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Spanky wrote a few notes on his first 10 hours playing Ascension..

Paws

Along the way I run into a blind fortune teller. She reminds me that I must hold true to the 8 virtues. If I don't, it will affect consequences on me.

Nearby... I find a small boy in a burning barn crying for help. I douse the fire with a bucket of water sitting outside the barn. He tells me his father was murdered and his mother was kidnapped by bandits to the northeast. I found them by climbing the mountain just west of the boy's house. There was a trail that went west to a bridge spanning the peaks of two mountains. That situation was taken care of shortly afterwards.

Heading more west towards Paws.. I caught the glimpse of a VERY TALL TROLL. The sight of him was intimidating and I couldn't believe I could take him on. I saved the game here at this point. Turns out... in classic form... the troll is guarding a bridge and insists I give him 10 gold to cross... I do so.

The slum town of Paws sits in a murky swamp area that can poison you with contact. Avoiding the murky water requires you to walk along wooden planks that forms trails between the houses. The houses are convincingly old and deteriorating. I fell like I was in a Mississippi swamp setting.

Shortly I ran into the mayor of Britannia being assaulted by a large rat.

Earlier in the game. The mayor was giving a speech in the town square in Britain. He was talking about his decision to move the sick and the poor outside of the city. His reason was without compassion.

A man with a peg leg jumps to the mayors rescue by killing the rat. The mayor is quite impressed by the handicapped man for saving his life. The mayor is convinced at this point that the people should return back to the city and be apart of society.... but wait. His daughter had been more sympathetic to the people of paws. She is here and under the capture of brigands in a house to the south. The mayor offers me the 'Heart Of Compassion' if I were to rescue her. She is rescued shortly after.

The Shrine Of Compassion

With the Heart of Compassion and the Glyph of Compassion, I head back east of Britain to the Shrine of compassion. Along the way... sitting on top of a hill beside the trail leading to the shrine. There is a statue that begins to talk to me... it's Shamino, another friend from previous Ultimata's. He briefly explains his plight but is soon gone. He tells me he will talk to me at another time.

The shrine sits just over a tall hill overlooking a small lake. It is in ruin and while approaching, clouds form, a bit of thunder and lightning and it begins to rain. I place both the Heart and Glyph of Compassion at the center of the circular stones and I am prompted to enter the 'Mantra of compassion' given to me by Sarah. The mantra is 'um'.

The Glyph of compassion is transformed into the Sigil of Compassion and the shrine is restored beautifully back to its original condition.

I head back to Britain and immediately notice everyone being friendly and kind to one another. The one armed bread maker is back to work at the bakery and everything is fine and dandy. The king congratulates me and gives me a head start on what to do next...

Afterthoughts

The game is certainly beautiful and definately worth playing. I'm impressed by the sheer amount of detail presented in the game world. You can re-visit places you've been many times and still discover something new or hidden from you when you were first there.

The voice acting varies from conversation to conversation. I was really impressed with the voice of Lord British... definately top notch talent there. The voice of the troll at the bridge to Paws was pitched down really low making it a bit hard to understand him. A number of other people I talked to sounded as if the voices were recorded by amateurs... possible a few people from the development team. The Guardian is spying on the Avatar as he works his way throught his quests. Occasionally I can hear him laugh, "ha ha ha ha haaaaa".

The game is good enough to forget the horrible graphics performance. You can easily be immersed in the surroundings... only on occasion you are reminded by the jerkiness of the mouse during conversations with the people of Britannia. The cloud that hides scenery when you set the distance option to 'close' gets in your way by not letting you see a house or other object that should be visible from where your standing. Depending on what I was looking for.. I would adjust the settings to 'far'... so I can get a sense of where I was.

Next, I'm looking at a meeting with Sarah at the Britain boat docks. There I will set sail to Buccaneer's Den and New Magencia. Sail Away!

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