Ascendant
You are summoned by a mysterious figure to The Stygian Abyss, a dangerous dungeon world imperiled by the beast Typhon. To save this world, and yours, you must find your way through the Abyss, uncover lost secrets and overcome many challenges. KEY FEATURES DEEPLY IMMERSIVE WORLD Explore a fully-realized dungeon realm, from the outpost of Marcaul to the depths of the Vault of Nyx. Interact with useful flora and fantastic creatures, while surviving dynamic enemies and a degrading world state. HERO OF YOUR OWN Tailor your skillset with over 75 combat, stealth and magic skills. Craft over a hundred different spells using the runic spell crafting system. LOOMING THREAT Set out on more than 70 quests and numerous Side Bounties that reward you for avoiding detection, going unarmed and more. UNIQUE REWARDS SYSTEM Earn rewards and unlock skills through resourceful, unboxed gameplay and ingenious performance. Solve challenges in unique ways and push yourself to experiment.
Steam User 20
It's not what it longed to be, it's not what it set out to be, it's not even what it could have been after the foolish dream had been put to rest eventually, but what remained of it is enough to catch a glimpse of the majesty of the immersive sim and keep the dream going.
Steam User 12
Janky as hell ... yes ... but not in the dictionary definition sense (i.e. of extremely poor or unreliable quality) ... as this is certainly none of either. The quality is sky-high, and there are no show-stopping bugs to be found (not any longer anyway) ... HOWEVER, there are certainly unfinished systems / ideas that make the game-play very odd at times (climbing, movement over obstacles etc) ... which are mostly due to advanced physics systems that had to be culled / man-handled into a workable form as they (the devs) simply ran out time (this game needed another year in the oven).
But, it's THE most immersive, detailed and beautiful (environmentally) dungeon crawler I have ever play ... period.
Set fire to a large old timber city structure ... watch it burn ... mesmerising.
Steam User 9
I can give this game a solid recommend. It may have been poor when first released, I don't know, did not play it then.
However, playing it right now, in 2023 the game looks, runs, and plays great. No issues technically at all. The graphics are quite good, and the art style and theme is immersive.
Exploring the dungeon and figuring out ways to do things is great, and if you crank up the difficulty to the highest setting you have to play smart to be successful.
What this game is NOT is an open world game like Skyrim, or an immersive sim like System Shock. What this game IS is a complex dungeon crawler like a King's Field, with some almost rogue-like mission elements. Gear is king, and your character does not "level" and there is no XP so there is no grind. As a matter of fact combat is generally best avoided, because it saps your resources more then it benefits your mission.
The AI can be odd at times, and the physics engine doesn't always behave exactly how you would expect, however, the magic system is downright amazing, and the exploration and being able to "role-play" inside the game is great fun.
I came into this after looking for a deep AA level game that gave a real King's Field experience, because there are basically none out there at all. I gave it a try and I am very pleased to have this game in my collection. You can get on, set some goals, and play for hours exploring and trying new things, just to get that one more feat, or that better gear to let you progress further once the Doom Counter starts getting high and the stakes really become life and death.
Not a game for everyone, but its technically very solid, and has gameplay that depends on YOU the player making the most of your experience. If you are a fan of games like King's Field, Genesis Alpha One, or to a lesser degree Arx Fatalis, give it a shot.
Steam User 5
The game is janky but fun. The AI is sometimes dumber than a brick and other times knows what I'm going to do before i do it. The game lacks polish with graphical bugs and frame rate issues. Get it on sale.
Steam User 12
Why the bad reviews? It is a cool game, nice graphics, setting, crafting and gameplay. Not the best of the type but worth getting on sale.
Steam User 4
Despite numerous negative reviews for this game I can recommend it to all Ultima Underworld fans. It has problems, but it is still not that bad.
Here is the list of good things in game:
+ Atmosphere, similar to those in UW1 and UW2.
+ Nice physics with some additional features like burning wooden structures.
+ Very good maps
+ A lot of different creatures, weapons, armor types and other things
And now list of bad things:
- A lot of bugs!
- A lot of stupid quests!
- Absence of good music. There is some music in game, but it is not nearly as beautiful as in Ultima Underwold series.
- Too many gold lying all over levels. It is almost unneeded. Even on hardest level of difficulty.
Game itself looks like unfinished project. It could be really successfull, if developers would spend one more year to finish it. Now it would be nice if they hand over game sources and assets to fans, so they can fix numerous problems in game and make it really fun to play. Hopefully it will happen some time in future.