Since we opened up this topic publicly....
Ultima 1 didn't show up until 1980 (not 1978). But its predecessor,
Akalabeth, was started in 1979...and both of them were a HUGE leap in
technology. Starting with Akalabeth, you had a first-person dungeon
crawl...this carried over into future Ultima dungeon portions of the game.
It basically looked like Wizardry, which (for some reason) is generally
associated with the black and white first-person perspective. However,
Richard Garriott did it 2 years earlier. This is a huge innovation for the
time.
Ultima II had absolutely great NPCs that really brought the world to life.
It also had the "moongates," which allowed you to teleport across the world
once you figured out how their appearance and disappearance (timed to the
moons cycles) affected them. This also helped make the world seem alive.
Ultima III continued the excellent story and NPC tradition of Ultima, and it
added a tactical combat system, which I absolutely loved.
I think you've covered most of the highs and lows of the rest. A lot of
people I've spoken with consider Ultima V to be the best in the series, but
I personally like IV the best.
Hugh
-----Original Message-----
From: Pedro Quaresma [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2001 12:12 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Ultimas (was: Infocom games' boxes)
Jim Leonard wrote:
>Pedro Quaresma wrote:
[snip]
> The two things that Ultimas did better than *all* other RPGs were:
> -> World interaction (this includes NPC interaction)
> -> Storyline and plot
>
> The first one is self-explanatory. The interactions with the NPCs are far
> more interesting and detailed than in any other RPG. NPCs have a life and
> personality of their own, a face (extremely important), habits, and good
> conversations, starting mainly with U6.
> Also, the interaction with the world was great. In U6, you can pick up
> almost everything. In U7, you can even reap corn, make wheat, bake bread
on
> the oven...
>That's only U6-7.
The world is very "interacteable" even in U4 and U5. And the NPC
interaction is absolutely terrific for those days
> About storyline, well, I assume you have never played Ultima 4, probably
> considered by most the best RPG in history (not my favorite, so I'm not
> biased here... not even Tom's favorite, and IIRC not Stephen's favorite,
> but it was indeed a masterpiece)
>That's only U4.
Ultima 6 brings back also a great storyline, without, again, a "kill
foozle" ending.
It basically reminds the player that we're all equal, even if different,
and we should have the same rights and obligations.
Ultima 7 also had many XXth century "features" hidden in the game, like
sects, blind governments, corruption, etc. Maybe too many, which is
probably the main reason why I've started not to like it as much as I
would.
I'll leave Ultima 5 for Tom ;)
>I'm really more concerned why people think the series is the best ever
when
>there are really only 3 standouts.
Not standouts. Masterpieces.
>U1 is okay; U2-U3 and U5 are pretty much
>throwaways;
You don't understand. U1 was made in 1978, there was _nothing_ like that in
those days! It was absolutey fantastic! You look at several RPGs from the
following years and they all look copycats.
And none of them had spacetravelling! ;)
>U8 was rife with platform stuff ("Super Avatar Bros."), and U9 was
>an utter train wreck from a technology standpoint.
OK, they were both crappy. U8 is not too bad with the automatic-jumping
patch, but not good either.
Ultima 7 Serpent Isle was also very good, due to the fact that the plot
left you on your toes (there was always something unexpected happening).
>So I feel like I'm missing
>something. U4, U6, and U7 are indeed excellent games, but the best RPG
series
>*ever*? I don't think you can apply that label to *any* RPG series.
Of course, "best RPG series ever" is probably too much. But "best RPG
series in the history of mankind so far" is probably more accurate! ;)
Seriously now, do you know any other saga with at least 3 masterpieces,
that has lasted for 23 years? (And with such fantastic market value?
$10000+ for an Akalabeth, $1250 for a CPC advertisement, $1000 for an
Akalabeth CPC floppy only...)
--
http://www.MobyGames.com/
The world's most comprehensive gaming database project.
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Pedro R. Quaresma
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