Ultima™ 9: Ascension

EA has left a trail of bodies in its wake and none are more legendary than the death of the Ultima series. By the time Ultima IX: Ascension was released in 1999, the series (despite already-declining quality) had maintained a degree of excellence and notoriety in gaming culture. However, this one game was enough to kill off the entire franchise and cripple the success and reputation of the Western RPG for several years. Ultima IX is a buggy, ugly, poorly-written mess of a game that most famously attempts to "reboot" the game by re-explaining everything that happened in the games before it while simultaneously expressing little knowledge of the events leading up to Ascension. Characters are inexplicably resurrected, aged or removed; story elements are changed; the Avatar is transformed into a laughably-poorly-written moron; character motivations make little to no sense; the plot is retreaded dribble and the game as a whole is just an unmitigated mess. The Avatar's ascension to the Titan of Ether (essentially God) is barely even considered in the progress of the game, forcing the player to start the Avatar off from square one with a weak weapon as if an established character were a level 1 noob. A lot of this is the result of the attempt to redesign the game in 3D with a new engine most designers were inexperienced in as well as the project development changing hands numerous times. Just like any project that is shuffled around for years, Ultima IX reflects this lack of cohesiveness. All-in-all, there is no reason to play this game. There are plenty of high-quality RPG's from the late-90's and early 2000's to pick up and this game adds nothing to the plot or experience of the previous games in the series. I do not think it would be a leap to call Ultima IX: Ascension one of the worst PC games of all time and, up until the release of the Sim City reboot (also from EA), could be considered the farthest fall from grace for any franchise in video game history.

I thought this game was very cool when it came out. In no way is this like any other Ultima, but still a very entertaining title. I liked how they made the world seamless without loading screens for every cave, room, building , etc. Here's looking at you Elder Scrolls. I wish more games would do this. Graphics were top of the line for 1999. The only other game that looked this good back then was Outcast, another fantastic action RPG and get that one as well here on GOG.

Ultima 9 is an odd duck to write about and I will attempt to be brief. It goes beyond simply being a mediocrity and flies past bad into being one of the great disasters of CRPG History (Others being Decent to Undermountain, the Pool of Radiance Sequel, Gothic 3 Forsaken Gods, and Arcania, possibly Might and Magic IX, take your pick). Despite this all, I could still recommend it to someone willing to delve deep into the depths of CRPG history. Where the players saw an awful, terrible, buggy game packing ideas far ahead of its time into a tight development schedule and tacked on fan-service, other developers saw wasted potential they could use on their own projects in the future. This went on to give us games such as Morrowind and Gothic (Strangely I feel like the Witcher 2 Plays Like the game Ultima IX tried to be). Now, if you didn't like either of those games, this is the responsible turd. If you did, this buggy nightmare was what spawned the games you dearly enjoyed.

I didn't play this GOG version. But It was love at first sight. I don't understand why everyone bashes this game, that's probably because i never played the games that came before. This game provided you with an epic adventure, with mystery, magic, and a realistic medieval world. You could even consider house yours to keep and store your items in there. ( They would be there forever ) Kinda like the Elder Scrolls. The Story is great and keeps you sucked in. I get that it probably strived too much from the Ultima Franchise, but if you look at it outside the box, outside de fan aspect, It really is a Gem, try it.

I've yet to play this all the way through because when I had bought it originally there were so many game breaking bugs it was impossible to progress beyond the shrine of compassion (step one on the main plot) because certain game critical items spawned and got stuck in the sky. Even following the many user created patches there were still game breaking bugs and it crashed frequently. I do not know if those issues have been rectified in the version sold on GOG, and I would be wary of spending money on it until I knew. That's the chief reason I'm giving this one star. The other, more important reason, is that the only conceivable reason a lot of people will buy this is because they have enjoyed the rest of the Ultima series. If you have, and do love them, all that likely awaits you in this game is rage and disappointment. I suggest giving this a miss. If you are a fan of RPGs in general I would suggest any other Ultima over this one, in particular Ultima 4, which was provided for free when you signed up.