Ultima IX: Ascension

Game: Ultima IX: Ascension
Developer: Origin Systems
Platform: PC
Release Year: 1999
Stephen's Rating: 4/10

Ultima IX: Ascension was the final installment in the illustrious Ultima series which spanned over two decades. It was also the most disappointing game I've ever had the experience of playing.

Basic Plot

After being banished to the world of Pagan by the Guardian in Ultima VIII: Pagan the Avatar returns to Britannia to face off against his ultimate enemy.

Britannia has been corrupted. Giant pillars which eminate the Guardian's influence have sprouted up around the land. The eight runes of the virtues have been twisted into glyphs and hidden inside the pillars. The Avatar's companions have been brainwashed into defending these pillars. Lord Blackthorn has allied with The Guardian and leads the Wyrmguard in forcing the populace to follow the Guardian.

The Avatar on Earth, showing the moongate to Britannia.

The story involves the Avatar travelling to the heart of each of the pillars and reclaiming the glyph inside. The glyphs are then cleaned at the corresponding shrine. The Avatar then learns that the Guardian is in fact the shadow half of the Avatar; they are two faces to the same coin. In order to defeat him the Avatar casts the Armageddon spell inside the Barrier of Life to send both himself and the Guardian to a higher plane.

The original plot for the game was quite different (and much better in my opinion) but was cut and altered significantly before the release.

Gameplay

Ultima IX: Ascension was a third person role playing game set in the Ultima universe.

The player controls one character, the Avatar, and guides him through the world of Britannia through various combat, puzzles, and conversations to complete the game.

Combat is action orientated and requires real-time movement and clicking (rather than turn based strategy of earlier games).

As with Ultima VIII: Pagan there was an emphasis on puzzle solving within the dungeons.

Advancement was achieved by bringing glyphs to shrines and cleansing them. Each time you did this you gained a level and chose a stat to raise. Magic ability was determined by karma, which was obtained by doing good deed and lost by performing bad ones.

Positives

The visuals were ahead of the time. The detail was stunning, and the world itself was a pleasure to be in. The one part of the story I liked was when Lord British realises he has to stop relying on the Avatar to solve all his problems, and the people must fight for themselves.

Negatives

The story was patchy and weak. One of the strengths of the Ultima games was their intricate storylines. This one felt incomplete, rushed, and misplaced. For the final game of the series this was very disappointing.

One of the things that really annoyed me was the lack of references to the previous games. All of these new characters were introduced who were not part of any of the other games, but about characters from Ultima VII: Black Gate such as Spark? Or Tseramed? Why had the entire layout of all the cities changed? Who was this Raven woman? Why couldn't they have used one of the multitude of characters from the previous games?

One of the things which gave the Ultima series comic relief and a sense of fun and lightheartedness were the companions of the Avatar which were present until Ultima VIII: Pagan. Both that game and this one lost something important by only having a single playable character without companions, and I think the choice to exclude them was a bad one.

Lord British.

Unlike the other Ultima games the plot and gameplay was linear. There wasn't a lot of exploring that could be done; the world wasn't as open as previous games. I believe there were entire sections of the world that exist in the game files half-completed but never used.

The game was exceptionally buggy. Due to rushed release dates the game had so many bugs that it was practically unplayable. Every time I played the game there were major issues which forced me to use console commands to progress. In the last game I played the entering the city of Britain forced the game to quit, but luckily I found a way to progress to the end of the game whilst avoiding the city entirely (I was able to enter the castle).

The controls were unnatural and I don't believe you could change them. Compared to other third person games such as Neverwinter Nights they were frustrating.

All in all Ultima IX: Ascension is a perfect example of what a tight budget and limited deadlines can do to a game. Shame on you Electronic Arts for ruining one of the greatest series in history.

Memorable Moments

The most fun I had in the game was collecting the Blackrock armour and sword.