Ultima IX: Ascension (Windows)

When I think Ultima, I think of grand adventures in another world as detailed as our own, and of what might possibly be the greatest role playing series in history. A series that challenged the RPG genre to break from its infancy, introducing us to a world where problems were solved not only with a sword. When I learned about Ultima IX, the final chapter of the long running series, I built up great expectations. These were quickly crushed when I discovered what should have been the crowning final chapter of the epic Ultima series, was instead a half-baked product that was rushed out the doors. The game feels so promising. And, I frequently found myself wanting to like it so much, but the technical problems were just too much to ignore. This review addresses the changes to the game since the latest patch has been released. In general, although improvements were made, and the game is now much more bug free and solid, no amount of fixing will be able to save the fundamentally flawed engine the game uses.

Ultima IX: Ascension was released horrendously buggy and was plagued by performance issues, especially in Direct 3D, as the first review explains. There have since been numerous patches, and a "final version" that Origin is going to incorporate into newly pressed copies of the title and send to all previous owners for free. I played the game under the latest patching (version 1.18) and to summarize it is now a somewhat different experience. Sure, most of the glitches and bugs and random crashes have been worked out, and the game plays solidly to the end. This is to be expected. But the plaguing problem of the original release was the abysmal performance, especially under direct 3D, on even the fastest machines. This has been addressed to an extent. The engine is optimized for direct 3D support, and is now native to DirectX 7 which ships with the game. Also, compressed textures are properly supported on all platforms except NVIDIA's, which still excludes a large number of users. Despite the efforts made to improve performance, it is obvious that the engine is flawed at a fundamental level. And, no amount of tinkering can bring it to an acceptable level of performance. If you have a solid system with a Voodoo based card, or a hot-rod with Direct3D based graphics, you should get playable performance under the latest patch. Anything less, and even though it is now better than before, your frame rates will frequently drop into the single digits.

The graphics themselves are breathtakingly beautiful, all crafted with exceptional detail. The richly fashioned environments, both indoor and outdoor, were obviously painstakingly created. Scenes are never static, there is always something in motion, whether it be clouds slowly crossing the sky or a butterfly dancing across the screen. At times it even feels like a worthwhile trade-off for the awful performance. Not all the art is as pretty as the scenery though. The characters and monsters, though well done, look very blocky and could have used some more polygons. However, they animate very fluidly and life-like. The animated cut-scenes throughout the game, although nothing spectacular, are also generally well done helping to advance the story and set the mood.

Despite the technical problems, long time Ultima fans will no doubt want to pick up this title to see the story of Ultima finally come to its conclusion. The central story is rather simple - the classic good vs. evil struggle, but it still manages to captivate and contains enough twists and turns to keep most gamers satisfied. But as in all RPG's, the test of the story is not so much in the story itself, but instead how it is implemented. The story unfolds in a very linear fashion, leaving almost no room for free exploration. This means that while the story is good, you have almost no decision over the outcome, more like reading a novel. If you are a familiar with past Ultimas, you will appreciate the references to familiar places and people throughout the game, but you may feel like you want more control over the course of events. Fans of adventure games may not mind this as much, but RPG gamers generally want to take more control over the lives of their characters, hence the term "role playing."

And that brings me to one of my main points. I feel that this game would be more closely classified as an adventure hybrid than a true RPG. There are many different reasons why I feel this way. First, as mentioned, the plot is extremely linear. Second, the combat is simple and boring. It is as if they had finished their great adventure hybrid only to realize at the end that they were creating an RPG, and then tacked on a combat system at the very end. All you do is point and click, that's great for an Operating System, but not a combat engine. Then there are the puzzles. They feel removed from the game and serve no purpose than to simply add puzzles. Most of them are not well integrated into the story and they make the game feel like your playing a Tomb Raider clone than a RPG. Finally, character statistics, what are supposed to be the core of all rpg's are virtually non-existent. Your character is based on only the most basic statistics that seem to have no real bearing on the outcome of your character. Again, it feels like an action adventure with RPG elements tacked on.

In summary, I would recommend this game to any fan of the Ultima series, even if you don't have a killer machine. In my opinion, to see the story to its end is worth the purchase for long time fans. Although the dialog and story execution may feel contrived, the underlying plot is well done and is a fitting ending to the long running series. Suffice it to say that the ending is really quite remarkable, and it truly does close the series forever. If you are a newcomer to the series and just curious as to what the world of Ultima is all about, then I would not recommend buying this game. Instead, pick up one of the older installments, in particular Ultima VII, to see the series for what it was meant to be.

Review By GamesDomain