Origin Systems PC Now Available 3/9/2000

With richly detailed story lines, innovative viewing systems, gameplay aspects such as 'faction' and one of the longest-running series of all role-playing games, Ultima has carved its place in the history of the gaming world. The series stuck to the basic, standard RPG format in its early days, but now really begins to shine with Ultima IX: Ascension. In this game (and for the first time), players face definite consequences in their decisions; success requires careful thinking, and from this game forward, the series begins to differ from its kin in the traditional RPG field.

Many a time, the Avatar (the player character) saved the graces of Britannia from certain doom, often in its last hour of hope; he routinely faced the darkest evils, while the virtues of Britannia restricted him. These virtues limited his actions, but kept him on the side of good, with the squeakiest image possible (he was a certifiable saint). Then, in the last episode of the Ultima series (Ultima VIII), the Avatar (Britannia's one saving grace) was ditched in the land of Pagan, and to return, he was forced to deny those virtues. His status with Ultima enthusiasts was not only tarnished, but his many fans disliked UVIII’s gameplay as well.

Enter Ultima IX: Ascension, the last chapter in the saga of the Avatar… Here’s a short run-down of the story: You are summoned by Lord British to save Britannia from the evil Guardian that’s devastated the landscape and tainted the eight sacred virtues. Reports filter in of massive columns erupting high into the sky at the shrine of each virtue, corrupting them all; compassion in Britain quickly dwindles. After a series of evil happenings, then, Lord British summons the Avatar to defeat the evil one last time and save Britannia for all eternity.

The reason this game was in development for so long has got to be the rich tailoring of its 3-D world. The developers really wasted their time creating maps for the game; every building, town, and road is so unique that it's nearly impossible to get lost. There's no copy-and-paste work here--every nook and cranny of this world’s dripping in its own personality. Its towns and dungeons feature totally unique layouts and architecture, which is pretty impressive to me. There are even directional signs at forks in the roads, making travel a breeze and maps nearly obsolete. I love this aspect; I’ve never seen more work put into a game's world, nor have I been as pleased with the results of such an effort.

Texturing and modeling has never looked so good in an Ultima game, either. Every boat, bridge and person looks totally unique (except when they’re supposed to look alike, of course), which makes navigation through quests or locating supplies easy. The castle’s immense and detailed, with hidden rooms, all sorts of books that tell of the past, and even portals to other parts of the castle not accessible on foot. Its towns sport terrific-looking task-specific characters (mayors, blacksmiths, millers, beggars) toiling in underlying sub-plots, which create the feeling that even if you finish the game, you’ll have missed half of what exists in it. Ultima IX: Ascension features a level of detail I’ve never seen in any game; I only hope the world of Ultima Online 2 will be so detailed.

Here's the part where Gnoleb the "gearhead" tells you about the consequences of this type of graphical eye candy… Quite simply, this game runs like ass. I know that sounds harsh, but it's a fair assessment considering the type of hardware I have and the product of this game on it. I first tried the game on a PIII 550Mhz with 128MB RAM and a GeForce DDR. After installation, it naturally prompted the setup screen, and I chose what I thought were conservative settings: 1024x768x16-bit color in D3D.

When the camera panned over the sleeping Avatar, though, I swear it chugged at two frames per second. I quickly assessed the state of the game’s performance, and returned to the setup screen to try some new settings. I played around with it a little, read the documentation, increased my Windows swap file and restarted the game at 640x480x16-bit color. It was running up to some twenty frames per second at this lowest graphical setting, and that doesn't account for the "pauses" while turning (loading new textures); it was playable for a while, but the slow motion left a ‘tweak monkey’ like me very unhappy. So I took the game home to run on my Athlon 700Mhz, 256MB RAM, TNT2 Ultra monster system that kicks the arse of all games (though it cries for a Voodoo 5)…

Much to my dismay (and my damaged ego), though, the game performed similarly. It just wouldn’t get off of the hard drive, even with 256MB of RAM. I finally had a minor bit of clairvoyance and slapped in a Voodoo 3 3000--and to my surprise, Glide sorted everything out. Well, kind of... The frame-rate definitely improved to around 30 fps, with less pausing for texture loading--but the game clearly chugs. The worst part is that I know 90% of the Ultima fans that buy this game have much lesser systems.

