Ultima I,II and III reviews

Recently I reviewed the first three games in the Ultima series on gamespot. Now I review games based on modern standards so that explains the poor scores the games received. I will post the reviews here for your reading pleasure:


ULTIMA I (PC)

The first official game in the Ultima series.

OVERALL: 6.1 (FAIR)

Gameplay

7

Graphics

3

Sound

2

Value

2

Tilt

10

• Difficulty: Easy
• Learning Curve: 0 to 30 Minutes
• Time played: 40 to 100 Hours

"Old-school"

Ultima I is the first official game in the Ultima series. It is a rather straightforward action rpg, sort of like Diablo but 10 or 15 years earlier. Gamespot states that the PC version of Ultima was released in 1980 but that is a mistake; Ultima was first released in 1980 for the Apple II and the Atari 8-Bit and was then remade in 1986 for the PC, Commodore 64, MSX and Apple II. So the version I am reviewing now is the 1986 remake for the PC, not the 1980 original which I have never played.

Like I stated earlier the game is incredibly simple. You fight monsters, get money, buy better equipment, fight more monsters, get more money, repeat process. Upon exiting a dungeon in which you have killed monsters you are rewarded with hit points, usually more than you lost inside. You can give money to the numerous kings for hit points. The goal of the game is to reach the evil wizard Mondain and kill him, to do so you need to complete quests given by the king, rescue a princess, engage in space battles and eventually travel through time. The game is sort of a mishmash of styles, containing both classical fantasy and out of place sci-fi elements. The graphics work, they are definitely not impressive today but they still catch the eye somewhat although I may be biased on that point. There is no music, and the sound is limited to footsteps and some sound effects for attacking. The game doesn't hold much value because it is quite short, being easily finished under 10 hours and even under 5 if you know how to play. It is also quite expensive if you wish to buy it on ebay. Don't even think about buying the original boxed version, but you can get the Ultima Collection for $30 to $50 which is the best way you can get your hands on Ultima I. I wouldn't recommend it though, this is a game that will be enjoyed only by those who feel nostalgia towards it. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else. I like it though :)



ULTIMA II (PC)

The second and possibly the worst game in the Ultima series.

OVERALL: 4.0 (POOR)

Gameplay
5

Graphics

2

Sound

1

Value

2

Tilt

6

• Difficulty: Hard
• Learning Curve: 1 to 2 Hours
• Time played: 10 to 20 Hours

"Broken"

The second game in the Ultima series is easily the worst. Ultima I was slightly incomprehensible because of its weird mesh of subjects but Ultima II just totally goes into overdrive. Minax, the apprentice and lover of Mondain whom you killed at the end of Ultima I, is pissed off. She decides to destroy your homeworld...earth. So using the 'timegates' that spawned after the death of Mondain she comes to Earth, causes an holocaust in 2111 or something and then hides at the origin of times thinking she's safe. Obviously she wasn't because at the end you kill her.

Reaching her ain't easy though since this game is so idiotic. First off forget about playing this game as a good guy because you can't, you need to kill guards to get keys and you need keys to solve the game. I don't know if you could steal the keys from the guards though which would not be as bad as killing them. Also the timegates system is quite confusing early on requiring a lot of trial and error before getting a feeling of how to use them. Most of the game is spent wandering around with no clue of what to do, most hints you are given are quite short and cryptic in nature. The game isn't nearly as tightly sewn as the first game, at least in Ultima I you had quests to solve and princesses to save. Here you have no goal except to try and find out what the hell is going on. The game just feels plain random. The dungeons are absolutely useless, you can and will solve the game without ever putting a foot in there. They are also quite confusing unlike the simple dungeons of Akalabeth and Ultima I, so don't even think of trying them out if you're not a cleric (since he has the go down a level and go up a level spells). There's even some invincible monsters running around, specifically an invincible balron in Minax's castle. So Minax ain't the most powerful entity in the game? Okay...

I even think there are some missing hints in the game, or at least some really dubious ones. At one point in the game someone tells you that only the quick sword can kill Minax. Okay, point taken. Then one day during a spree of carnage in which you kill dozens of guards once again you might talk to someone who tells you "Beware! I have a quick blade!" Now tell me, would you make the link between that line and the earlier line? Even if you did, would you know what to do with it? Would you think of giving him 500 gold pieces? I'm telling you this game is RANDOM.

The graphics are not as good as the ones in the Ultima I remake but that's to be expected since UII was released in 1982 compared to 1986 for the remake. The sound is also worse, in fact everything is worse. This is just the worst game in the series by far and no one except masochists should play it.



ULTIMA III (C64)

A game that spawned a genre.

OVERALL: 7.0 (GOOD)

Gameplay

8

Graphics

4

Sound

7

Value

2

Tilt

10

• Difficulty: Hard
• Learning Curve: 0 to 30 Minutes
• Time played: 40 to 100 Hours

"Revolutionary"

Ultima III is often seen as one of the most important games ever. It brought RPG mechanics to a whole new level with party based strategic combat. It's basically the distant ancestor of strategy rpgs. The game is a big leap over its predecessors Ultima I and II who were simpler action rpgs. In Ultima III you create a party of four characters to play as. In structure the game is more similar to Ultima II than Ultima I which is surprising since Ultima I was a superior game. However I think Richard Garriott preferred a free roaming world to a more linear quest based one so he continued in that vein. Fortunately Ultima III is much more interesting than Ultima II and has more of a structure to it which helps keep it interesting. However it still has some weaknesses. The dungeons are a big hassle. In 1983 the technology wasn't yet good enough to allow detailed graphics in dungeon so you're left to wander around in a mess of orange walls. The only things you see in dungeons are orange walls and bright yellow treasure chests. It's not a stimulating sight and since the dungeons are much harder than in Ultima I it's not a pleasing one either. You need to spend a lot of time in the dungeons in this game so I would have liked them to be more interesting. The game also rewards playing as evil rather than good characters which is a bit annoying. Killing guards is the fastest way to gain levels and in some cases the fastest way to gain money. A nice touch now is that you can bribe guards if they are in the way of some information or a couple of treasure chests so you can avoid bloodshed that way.

The commodore 64 version had full music and it was quite impressive too. The only real problem with it is that it's relative brevity; the music loops a bit too much to my liking. The sound effects are still the simple ones found in the earlier games although with some additions. Once again I can't say Ultima III is a good value since it's quite old and expensive if you want to buy it. The Ultima Collection is still your best and cheapest bet. Even if the game is an improvement over Ultima I and II it still is too old and rudimentary to recommend to anyone else but Ultima fans.

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I reviewed the C64 version of Ultima III because I couldn't simply review a game that I played with music and graphic patches. Now that I think about it I played Ultima II with such a patch (graphics only for that one) but it didn't change my view of the game much, the graphics were still ugly. But the patches changed the PC version of Ultima III a lot and I think a review should be based on the original version of a game and not a subsequently modified one, thus I chose to review the C64 one which already has music from the get go.

The time played stat also encompasses the time I spent on those games as a kid, that's why it's so high.

Hope you enjoyed them!