The Forgotten PC Games 07.03.08: A Tribute to the Ultima Series
Posted by Chris Vicari on 07.03.2008
The Ultima series is the most famous and influential RPG series ever created. From the genius mind of Richard Garriot, we have the opportunity to explore the beautiful world of Sosaria along with the lands of Britannia.
The Ultima series has stood the test of time for nearly 30 years. What started as a simple RPG in 1980 from an unknown company called California Pacific Computer Co. and eventually Origin Systems Inc. several years later, the Ultima franchise eventually became the biggest and most influential RPG series to date. With over 20 games including spinoffs and expansions for the MMORPG dedicated to the series, Ultima Online,Ultima is a household name for many RPG fans and fanatics alike. From the minds of Richard Garriott, a.k.a. Lord British, and his constituents, they were able to craft mesmerizing stories littered with heroes, villains and monsters in a land called Britannia. Ultima has contributed so much to the RPG genre that it is nearly unfathomable to think what it would be like if the franchise hadn't existed.
Regrettably the series had its fair share of low points. Some games were easily forgettable while others were buggy as Hell and forced into release, but the series remained strong regardless. While no other Ultima games are slotted for production anytime soon as Garriot has moved onto NCSoft for Tabula Rasa, what we're left with are games which are truly iconic and will be remembered for many, many years to come.
The entire Ultima universe in all its glory.
Spanning Across the Ages
The main series itself consists of nine different games which are then grouped into sets called "Ages". Each game plays a part in an overarching story and the games are not separate entities in regards to their plotlines.
The Age of Darkness
Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness (1980)
In Ultima I, an evil wizard named Mondain is vying for control over Sosaria, which is the name of the world that the continent of Britannia is in. Using his gem of immortality, an artifact that grants him eternal life and the ability to summon endless hordes of monsters, Mondain is slowly consuming the world with this evil taint. Lord British, ruler of Britannia, realizes that Sosaria is in desperate need of hero and summons an unknown hero named "The Stranger". The only way to effectively defeat Mondain is to go back in time and destroy the gem of immortality before it is finished.
The game itself is portrayed in a topdown view and the dungeons utilize an isometric, first person viewpoint. Like any other RPG, you start the game off by creating your character and have a selection of various races and classes. You can be a Human, Elf, Dwarf or a Bobbit (think Frodo) and can be a fighter, cleric, wizard and thief. Typical RPG flair, but it's one of the games to start it all. Combat is fairly simplistic, but that's to be expected from a game that came out so long ago. Spells are one use only and are purchased from stores, melee combat is just bashing the enemy into a bloody pulp.
What a long way we've come
According to an article by Matt Barton on Gamasutra, Ultima I is considered an important turning point for the development of the RPG genre and was one of the first definitive commercial computer RPGs ever. I believe him.
Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress (1982)
After Mondain's defeat in Ultima I, his lover, Minax, seeks revenge against the Stranger. Following the same suit as the original, the hero must travel through time to kill her, but instead of traversing Sosaria, you are on a futuristic Earth using futuristic weapons. This may seem odd at first, but the first game also used some advanced technology to some extent. Lauded for its graphical improvements over the original, but viewed by fans as a simple rehash, it is considered as the weakest of the series.
Ultima III: Exodus (1983)
Once again the lands of Sosaria are threatened by evil and tyrannical forces, but this time the threat is the offspring of Minax and Mondain, a demonic entity known as Exodus. The Stranger is also summoned again by Lord British to face Exodus in his lair on the Isle of Fire. Thankfully this game does away with most of the futuristic stuff and takes place in mostly a medieval time period. Some new firsts to the genre came with this game such as the ability to control a party of heroes and multiple-enemy combat requiring tactics and preparation. The graphics also received a huge revamp and were the best for its time.
While minor, the improvements are very obvious.
Ultima III was Origin Systems Inc. first game ever and it received the "Adventure Game of the Year" award in 1985 from Computer Gaming World. Cited as being one of the most influential games ever made, Exodus became a smash hit and it helped lay the foundations for RPGs everywhere, influencing games such as Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy.
The Age of Enlightenment
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (1985)
The world of Sosaria is very different this time around. Three quarters of the world sank into the ocean and only Britannia remains. Once again he calls upon a hero of the virtues to help save his people from unhappiness and restore their spiritual well-being. Ultima IV was drastically different from its predecessors in that instead of battling evil wizards and demons, the game focused more on your character's development in the eight virtues. Now named the Avatar instead of the Stranger, the potential hero must become a spiritual leader of the realm and save the people.
New to the table is the introduction of the classic Ultima character creation process performed by answering a series of questions. NPC interaction is also much more intuitive as NPCs can respond to a variety of questions rather than just spewing the same thing over and over. Moral choices can also be made which affect your progress in specific virtues.
Ultima IV scored #2 of Computer Gaming World's Best Games of All Time list in 1996 and the game's designer, Richard Garriot, has said this is one of his favorite games in the series.
Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (1988)
Lord British has been kidnapped when traversing the Underworld and an evil ruler named Lord Blackthorn has taken his place on the throne. The Shadowlords, iconic villains of the series along with Blackthorn, are ravaging the countryside and destroyed much in their path. The Avatar is summoned back to Britannia and they form a band of heroes called the Warriors of Destiny and try to restore save Lord British before the land is corrupted forever.
Ultima V was a vast important over its predecessors in several areas such as writing, graphics and gameplay. There was a time-of-day system and the NPCs had a daily routine similar to Fable but far less intuitive.
