Ultima 9: Ascension

Rating:
Summary: Biggest dissapointment ever
Review: I have played all the Ultimas in my time and for the most part loved them all. I was one of the people standing in line for Ultima 9 when it came out. When I got home I put it on my computer right away. After about 2 hours I finally got it to install correctly, and found nothing but bugs and bad game play

1) You have to do every quest exactly as your told to no matter what.

2) Nearly every quest had a bug that made me reload at least one time usually ten times though.

3) Where are these stuning graphics in this game. They were ok but nogthing compared to other games that came out at the same time.

4) This is my biggest complaint. The game is choppy.... and Neither of the computers I put it on were .... The first one was a PII 400 with 320 Megs of SDRam and a TNT 2 graphics card, and the other is a PIII 1000 with 256 Megs of Ram and a Geforce3 and its still choppy!!!!

So my edvice is to avoid this game like the plague!

Rating:
Summary: astonding graphics, now they need to design the game.
Review: Since I have a fairly new 733 pentium III, I had no problems getting a good frame speed. Even playing at full speed the graphics are wonderfull. The landscapes in this game reminded me of the German alps. No game I have ever seen comes even close to matching the visual quality of this game. Unfortunatly, this is the game's only real strong point. The quests are often long and tedious. Places are hard to find, with too much travel time. The fighting in the game is boring at best, and the puzzles are second rate. Spending the time to beat this game is simply not worth it. There are too many other RPG's out there for anyone to buy this game. Unless you are the type of person who likes playing games where you run around for 30 minutes to complete one fairly simple task, all the while fighing simple creatures by clicking the left mouse button as fast as you can, this game is simply not for you.

Rating:
Summary: Too much work for too little reward
Review: I have never played Ultima before, so this was my first impression of the series. The installation went fine. Having to re-install the game after EA sent me an updated, non-crashing version of the game was a bother. The graphics were choppy, but I could deal with that since they looked so beautiful. What really ticked me off was that I would be playing the game for a while and getting through some pretty rough sections of it and all of the sudden, my "avatar" would fall through the floor or the game would just freeze, causing me to have to restart my game and sometimes the computer and continue the game from the last point at which I saved. This is a very long, not addictive and really, not fun game that I would not reccomend to anyone unless you are interested in looking at pretty 3D graphics and paying this much and going through this much trouble to see them.

Rating:
Summary: OOOO Thats not good...
Review: This game would be SO GOOD if it wasn't so CHOPPY. It takes about 5 seconds to run 4 feet. It was difficult to do ANYTHING much less get deep into this game. It truly looks like a TON of fun, but a 400 mhz processor won't cut it. Maybe a 900 or a 1.5 Ghz. If you have a fast computer, this is the RPG for you. If you have a Pentium II, pass this one up, play Ultima Online instead.

Rating:
Summary: Typical of Origin
Review: They make a game that surpasses the power of most if not all computers of 1999(the year it was made) and probably for many years to come. Like Wing Commander III it was Unplayable when it was out and it is now... But for different reasons. Yeah, in a couple of years you'll have that nice P9 /9 ghz with a Voodoo 7/75000 and whatever but will your operating system be compatible? No. These showy graphics games like this are useless. No computer can run them. Not now. Not ever. If I had a super-duper Voodoo 7/7500 ect. I could probably give you an acurate review. Who has that?(with windows 98). As for graphics they are excellent, stupendous, never seen anything like them; but since they are like a slide show I just see them as adequete. I imagine butterflys and what not flying gracefully and that would be "stupendous" but it's just stupid on my machine. The acting is not as bad as people make it out to be... It is... Well.. Adequate... For a game. Not as bad as Animae cartoons... Almost not. Dungeons are fun and beautiful but are like tome raider(a lot of people say that and now so do I). It's pretty though and has dialogue. Raven's fun. Get Redguard(not at-all bad acting) or Tomb raider they will surely work on most computers. The only difference is this one does not.

Rating:
Summary: An incredible game! (even with all the bugs)
Review: Being a fan of the Ultima series, (especially the Ultima Underworld games) I had to buy Ultima IX. I was a little disappointed when I received an "illegal operation" error during the installation program, but after installing the most recent patch, I was able to set up my video card and begin playing.

I was satisfied with the performance on my computer (Pentium III 500Mhz, 192MB RAM, Diamond Stealth III S540 AGP.) Running at 800x600x32 with the game's MIP mapping option set to high, the frame rate was fairly smooth, slowing only occurred in complex areas such as cities.

I was simply amazed at the quality of the game world. Days and nights pass gradually with colorful sunsets and sunrises. The weather varies from sunny to cloudy to rainy. There are mountains, swamps, beaches, hidden caves and shipwrecks to explore. The non-linear gameplay gives you full freedom to explore wherever you want, while at the same time providing a solid plot. Even if you lose your way, you will still enjoy finding secrets and exploring the world.

A few tips for anyone who buys Ultima IX:

1. Install the most recent patch before you even start playing! This fixes most of the quest-stopping bugs. (I learned the hard way)

2. Save your game frequently! I have had problems with the game suddenly (and without warning) dumping me back to the windows desktop. This can be very frustrating if you haven't saved for an hour or two. (I also learned this one the hard way)

3. Keep multiple save files. I would suggest creating a new save file each time you complete a quest before moving on to the next one. There are a couple of bugs that might force you to restart the game from the beginning. I think the patch fixes these, but keeping multiple save files is always a good idea in complex games like Ultima IX.

