Tag: Ultima Series

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3 out of 5 C64 RPG

Ultima 3

Publisher: Origin Systems

Designer: Richard Garriott

Type: Roleplaying

Platform: Various

Release Date: 1983

Rating:

Once again, the Ultima series takes a slightly different turn. Well, first of all, the game has moved away from a single character to where you now have to create a party of characters so be able to solve the game. Also, combat moves into a specific combat screen where you fight against your opponents, which makes it somewhat better than the previous games where you would run around the world trying to escape all of the nasties. Also, one really interesting thing is that you can choose one of three genders, that being male, female, or other (though the choice doesn’t do much). Oh, and there happens to be this race called a Fuzzy, but I have no idea what it is supposed to be.

So, it looks like you haven’t quite finished your job yet because even though Mondain and Minax have both been killed, it seems as if they have left their computer, Exodus, running. Okay, this isn’t quite like the computer that you happen to be using to read this review, but other it is some sort of supercomputer with some hugely impressive AI component that is controlling a world full of nasty monsters. Anyway, your job is to turn it off, and if you think that it just involves pulling the plug, well, it is a little more difficult than that.

I did eventually manage to complete this game, but I can’t say that it was one of my favourites. I guess it is sort of that type of game that straddles the earlier releases, which are sort of a breakthrough, and the really outstanding games that are to come. Though, another interesting thing is seeing what they took, and what they happened to have left behind when they moved onto the next project. For instance, it seems as if creating a party yourself was eventually dropped in the next iteration.

Still, this was a fun game, even if it didn’t quite reach the accolades of some of the others. It was difficult, but not too difficult, but then again that seemed to be the case with a lot of these roleplaying games, where the early part is really hard, but once your characters reach a certain point, then things start to get a little easier. Still, it was fun when I played it, especially with the fact that the whole purpose of the game is to turn off a computer.

Anyway, you can find details about this game on Wikipedia (which shouldn’t surprise anybody), but there are also entries on this game on the Ultima fandom page, as well as on the c64 wiki page. Oh, and if you want a walkthrough, there is one on the Ultima codex.

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4 out of 5 C64 RPG

Ultima 2

Publisher: Origin Systems/Sierra On-Line

Designer: Richard Garriott

Type: Roleplaying Game

Platform: Various

Release Date: 1982

Rating: undefined

This is one of those games that requires a lot of imagination to appreciate how great it actually is. Initially, when I was playing it (and ironically I got if off a truckie that happened to live just down the road from me) I would just keep on dying, but after years of perseverance, I actually managed to kill Minax, who happens to be hiding in the realm known only as the Realm of Legends (though I suspect that in later versions it would become Britannia).

So, you start off in the modern world, and it appears that these gates have appeared and monsters are all pouring out. Yes, you play the game on Earth, and there are these gates (which also appear in later games as well) that allow you to travel to different time periods. The date of the game shows us the feeling at the time as we end up at a point where the Earth has been destroyed by Nuclear War. However, you can also travel to the distant past, the ancient world, and of course the land of legends.

If that isn’t enough, you can also go to outer space where you visit each of the planets in our solar system (actually, you have to do that to complete the game, though you will need fuel for the rocket which, not surprisingly, lies at the bottom of the dungeons). Yeah, there are dungeons as well, and you can complete the game without actually going into any of them, but as I mentioned in a side remark, you may need to to get fuel for your rocket.

Honestly, while the game, and the gameplay, really isn’t all that great (it was made in 1982), the story behind it, and the concept, is actually pretty awesome. In fact, I don’t think I have found any other games with a similar storyline, though they are probably out there.

Well, not surprisingly, Wikipedia has an entry for this game, since it is pretty popular, and quite well known. You can also find details of this game on one of the Ultima Wikis. Oh, and Moby Games also has an entry, though it isn’t anywhere near as detailed. If you are looking for a walkthrough, you can find one here.

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3 out of 5 RPG

Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness

Publisher: Origin Systems

Designer: Richard Garriot

Type: Roleplaying

Platform: Various

Release Date: 1981

Rating:

As you can probably discern from the title, this was the very first of the Ultimas, a game that ended up not only spawning eight sequels, several offshoots, and one of the first MMORPGs. So, this one takes up right back to the beginning where we can experience what it was like to actually play a computer roleplaying game back in the early eighties, and it certainly does have quite a lot of charm about it, even if it might not be on the scale of Skyrim.

Well, considering that it was originally released on an 8-bit machine, we certainly can’t expect Skyrim, but then again, for its time, it certainly did break a lot of boundaries. In fact, you had a quest, which differs from a lot of the other games at the time, which just involved you descending into dungeons and killing as many monsters as possible until you died. No, this one you had to go on a quest to kill a powerful mage.

The game involved you travelling over multiple continents, visiting multiple towns, and descending into multiple dungeons, mostly to build up your power so that you could then go and deal with that really nasty mage that you are supposed to kill. It was fun when I played it, and it certainly did steal hours of my life back when I was a teenager.

I guess, as I mentioned, it is certainly not something that you could hold up to modern games, but it is great to see what it was like back in the day. Oh, and the game was initially a top-down view, but that changed when you entered the dungeons. This was a format that the game used for most of its sequels, at least until Ultima 6 (as far as I’m aware).

Anyway, not surprisingly, this game appears on Wikipedia (something a a number of other games haven’t managed to do, which probably says a lot about that particular game). Also, I have discovered two wikias from Ultima – the Codex of Editable Wisdom, and the Ultima Codex. Of course, there are plenty of walkthroughs as well, of which this is one.

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