Game Review of Ultima Ascension Jeff Pierson CIS 587 09 24 2001 Game Review of Ultima Ascension Basic Information Game title Ultima Ascension Ultima IX Company Author ORIGIN Lord British Electronic Arts Type of Game 3D Adventure RPG Price 19 99 new Minimum stated hardware requirements 266 MHz or faster Intel Pentium II processor 64 MB RAM 8x CD ROM drive 1200K second transfer rate using 32 bit Windows CD ROM driver DirectX 7 compatible Sound Card Supported 8 MB 3D graphics accelerator with DirectDraw and Direct3D or Glide capability 640 x 480 screen resolution 600 MB free hard disk space plus space for saved games Keyboard mouse Actual hardware required 900 MHz at least 384 MB or more Any speed CD ROM should do Supported 32 MB or higher graphics accelerator or best Voodoo graphics card 72 000 rpm IDE hard drive at minimum Soundcard with DirectSound3D and EAX support Game Summary Quick overview Ultima Ascension is the ninth installment of a popular PC role playing game that was first released for the Apple II in 1980 As a first attempt at a 3D version of Ultima Ascension does a swell job at keeping many of the fun and unique aspects present in previous games while exploring new visual and graphical technologies Although Ultima Ascension contains similar and recurring elements from the previous Ultima releases its story and subject matter are unique enough for Ultima newbie s to follow Story line Player s role The player s character in Ascension is known as the Avatar who originally from Earth is drawn to a different world known as Britannia in order to restore tranquility and order In the world of Britannia there are eight runes of virtue add the virtues here exist which when used for good help to keep peace and prosperity to Britannia but can and have been used to also do great evil In Ultima IX it is expected that the Avatars long time archenemy the Guardian is behind the crumble of civilization and the twisting of sacred virtues The main goal of the Avatar in Ascension is to collect the runes of virtue along with it s sigil in order to cleanse each of their corresponding shrines As the shrines are cleansed the Avatar gains abilities including strength dexterity intelligence and the ability to bind magic to his spell book for more efficient use The game also has many other optional side adventures which tie in well with the story line Installation Ultima Ascension is installed onto a hard drive from a CD A custom installer steps the user through the process giving options such as inclusion of a DirectX 7 installation along the way Once the installation is complete the game can be run from the hard drive but requires that the game CD is in the CD ROM drive when playing Some options that are selected during the game s setup procedure can be accessed by choosing setup when after inserting the disc User Interface The user interface is quite effective and is surprisingly similar to previous Ultimas which have an isometric style design The interface consists of a pointer which when moved with the mouse or pointing device rotates the 3D view which includes the Avatar in the view Movement is controlled with the right mouse button and or the directional keys on the keyboard Most of the inputs for actions such as jumping and opening the spell book are all done on the on the keyboard only Other parts of the interface include many moveable objects a backpack and bags which support drag and drop with many of the game objects books that can be opened and read and a world which can be explored very realistically Game Play Because of the many realistic and well thought features of this game it seems to take a long time to get tired of playing New goals including side adventures seem to come up every twenty or thirty minutes of play and are usually quite exciting and unpredictable The replay ability of this game however like most RPGs is uncommon because the story simply gets old after experiencing it for the first time Some drawbacks to the game play are slow running speeds and difficulty of enemies Scoring As an RPG scoring in this game is simply the advancement of the characters abilities and progress in the storyline One odd aspect of this game is that it doesn t give the player access to a broad amount of numerical or visual representations of the player s status The only information that is accessible is the life meter mana magic meter amount of gold armor strength meter and weapon power meter Even though dexterity intelligence and strength exist in the game they are not available for viewing Artwork The artwork done for this game includes 3D characters enemies moveable and usable objects realistic weather effects terrains habitations 2D paintings and magic spells The terrains include water swamps mountains fields forests and deserts Habitations include houses shops castles churches museums court houses caves dungeons boats shrines and villages The graphics settings are highly customizable in order to give a decision of performance vs quality of graphics Sound and Music Sound and Music add the choices of adjustment to the complaints Ultima Ascension features real voice conversations environmental sound effects and music The voice conversations are very well done and are included for all characters that speak or even make noises Some characters speak off in the distance to each other and for those with sound card that have EAX support voices and other sounds can come from any direction giving a very immersive feel The music in this game has a dark feel too it and sounds as if it is real instruments playing Special Features One special feature of the Ultima games is that all game objects have persistence This means that if you move a bottle or chair or whatever it will be there forever unless you or another character moves it again Manual The manuals for this game are quite unique and in some ways add to the vibe of the game Some Examples are the physical hard copy spell book journal and world map These portions of the documentation read as if the player is inside the game Other pieces of documentation such as input descriptions and technical directions are extremely scarce and combined with very limited in game directions for the interface makes for a very difficult learning curve Bugs Although Ultima Ascension has had numerous bugs in the past the latest patch which is 1 18 as of September 24 2001 seems to correct any known bugs that I can find Game Review What is good about the game
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