That aside, the sound is of high caliber, and is well detailed. Footsteps echo around corners, leaves rustle in the wind and music chimes in near castles and dungeons, often giving advance warning of the foul creature awaiting you. The sounds you hear in the towns complement the detailed world, keeping it lively and well characterized, though a few songs definitely get repetitive (after fourteen hours of play, at least). And though the ambient sounds of the towns are good, the battle sounds aren’t. I noticed that the swinging of swords often produces no sound at all, and the snap of a bowstring sounds like the click of a pen; both problems rob the game’s combat of its needed intensity. Its character acting also suffered--not from lack of detail, but from simple overacting. Its characters sometimes delve into corny soap opera melodrama, delivering far more accent than is necessary to the game’s mood. This might not bother other players, but it annoyed the heck outta me.

The other annoying thing about the character acting isn't so much in the acting, but in the characters themselves. I often had to listen to the same speech from certain characters in order to complete whatever task I wanted. The most disturbing experience is clearly that of the blacksmith's wife, who buys and sells weapons and armor; every single time I wanted to make a transaction, I had to listen to her "loot the dead people in the Dungeon of Despise" speech before I could go on my way. All I could do was plead with the game and yell "I heard you the first five times, you wench" at the monitor; needless to say, it didn’t take long for my co-workers to figure out just how annoyed I was with this part of the game.

While we’re compiling this list of annoyances, let’s talk about the combat. For one, its monster AI’s horrible, just downright saddening… UIX’s monsters (which can be anything from a rat to a gargoyle) hover in their own little ‘zones,’ and suddenly become ‘alert’ if you come too close to them. Then, they attack you. There are no subtleties; simple rogues aren't afraid of the mighty Avatar, ogres won’t pull sneak attacks, and the rats never seem to attack you when you’re on higher ground than they are. One of the first things you’ll discover is just how easy it is to take advantage of this lack of AI; simply sit back with a bow (and you can find a darn good one in Britain, let me tell you) and eliminate nearly every creature from outside its own "attack distance.” At that rate, a sword’s nearly useless compared to the power of the bow, especially if you consider the damage you’ll surely sustain in hand-to-hand combat. It was really lame to outsmart the game in only fifteen minutes of combat; I just sat back with my longbow and smacked monsters silly.

It doesn’t even stop there, though; other frustrations mount up after journeying for any amount of time. The world never rests, and no one ever sleeps, which is peculiar enough… Many of the dialogues you have with NPCs just don't ask or answer the questions you want, and at other times, you get the same story in different words some ten different times. It’s really frustrating.

Another ridiculous feature is the whole concept of the Avatar; I mean, here I am, the savior of this land, which, without me, would never have survived (let alone eight times), and yet the Britannians have the nerve to charge me for such things as weapons and training! I’m the Avatar, for crying out loud, the champion of the land, summoned as its last hope of survival as I’ve been so many times before--and they have the nerve to ask me for money?! The guard in the weapons house specifically says that Lord British demanded he provide me with whatever I need--and he still asks me for money if he’s going to train me! Arrgh!! This has got to be the game’s highest point of frustration. I again found myself shouting back at the NPC, "How about instead of giving you 300 gold for training I just don't save your pitiful little Britannia and let you all perish?"

Gamers will be happy to know, however, that Ultima IX’s controls are fairly simple, and generally intuitive and effective. Moving in its 3-D world is easy--just point in the direction you want to go and hold the right mouse button down. Another nice feature is that the art of the jump in UIX makes all the horizontal jump puzzles a lot easier and cuts down on the mindless time it would normally take to complete every other freaking game’s lame jumping obstacle course. In addition, the user interface is well laid out; stored items and spell shortcuts are all accessible by hitting "q," which changes the crosshair to a cursor. The spellbook, journal and maps are all accessible by hot keys as well.

This game has some great qualities: It's rich in actual game content, the story lines are engrossing and flow well, and the 3-D world looks great… Unfortunately, the negatives stack up higher than the positives. The game runs so awfully that it's hard to imagine anyone playing it without severe dissatisfaction (especially with less hardware punch than I have). Some of the more frustrating parts add up quickly, too, right from the beginning of the game—particularly all this Avatar nonsense, the repetitive NPCs and the awful combat. That's a major obstacle for anyone to overcome before the rest of the game can be enjoyed.

For many, Ultima IX’s a ‘must;’ it’s the finale to one of the best-known RPG series ever. For everyone else, though, it's one big chunk of frustration to swallow…

- Jasen Torres