Ultima VII

[Stampede]

You damned kids and your 3d silicone graphics. Spoiled for choice with a plethora of Medal of Honour clones and hollow MMORPGS. BAH! Eye candy. You think Final Fantasy is a good RPG? It's rubbish.

 

Morrowind is ambitious, but flawed as we all know, Oblivion seeks to remedy these flaws and fill the gaps. In the meantime, folks wanting single player RPGs have had to endure PUKE, like Dungeon Lords and linear affair still based on the Baldurs Gate formula.

 

In 1993 Ultima VII was released, with everything that is missing from decent RPGs these days.

 

Full NPC schedules

 

They would wake up, eat breakfast (either at home or in the pub) and they would actually eat. They would place food on the plate and stuff it in their greedy peasant mouths. In the pub, they would call the waitress and place their orders.

 

They worked the fields, bakers would make pastries and bread (with actual ingredients) Tailors would make clothes, blacksmiths would smith swords...

 

Unique NPCs with familes

 

The only NPCs that were cloned were the enemies. Every citizen had their own face, their own story, their own house. Many also had wives, husbands and children. Some would even get a change of dialogue if their loved ones died.

 

NPCs could adventure with you

 

I hate having companions in Morrowind, they're damned idiots. All they do is slow me down or become Daedra fodder. In Ultima VII, your companions were actually USEFUL and there was a wide choice. You could arm them as you wished...but you also had to make sure there was enough food for everyone in the party. Also, if you upset them too much, they would either *censored* off or attempt to kill you.

 

You could do anything you want!

 

Wanna steal? Wanna murder? You could even get arrested and break out of jail. You could have a sex with prostitutes, hell you could screw someone of the same sex if that was your fancy. (In Ultima VI as well)

You could gamble, buy a horse, buy a ship...bake bread, paint pictures, hunt....and pick up anything you wanted.

 

I could go on and on. My point is, I just don't understand why people can settle for such rubbish rpgs these days...unless they never played Ultima VII. Don't let developers fool you that they are BREAKING new grounds. It was all done before.

 

Oh, Gothic also gets an admirable mention.

 

The good news is that the guys at Bethesda have been influenced highly by Ultima VII, smart men...and by the sounds of things I will soon be having a new favourite rpg.

[Malchik]

Hi Stampede, you've been away for a while!

 

I am a great fan of Ultima 7, the only game I played with any regularity before Morrowind. I especially liked the second part, Serpent Isle. (I did not like U8 so much and have yet to play U9.) U7 requires you to be more cerebral than MW with secret doors and hidden keys etc and teleportation puzzles. The only downside was that the quests were linear. MW is better in that department though it would score even higher in my books if the quests weren't so repetitive.

 

I agree that companions in MW tend to be useless. However there are mods that are more imaginative (Emma's for example) where they have characters of their own and can behave strangely if you offend them. There is also a mod that enables same-gender sexual congress if that rocks your boat

 

There are also a number of good quest based mods out there that are better than many of the original MW quests. I put a pinned thread in spoilers where several have been reviewed. If you haven't played any I could recommend a couple.

 

But the more the good points of the Ultima series that are added to MW the better as far as I am concerned.

[Stampede]

Hi Stampede, you've been away for a while!

 

Yeah...sorry about that. I was washing my hair.

 

 

A word of advice, keep your memories of Ultima as fond as they are by staying away from IX. It is quite possible the worst game I have ever played. Imagine ALL your favourite things about Ultima...now, take all of that out and you will have Ultima IX.

 

Serpent Isle was much more linear than Ultima VII...I did enjoy the interactions between yourself and your party, but I was pretty disappointed. Definite shades of Ultima VIII there I thought.

 

Haha same gender procreation does not rock my boat, but I discovered it by accident in Ultima VI after typing a profanity to a gypsy. (True story)

 

I am always looking for good MW quests and mods...but so many of them have awful bloody typos and lazy Kit work...it scares me.

[Switch]

Stampede! Haha, I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever see you again. ^^ Nice to see you're still around.

 

I can't say I've played Ultima VII... the fact I'm on Windows XP and have no idea where I could get VII are rather large obstacles... I could use DOSBox I guess, but to be honest I'm kinda put off trying it! I like the sound of the features of it (well besides that whole same gender procreation thing ;)) but... it's stupid I know, the fact that it uses 2D graphics/animations makes it sound less exciting to me. Must be the whole Generation X thing rotting my brain. :P Still, hopefully I'll be able to get myself to try it one of these days. ^^

[Stampede]

Ha Switch, I thought of our gaming chats the whole time I made this thread.

 

Most good abandonware sites have Ultima VII, ran with no trouble at all in Dosbox.

[alternator]

Am I allowed to say 'I agree' hehe.

 

I played it several years after it was released as I only went to the PC in 96 so it ran a bit fast. But damn it was awesome, I think I managed to go into every dungeon in the game and loot the lot, I found the two keys to the hoe of destruction (it took me hours rummaging through that garbage to find that damn key), I had 7 treasure chests I found in random locations sitting on my flying carpet I never could find the keys to some of those :( ... Towards the end I just decided to load up one of my pirate ships with all the loot I found, strand my companions on an island because they kept whining about me not feeding them and I sail the seas.

 

Ultima 7 is the best experience I have ever had playing probably any game ever (it manages to edge out ultima 4 and 5 just because of the better engine). And I have been playing games since the mid 80s so got to enjoy a lot of the classics!

A lot of games today wish they had the same kind of class or enjoyment factor (some do have that), it is why I love Morrowind (and I like Oblivion too), not many mainstream rpgs seem to follow the Ultima 7 style of rpg.

[horst23]

I totally feel the same about U7 as alternator. This game had it all. I hope that the "Monkey Island"-revival will spread across the gaming scene and that there will be a U6 & U7 I&II remake. The original game using new graphics.

[Rethrain]

Amen to that, Stampede. U7 and U7 part two indoctrinated me into the RPG genre back in early '90s. I remember my companions would chide me at times when I stole, it was great. U8's story wasn't bad, actually it was quite good, it failed in it's execution, however. I don't know how I finished Pagan, but I managed somehow.

[evilneko]

I banish you to the world of Pagan!

 

No one here knows of the... Avatar.

 

:devil:

 

I'm gonna have to go get U7. U8 was the only one I ever even attempted playing.

[overload1977]

you know having tryed all the Ultima games i never got into them.... there was always better game out there to play online / offline rpgs...... oh well