Ultima™ 9: Ascension

I'm not a long time Ultima fan. I've only just recently gotten into the series. After playing through PAGAN (which I didn't care for at all) I wanted to stop. But this was the last game in the series so I had to play it...to finish the storyline... Ignoring the sheer stupidity of the story, the horrid story changes they made, the ugly graphics, the incredibly boring, the atrocious voice acting and the characters they destroyed with this game, let's just look at the game itself... The game is your typical "open world" role playing game. You fight monsters, do tasks, etc. That's where the typical part ends though. Pretty much all you have to do to win at this game is mash the attack button. The combat has no strategy of depth to it at all. There is magic in this game, but apparently it doesn't work the way it should. For most of the game, you can only use magic from scrolls. In older Ultima games, you had a spell book where all your spells were or even a bag of runes to put together your spells manually. This is where the game's "classes" come into play. Since you can't really use magic for most of the game, the magic based classes are completely useless. There's a shepard class, which I still don't really understand. The only class you should pick is a warrior class, because all you'll be doing is clicking nonthreatening monsters to death. There are puzzles, but they aren't that great either. The puzzles themselves are the easiest things in the game, pretty much boiling down to flippin switches or pushing buttons. At the end of the day, this game is just plain broken. Every time I ran it, the game crashed after an hour, sometimes less than that. The game is an incredibly buggy mess too. I've found characters floating in the air, spouting the sounds of the rats you fight. I've been killed just walking around Britannia, with no mobs or anything trying to kill me around. Ok, so the game must have something positive about it? Nope... Well, there is one positive thing I can say about this game...and that is... I NEVER have to play this abomination of a game EVER again... Ascension shouldn't have been released at all in the shape it's in. If you are any kind of Ultima fan, stay FAR FAR AWAY from this game, unless you like pain...

This could have been a very solid entry in the Ultima series were it not for technical problems that made the launch version unplayable. Even the patched versions however are not stable, so expect restarting the game every 30 minutes or so.

What's a Paladin?

What i remember about ultima 9 is. that i played it and it was if not a great game still liked it. These is only if you saved your game often, also save your saved saves to another directory because it corrupted your saves often. Also you have to play it quite lineary. If you go from place A to place C without going first to place B nothing works in place C. NPC:s dont do anything but stand still in T pose? and nothing happen. But when you returned to place B to do something needed first and go back to C all works like it should and your game progress.

For true fans of the ultima Series, this was the greatest slap in the face possible. Not only was Canon ignored, but ruined as memorable characters were defiled, plot points from previous games ignored save for some, the character becoming absolutely dim witted even as he experiences things in the game then ignoring them later on, and the very ending of the preceding ultima title being forgotten. If you played any other ultima game, this one was EA's way of saying "Screw the canon, make us money." And it showed as Richard Garriot's vision was lost back in Ultima 7. But... Looking BEYOND the Ultima lable, it IS a decent game for the time. Aside from the bugs, and crashprone nature of it back when it was released, it was worth an investment to check out the new technology, and it was fun to explore the world. Some quests were crap, and the game was linear and repeated the same brigands, rats, spiders, and idiotic NPCs attempting to fight the Avatar with their bare fists, but it was worth it for a laugh or two. Is it a good ultima game? No. Is it a good game at all? No. But, it isn't a bad "Game" considering the era, and the new technologies. And all the "what's a Paladin?" and "I'm not entirely sure..." jokes only serve as a reminder of a fanbase that was forgotten at the end of a long road. P.S. Will all Spoony fans stop. Yes, his reviews did detail how bad the game was. But, his review was focused more or less on the storyline. I love Spoony. Spoony got me into doing my own Lets Play series. But I watched the same review as you all. It showed how bad the game's tie ins, story, and some glitches, bugs, and crashes were. but it did not showcase enough of the game to get a good idea. It was an excellent review, but it serves best to Ultima fans, not those who do not hold the series to their heart.