Ultima™ 9: Ascension

All that needs to be said about Ultima IX's broken state upon release has been said - the question is whether in nineteen years since that point there's been enough patching, modifications and just simple nostalgia generated to redeem it. The answer is 'somewhat.' The game has been fully playable for quite some time - I was able to complete it after the original UK release which patched the game up to version 1.18 out of the box. The subsequent iterations of the 1.19 patch and the Beautiful Britannia mod have done a nice job in dealing with some of the game's lingering issues - and its surprising how beautiful it still looks in many ways in 2018. Unfortunately, none of the more ambitious mods which promised to try and fix the game's story and structure ever got completed. That means we're stuck with a game which has some really bright sections of RPG action, but stitched together in a way which is often awkward and non-sensical. Characters either spill too much information or not enough unless certain (often poorly scripted) triggers are met. The respawning of enemies on transition points between hubs is a constant annoyance as combat is such a chore. And most of the offensive spells are useless - there's little point in investing time and energy into the magic system. The vocal performance of the Avatar is as terrible - which hurts even more given that the character has been written as having no knowledge of the world around him. But on a recent playthrough I was surprised at the depths which the game has in its discrete chunks. The leadup and completion of the dungeon of Destard, for example, is a really atmospheric trip into a little corner of the map which truly seems quite alien and abandoned. The game ultimately fails because its purpose is to be a suitable conclusion to the Ultima narrative - remove it from that context and it's a pleasing, beautiful example of the last RPG of its type before Diablo and others really took hold of the genre.

I grew up and have loved ultima my whole life.

Good to play it again. Heh, heh, first time I see a minimal to write a review. xD

Nun mit deutscher Sprache und vielen weiteren Verbesserungen.

Ultima IX was very Hardware hungry when it came to be, so it was not so much fun with an old maschine, BUT once you got it up and running, it was just a wondeful world to explore. The Magicsystem was very interesting and fun to use, while the Melee section of the game was quite fun when you learn the special move. The dungeons were great, not linear crap like modern games, sure, a litte strange to the modern eye but it is a fantasy world for crying out loud :3 THe Game really gave you something if you explored nice loot und fun quests. I do not have enough stamina to write the wrong that has ben done to this game, I loved it for what it was: An Adventure. Nothing more, nothing less. Give it a Chance. Yours Truely Mr. McGruffels