Ultima Ascension - (1/3) Author: Mugwum
Developer - Origin
System Requirements -
The trip back into Britannia in the latest episode of the long-running Ultima series is a sumptuously detailed and very involving one. The game is expansive and engaging, with hundreds of NPCs to interact with a balanced mix of action, puzzle-solving and adventuring.
The problem is that only a very small quantity of players will be able to enjoy it, since even the most advanced computers take a severe performance hit from the game.
Here's an example; my home system is a PIII-450, 256Mb RAM and a 32Mb GeForce DDR - nothing to smirk at, and yet I was bewildered to get a mere 10 frames per second, or even lower at times. The game is just not enjoyable.
Those of you who own a decent 3dfx Voodoo card are in luck, as the game performs much better on that platform. My own Voodoo3 2000 card (a much less impressive card than the GeForce DDR under normal circumstances) squeezed a more impressive 15-20 frames per second out of the game, though I shouldn't be forced to change my machine around in order to play this tripe...
As the Avatar, you begin the game in your house on Earth, viewing the proceedings from a third-person perspective. Having located your journal, backpack and other items, you manoeuvre the Avatar around the back of his house, admiring the splendiferous texturing along the way. The sound effects (although stuttery on my ageing SoundBlaster card) were very well sampled and the overall effect was extravagant yet simplistic.
Walking into a nearby cave gave me my first taste of battle, with a few oversized rats which were dispatched with alarming ease, rather like the bunny rabbits that litter the fair plains of Asheron's Call. Apart from the inherent problems with control due to the bugs and such, Ascension's interface is impressively simple to learn.
Entering the portal to Britannia was preceded by an interesting conversation with a Gypsy, who posed seven questions to determine Avatar's role in Britannia. Entering the portal was where the game truly began in earnest...
Publisher - Electronic Arts
Pentium II 400 or equivalent
128Mb RAM
600Mb Hard Drive Space
16Mb 3D graphics card
For a man who has just specced out a multi-million dollar castle for his next home, Ultima Ascension's designer Richard Garriot must be feeling a bit sore from the press backlash. For some reason Europe received what was described as a "patched" version, but that just makes me shudder to think what the original was like...
I shall try not to mention the abysmal framerate again, instead I'll focus on the rest of the aspects of Ultima Ascension that annoy me vehemently, while trying to iterate how much of a love-hate relationship I have with this game.
