build modern ones. Later you see that the very clever AI again filled them all with obsolete/unnecessary tech on the wrong colour tiles and forgot to expand population.

So, you got a ship,right? Filled with lots of starlane engines to make the painful assault on the enemy located at the END of a very long array of starlanes. But the AI slips some ships through the lines and occupies some of your less-defended, new worlds. So your new ships get scraped because of the loss of star systems.

In order to win, you need only to hold 2/3 of the quadrant OR all alien home systems. In a very dense galaxy this will take thousands of days.

If you have the antagonizer AI and play in a hostile galaxy, aliens will get allied with you. Park some of their ships in your systems, make a force build-up there, roam the galaxy in search for undefended planets and then declare war.

When building ships, the AI NEVER uses shields and has a good preference for obsolete weapons and devices.

The Bottom Line
Good classic space game, has a good feeling compared to Master of Orion (1, 2 or 3) and realistically-made physics, technologies and time scale (if you consider each day equal to one year, actually).

There is lots of micromanagement, the AI behaves strangely and it takes a lot of patience to win.

DOS · by lucian (36) · 2005

Very good, challenging but not overbearing

The Good
Simple to get a game started, many choices in races, each with many different abilities, some with research, some builders, some travelers, some invaders. Chamachies and Nimbuloids are my favorites, but telepaths are good too. The starmap and tech tree have excellent graphics. Each technology has a function, it can be fun trying it. The ruins on some planets can give you an edge in research, just helps keep one jump ahead of the others. I like to set most planets to auto, and concentrate on 1 or 2 for heavy industry.

Patchnote: I recommend it. The game gets a real boost with it, enemies do things they never did before, they play MUCH more aggressive (I got my butt kicked first time). Moby has a link to find it. You can still play the original, or use the patch. Cheat codes available, too, but I haven't tried them.

The Bad
After several games, you develop a method, and the lustre wears thin. OK, the AI is weak, see Patchnote above.

The Bottom Line
A fun game that can entertain you for hours.

DOS · by robert wonderly (1) · 2009

Good ideas... but an idea is not enough.

The Good
Sincerely, the music. Personal taste, I guess, but sometimes I found myself playing Ascendancy because of hearing the music meanwhile. Not only it’s pleasing to hear, but fits excellently in the futuristic background.

To the best of my knowledge, Ascendancy introduced innovative features to the 4X family, leaving the path set by Moo. Star systems had a tactical map for their own and included several planets, I really liked the 3D environment, and so the planet management system (planets divided in regions, each with its own characteristics, a facility for each region), instead of the Civ model. Also the races were very original and imaginative, each with its specific background, and even its own victory conditions; the tech tree featured also very creative technologies, and lots of toys were at your disposal to enrich ship designing.

The Bad
I felt somewhat disappointed by the lack of race customization: after playing Moo2, I missed it; the races, in fact, were and played the same except for a unique special ability: no other bonuses / penalties; the story and background was rich and interesting, and each race had a particular victory condition, but I found it lacking for the replay value. The Star Lanes / Red Links were another curious idea (points that connect star systems and are needed to travel between them), but restricted too much travel and exploration; a good idea could have been make the travel easier between them, but not forcing to use them.

Wars were not the strong point of Ascendancy (not only for the AI): although the 3D movement in ship combat was, again, another good idea, the rest botched it: small ships are virtually useless, since they cost the same to maintain as large ones. And for tactical combat, quickly becomes a matter of taking the weapon with the bigger range. Why? Because there are no attack/defense values: all weapons shot automatically. The bigger the ship, the better the range and power, and the battle is won; for sure. Worse even is ground combat: compare the number of Invasion Modules with the number of Ground Defense facilities: the side which has more wins; automatically.

Although graphics were decent, the game was full of black backgrounds and dark empty screens that gave the game a dry feeling. Visuals really contrast with the music (very, very good, indeed).

Another botch (and I don’t know why designing it that way) was the trade / exchange system. You, of course, can exchange techs and maps with other races… but you must give ALL your techs and maps for ALL the tech and maps of the other race: no negotiation, no deals. Even worse: you can’t know which techs or maps has the other.

And mix all the bad with the AI… one of the worst ever seen in a game. Enemies seemed not to know how Star Lanes work, since the often got stuck in a system, instead of attacking. In tactical combat, was not rare to see an enemy ship still, waiting, while you crushed it with your (more range) weaponry. A patch was released to correct AI problems, but since I didn’t played it, I don’t know if it really worked.

The Bottom Line
Designers tried to innovate, and that’s not only good but essential. Ascendancy shines in good ideas (and some bad ones, though), but are not well reflected in the game. This doesn’t mean the game is not enjoyable: it can provide a pleasant gaming experience, but not for too long mainly because for the AI. I liked the game very much when I played it… until I got bored of vanquishing fleet after fleet and planet after planet. Ascendancy left a good impression to me because of some of its originality… but an idea is not enough. This could have been a high-top game, but the chance was missed.

DOS · by Technocrat (193) · 2002

[ View all 14 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Colonization vedder (70685) Feb 21, 2009

Trivia

PC Gamer controversy

A minor scandal surrounded the PC Gamer review of Ascendancy. PC Gamer gave the game high marks, and made it an Editor's Choice game. However, the individual who reviewed the game for PC Gamer also turned out to be the author of the game's Strategy Guide, leading many to wonder if the review had been padded in order to boost sales of the Strategy Guide.

In Computer Gaming World #151 (February 1997), a letter by William Trotter was published in which he shared his view on the matter. Summarized, he needed money to pay off repairs on his house and therefore gladly agreed to write the strategy guide. However, the developers failed to give him any information on the game, not even technology trees, and a one-month deadline. So he had no other choice but to play the game non-stop for two weeks, becoming eventually obsessed with it. So when PC Gamer hired him for the review, he really thought Ascendancy was a great game, and he failed to see the conflict of interest. In hindsight, he agrees with the bad review in Computer Gaming World (see MobyRanks), the strategy guide turned out to be pathetic and he didn't receive any royalties from it at all.

Awards

  • CODiE Awards
    • 1996 - Best Strategy Software

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Related Sites +

  • Ascendancy
    official game page at Logic Factory's website, archived copy from 1997 by the Wayback Machine

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 257
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Tomer Gabel.

iPad, iPhone added by Techademus.

Additional contributors: Rebound Boy, formercontrib, Patrick Bregger, MrFlibble.

Game added August 29, 1999. Last modified January 23, 2024.