We last left our Avatar as he entered the Black Gate, concluding his imprisonment in the land of Pagan where he had been sent by the Guardian. For those who have followed Ultima over the years, you will have noticed the small changes to the graphics system of each Ultima. The tile-based graphic system developed by Ken Arnold for the first Ultima was in use more or less unchanged throughout most of the series. Though Ultima VI first introduced a mouse interface, it wasn t until Ultima VII that it became more commonly used. Pagan had stunning backgrounds and character animation and incorporated the mouse fully.
Ascension is just visually stunning.
3D backgrounds, creatures and characters bombard the player s eyes from the moment you begin your quest in the Avatar s home. Though this may seen like a ludicrous amount of memory to run an RPG whose predecessor was DOS based, you ll need every meg to take full advantage of this game s visuals. Though I had to play it using 8bit textures since my system doesn t nearly match the above, the playing experience was far from hindered. Ultima IX just reeks of a nostalgic odour. Several aspects of the game will strike fans as pleasantly familiar.