I started Ascension finally last year after chronologically going through the entire series after a number of years. I detailed some of my adventures from the mid-tail end of U8 and into the starting dungeon or so of Ascension in a couple of threads on the Watch.
After running into a bug where a quest didn't finish correctly, unfortunately my enthusiasm died somewhat and I haven't been back to it.
However, it's definitely on my list of games to get back into and persist with, as I love the series.
A question out of curiosity. Is there anyone here who has finished the game?
I played 3-7p2 (including the WoU spin offs) religiously. Couldn't get 8 to run at first and when I finally did, it didn't hold my interest. Same with 9 when it first came out.
I had a bought of unemployment in 2001-2002 and decided to go back and replay some old games. I tired Exult, but never got into it. I replayed U4 and I think I beat it in about 10 hours. I loaded up 1, knocked it out in 4 hours. Tried 2, but it didn't hold my attention. I had replayed a remake of 3 in college on a Mac, so I skipped it. I thought about giving 9 a try again, but never did. Same with 8.
Finally a few years ago, I came across Lazarus. After playing through that, I NEEDED more Ultima. I decided it was finally time play U9. No more hardware issues and with the unofficial patch and community dialogue patch, figured this was as good as it was going to get.
At first, I enjoyed it. Seeing Britannia in 3D was really cool. To this day, I do not think I have seen a sunset done as well. Quickly though I began to notice the complaints people had, the empty feeling of the world, the action orientedness of it. Still, it was enjoyable.
I'm not sure exactly at what point that changed, but I'd say it was around 2/3 the way through. It just was no longer enjoyable. It was tedious and it lacked all the things I liked about Ultima. Still, I fought my way through it. After playing Ultima's for 15 years, then looking back with skewed fondness for the last decade, I felt like I needed the closure that the end of the series would bring.
I was wrong. By the end, it was not just unenjoyable, I actually was getting angry at the end of my gaming sessions. Still I was waiting for that final payoff.
Then I got to the end, and it was just a huge let down. I can't even say exactly what about it was such a huge letdown, maybe it was just the buildup of all the let down (The way they redid Jehlom for instance really aggravated me. Every time I would go to a 'new' area, I'd expect something resembling the old Ultima and just end up disgusted), but it was deflating.
My wife said she noticed a very visible change in demeanor those last few days. She just avoided me. I've NEVER had a game get to me that way before (to be fair I usually just stop playing).
When it was over, I finally just reloaded BG1&2 and played them straight through over a couple weeks to get the bad taste out of my mouth.