Ultima VI: The False Prophet (1990)
It's now a war against the gargoyles as they have captured the shrines of the eight virtues and even attempted to sacrifice the Avatar before he was saved by the Warriors of Destiny. Britannia is under siege and the Avatar and his party must do all they can to take it back.
Once again improvements have been made as time has passed from the fifth game and also many firsts came with this game as well. When conversing with other characters, a portrait of them was shown on the screen and even voice acting was implemented, in a future release of the game anyway. Towns ad dungeons were integrated into the main map and do not change viewpoints when entering specific areas. Developed specifically for the PC gaming platform rather than the Apple II, Ultima VI featured VGA graphics, mouse support, music and sounds for clashing swords, magic and explosions.
The Age of Armageddon
Ultima VII: The Black Gate (1992)
Developed in a two parts The Black Gate and eventually Ultima VII, Part Two: Serpent Isle in 1993, the stories are somewhat separate entities despite the "Part Two" in the title. In The Black Gate, the Avatar is goaded into a deceptive plan with a seemingly virtuous organization named the Fellowship to create a gateway for an evil entity known as the Guardian to enter Britannia. Learning of this trickery, the Avatar defeats the Fellowship and sets his sights on the founder of the organization, an individual named Batlin in Part Two. Fleeing to a lost remnant of a Sosarian continent called Serpent Isle the Avatar and his compatriots pursue Batlin to the island where he is defeated and party finally confronts the Guardian.
While every game in the serious has improved upon its predecessors in a variety of aspects, The Black Gate set the bar very high as it changed nearly everything about the original games. The first and most notable change was the shift away from a tile or grid-based scheme to a more fluid graphical interface and was multi-layered. Characters weren't confined to move in squares, but could move in every direction seamlessly. This was the first game in the series to be entirely mouse-driven and had a number of keyboard hotkeys for easier playability. The game also was the first to introduce gumps which if you've played Ultima Online you'll know exactly what these are. These menus are on-screen representations of containers such as backpacks, chests and drawers. Players can also drag and drop items into these containers for storage and future use. Also a future Ultima staple is the paper doll concept where equipping weapons and armor is dragged onto a visual representation of the character and you can see how he looks while wearing it. Combat also received a major revamp as it was all handled in real time and each party member was controlled by its own AI.
Ultima staples are finally being introduced.
According to Garriot, The Black Gate was one of his favorite games out of the whole series. In an interview with Gamespot, he was quoted saying, "[Ultima VII] was the most masterfully executed of the Ultima series." What's funny is that as time goes on, these games look more and more like Ultima Online.
Ultima VIII: Pagan (1994)
Pagan is one of the few games rejected by its fan base and Richard Garriott blames the game's faults due to a forced development timetable by Electronic Arts (uh oh and here we go!). Ultima VIII like every other game in the series, carries on the story which began in previous games. After the hero and the Warriors of Destiny face the Guardian on Serpent Isle, he banishes the Avatar to a world called Pagan. The world of Pagan is a land ravaged by an eternal war between the Elemental Titans and the evil Destroyer. Once the Titans won, the people of Pagan were forced into spiritual submission and had to worship these Titans as gods. To get back to Britannia, the Avatar must destroy the Titans and reconstruct the black gate to return home.
For some reason many aspects which made Ultima quite unique for its time were completely removed or reduced in this one. The party system reverted back to the single hero scenario, battle returned to pure hack and slash and the world was much smaller than previous incarnations. Those were some of the major steps backwards and there were many more. While future patches helped fix some of the major issues with the game, it was far too late to save the game's already scarred reputation.
Ultima IX: Ascension (1999)
The final game in this long and epic saga, but it's sadly the most loathed. After the events on Pagan, the Avatar has to fight the Guardian one final time upon the lands of Britannia, which has been utterly corrupted along with the Runes of Virtue. Much controversy arose when this game was first released due to the large amount of bugs, the insane system requirements and of course, EA decided to stick their little noses into the development process and forced the Devs to release the game no matter what state it was in. Let me inject my completely biased opinion into this by saying that EA can burn in Hell.
Despite its superb graphical qualities, it wasn't enough for the fans to embrace the game. Yet again several key design aspects which made Ultima, well Ultima, were removed. The world was much smaller than in original games, not to mention that most of it was restricted until the player completes certain parts of the quest. There aren't many links back to previous games and fighting also resorted to a one-click ad-infinitum snorefest. While Ultima IX delivered on its graphics and sound quality, it definitely wasn't enough and it didn't really feel like a true Ultima game.
Superior graphics didn't save this game from eternal damnation.
What a shame really as it was the last game to ever be developed in the wonderful lands of Britannia.
Looking back
Despite a few sour apples out of the bunch, the series is definitely one of the best and most influential ever created. Simple as that. You can't study the history of RPGs without first talking about Ultima. Of course, it's just one stepping stone towards the current form of RPGs and we all know we have to give credit towards Mr. Gygax as he was the one who truly started it all. Maybe one day we'll see an Ultima X that will revitalize the entire series, but until then, the only thing we can do is hope and play these old classics for years to come. Thanks to DosBox and numerous fan-based remakes, that is more possible than ever.
Why didn't you talk about Ultima Underworld or Ultima Online?
Ultima Online will receive its own column as there is far too much there to warrant just a couple of paragraphs. I played that game for nearly eight years and I could write a book about that game. In regards to Ultima Underworld, you'll see that in an upcoming column in the category of famous dungeon runners.
