Ultima™ 1+2+3

These games are still enjoyable today. Granted, they are old school when it comes to graphics, however, it's amazing what Lord British did with so little. Start your series with Akalabeth: World of Doom, which is nothing more than something he coded to pass time. Ultima I was a big step up from Akalabeth. Then Ultima II even more so, however, to me it just seemed to be a remake of Ultima I, with the name of the villain changed, but the circumstances and way of defeating the evil very much the same, if not identical. I didn't like the idea of Space travel and lasers mixed in with swords and armour. Ultima III to me was the real start of the series as space and time travel were left behind for knights and chivalry. Ultima II and III are very hard to win because the clues are vague, so if you really want to win without checking out a walkthrough, you'll have to do a lot of "talking" to NPC's, as well as a LOT of wandering, and meditating on things you discover even when you're not playing the game. You have to remember, such was fine for back in the day when there was no internet and no one to help you win the game. Plus game sequels and didn't come out till years later, so you wanted a game that would tide you over till the next release. Check out these trailers for Ultima 2 & 3. https://youtu.be/SODqh4SVsr4 https://youtu.be/7W8kAv3-T08 They just might wet your appetite enough to give them a try!

These games started a whole genre and for that, we can't forget about them. Sure they might not be very good today, with limited interaction, boring combat and a non-existent plot, but these games were amazing when they first came out.

These are brilliant even for today. You really have to use your imagination to picture the chaotic worlds and crate a continuity between each games. The manuals are a great place to start. The worst game in the series ultima 2 can even be fun, but use cheats and patch. Ultima 3 is worth the price alone for being a revolutionary crpg, use patch as well. If your looking for a great place to start the ultima series, this is it.

WIthout a doubt those 3 are very important to the RPG genre. Ultima 1 gave birth to every RPG, Ultima 2 brough more worlds to explore and Ultima 3 brought us a party system which even to this day is still used. I'll make this review short since we will talk about 1st 3 Ultima games which most people call it "The Age Of Darkness" saga. In terms of graphics, Ultima 2 and 3 by default use CGA, while Ultima 1, has been remaded to use EGA graphics. There are patches to update them. In Ultima 3's case, you can patch it up to have VGA with music included, but don't count on rest of em to have any sound besides PC speaker. Gameplay really differs between these games, especially in terms of difficulty. Ultima 1 is what i consider, the easiest of them all, as you can quickly HP back and get it up to 9999 as there is no max HP and increasing stats, along with getting the strongest weapon is very easy to do once you know the trick. Ultima 2 is very difficulty, especially at the beginning. You will die a lot if you don't have any guide with you, despite playing nearly the same with some differences. Both battles take place differently depending on where you are. In a dungeon, fights in both games are from 1st person perspective cept the outside. Ultima 3 on the other hand is different. It uses party/class/race system which affects your stats, equipment and available spells. Unlike Ultima 1 and 2 in terms of battle in overworld or dungeons. All of em take place in a separate grid-based screen where everyone can do only one action in each turn. The game also promotes you to explore, talk, search and discover secrets in order to make progress. It also brought max HP system, which you increase it by visiting Lord British in each level up. As for stats, you have to find and visit the shrines to increased it....not without the cash of course. If you are curious how it all began, give it a good shot. Just remember that Ultima 2 will give you a huge pain in the butt without a guide.

Wer heute die original Ultima-Trilogie auspackt muss sich zunächst an wenig Farben und altbackene Grafik gewöhnen, untermalt von vom gepiepse des guten alten PC Speaker. Wen das noch nicht abschreckt, der landet nach einer spartanischen Charaktergenerierung plötzlich auf einer Oberweltkarte, die frei erkundet werden will. Diese Oberwelt erinnert nicht von ungefähr an JRPGs, war doch Ultima zusammen mit Wizardry die Blaupause für asiatischer Rollenspiel und Monsterdesign. Wer sich in das Abenteuer wagt, wird zunächst erstaunt sein, wie groß die Welt von Ultima ist. Erstreckt sich Teil 1 bereits über 4 Inseln mit je 2 Schlössern, 8 Städte, und 9 Dungeons. Wobei die Dungeons alle aus einem festgelegtes Layout mit zufällig generierten Hindernissen bestehen und immer 10 Ebenen tief sind. Teil 2 legt hier noch etwas zu indem es die Erde als Karte in unterschiedlichen Zeitzonen bietet. Teil 3 nimmt sich im Umfang der Welt wieder etwas zurück, verzichtet dafür aber auf zufällig generierte Dungeons. Aus heutiger Sicht sind diese 3 Urväter des Computer-Rollenspiel sicher nicht die zugänglichsten, woran auch die Steuerung über Tastenkürzel schuld ist. Wer sich aber ran wagt, erhält 3 Kult-Spiele, mit eher niedrigem Schwierigkeitsgrad, die man gemütlich in je 1-2 Abenden meistern kann und die einen auch heute überraschen können. Und wer sich dennoch an der Präsentation stört, der kann ja mal ins Ultima-Modding-Rabbithole einsteigen und den alten Klassikern eine Frischzellenkur verpassen.