4. If you only have 64MB of RAM, upgrade to at least 128MB. It will improve the performance significantly.

In summary, I would recommend Ultima IX - Ascension to any fan of the the Ultima series or anyone who enjoys RPG/Adventure games. Ultima IX contains some references to the previous Ultima games, but nothing that will stop you from enjoying the game if you haven't played them. Without all the bugs, Ultima IX would deserve a solid 5 stars, but even with them, it is a brilliantly designed game and an excellent ending to the Ultima series.

Rating:
Summary: Forget the Flap-This game is great!
Review: I know about all the flap about this game and technical problems that people have had with it. I just bought the game and realized that I didn't have any video card to speak of in my PC so sprung for a $50 (after rebate) Voodoo3 card and the thing is amazing. This is without a doubt the best role playing game I have ever played on a PC. The graphics are beautiful and the storyline is complex and interesting - I amtotally hooked. The only thing that I wish that they would add to it is a little more intelligence into the dialogue so that it doesn't give you the choice of picking a statement when youare talking to someone that doesn't actually make sense yet (you haven't gotten there in the game yet). Really amazing and well worth the price!

Rating:
Summary: A game that all RPG fans should play...
Review: I'm not a long time Ultima fan, in fact, I wasn't even born when Ultima I was released. I was introduced to RPGs with Ultima VII. At the time I had my doubts, I assumed that anything with that many sequels had to be tackier than most horror movie series.
Ultima VII was a bad introduction to RPGs, not because it was a bad game, but because it is probably the best RPG of all time (or best two, I should say, as the game came in two massive parts). No other RPG has ever compared well.

Ultima IX promised to be fantastic, and in most respects it was. The graphics are great, the engine is unbelievable. Even after 100+ hours of playing the engine still had me in awe. This is the closest to a real world simulation as anyone has got, or will get again for quite some time.
The voice acting isn't the best, but its not painfully bad either, and the music makes up for it. The in-game movies are especially good.
I have two problems with the game. The first thing is that throughout all the other Ultimas it was stressed that the Avatar (the character you play) was supposed to be you. Therefore, the personality of the Avatar was left ambigious. In this game the Avatar has a personality, and its a pretty annoying one.
The second is the overall plot. It is quite a good plot for an RPG, but there were many questions raised and things implied in previous Ultimas that were either completely ignored or dealt with badly for my liking.
However, I was fully immersed in this game for several weeks and loved every minute of it. I only wished Origin still existed and Richard Garriot was still with them so that they could make an expansion pack. This game definately deserves one.


Rating:
Summary: Buyer beware...
Review: Well, I thought this would be a cool game, and it was - as far as graphics are concerned. But the bugs in the game (not to mention the lack of tech support) quickly set me straight.

1.)GAMEPLAY - The ability to go from 3rd person to 1st person is a great idea. Manipulating your enviroment can be a pain (moving objects, placing them in your backpack, etc.)Movement can also be tricking. Barely touching any object (especially when swimming) can cause you to stop in your tracks. Which can be a bummer while underwater. There are waaaaay too many keyboard commands. I ended only using about 1/3 of what's listed.

2.Graphics - Excellent in my opinion. But I'm still trying to tweak my Voodoo 3 and game settings. Running with 16Mb Video/128Mb RAM/PIII 500, I still can't figure out why the game gets choppy sometimes.

3.Tech Support - Fagetta 'bout it. I used the EA support program (automacilly loaded when game is intstalled), which automatically generated and sent an email. Well, two weeks later, no answer to my questions. So a second email later, I got answers, all or which, did not help. Problems I had were:

Problem: A specific error message.

Answer:I was told was due to Anti-Virus software on my computer. Shut down program and run game.

Why I laughed: I uninstalled my Norton's weeks before buying the game. And after checking for orphan files (which there weren't any) still couldn't figure it out.

Problem: Game crashing.

Answer:Revert to a previously saved game, and then save again (corrupt save game file). Shut down Anti-Virus program, blah, blah, blah

Why I laughed: The Anti-Virus shtick again? I figured that the save game would be corrupt, but even after saving at different points in the game, and saving over the suspected corrupt file, the game would still crash after 40/50 minutes of continuous play.

My advice, avoid this game. Graphics are important, but they aren't everything. After countless hours making sure all my drivers (Direct X, Voodoo, etc.) were updated, sending a couple emails, saving countless games, tweaking parameters, and checking for patches, I've given up. The game has become more of a chore than a fun experience.

Rating:
Summary: Ultima 7 [was bad] at first, too
Review: I pre-ordered Ultima VII: The Black Gate from Babbage's back when it was to come out. Its release was delayed for years, but I was a big fan of Ultima 6 and the wait didn't dull my desire for it. When I finally got the game, I couldn't get music to play, I needed a boot-disk, it took about five minutes to load and sometimes crashed before getting to the map, the save game slots were all broken (you could only have one save, and that took some time), and plot elements would randomly disappear (Namely, you are out to solve a series of ritual killings, but the bodies would disappear and everyone would seem to forget all about it! It made is quite difficult to progress.) Anyway, I ended up waiting until the add-on pack came out, and it fixed up the game, and Origin went on to make the best Ultima, 7 part 2: Serpent Isle, with the same engine. But U7 was by no means playable on my system when it arrived, and good luck getting it to work on modern machines.

Ultima 9 is a good investment, if you have a lot of RAM and a Voodoo. So, it might not be for everybody. But its high system requirements and bugs are by no means untrue to Ultima or a big surprise, given Richard Garriot's complete lack of good software engineering principles.