Ultima™ 7 The Complete Edition

This is going to be a very unpopular review, but I would rather be honest: I didn't like it. To put my review in perspective: I started playing PC games in 1998 and these days I'm probably a casual gamer - I hate micro management and overly complicated rulesets and gameplay mechanics. I want games to be easy to learn, hard to master, not the other way around. I played this game only for the first few hours, after which I gave up. The game has, in my opinion, very clunky and cumbersome controls. I guess drag and drop was all the rage back in the early nineties, but dragging items around with the mouse cursor instead of the player character doing it feels wrong and breaks the immersion for me. It might be fitting for a God simulator like Black & White, but not for an RPG. It is way too easy to steal stuff with this mechanic: As long as the victim doesn't look at the player characters and as long as the item is transferred to one of the companions, you can steal stuff from under people's noses without repercussions. This also breaks immersion for me. The story might be great (I wouldn't know), but it is told in the most boring way. You travel around and listen to people ramble on and on about their private lives and belief system. The fighting is abysmal, like the poor man's Diablo. But apparently this game isn't about fighting anyway. I think the game expects you to explore its world a lot, which I don't have the patience for, but others might like it and relish the freedom to do crazy things like bake bread. I appreciate that this game might have been groundbreaking in 1992, but I don't find that it holds up well today. Of course this is a very personal review (as every review is), so if you like to learn clunky mechanics and rules, don't mind slow storytelling, rambling NPCs, a lot of wandering around and immersion-breaking, old-fashioned gameplay mechanics, or just like player freedomin an open world, maybe you'd enjoy this game, but I certainly did not.

SUMMARY: A murder investigation leads to a much deeper plot with multiple connection points that keeps you engaged throughout. I played this in my childhood and again in my 30s and it has held up as one of the greatest RPGs ever created. PROS: + The story is hands down incredibly done. The main plot branches off into multiple sub-plots that tie together seamlessly. + The visual graphics and MIDI music are - for their time - beautiful. + The NPC behavior is unique. You will find each one in different locations based on the time of day and they all have something unique to say. + The dialogue requires a lot of reading, but it's wonderful story telling. + The world is vast and has plenty to discovery - even by today's standards. + This game is massive!! NEUTRAL = The graphics can feel a bit dated unless you use some mods (see my note on Exult below). = This is not a linear story. You have to pay attention, take notes, and be engaged throughout. It's easy to forget an important clue that someone said and then not know how to proceed, so make sure you pay attention! CONS - If you don't like to read, then maybe avoid this game. EXULT ENHANCEMENTS I recommend people play Ultima 7 using Exult. It works perfectly with the GOG install on Win or Mac and allows you to scale up resolutions (don't go too large less you want to cheat), apply different shaders, enhance the music, and even mod the world and cheat if you want to. I don't recommend cheating because the game is that enjoyable, but that's up to you! I also recommend installing the Keyring mod for Forge of Virtue / Black Gate (to reduce key clutter) and the Serpent Isle Fixes to patch outstanding bugs and incomplete elements from the original game.

This edition combines Black Gate and Serpent Isle. They are both Ultima 7, that is true, yet they are entirely different gaming experiences. What does Black Gate offer you? Black Gate is the game that people think of when they talk about Ultima 7. It has a big world. You can go anywhere you want, do whatever you want. All the npc's have unique place in the world, they all have lives, they all do something. It's almost like a proto-Skyrim experience, right? In a way. It is telling that when you read the design documents of Ultima 7, you see how the designers focus on creating a virtual world - by filling it with believable people. All the npc's in this game are stories. You are expected to experience those stories. The game expects the player to be enamoured with the idea of talking with people, following their lives, learning about their unique perspective on the world... the stories are sometimes quite touching, many of the character's have very interesting things to say. What it doesn't offer? Exciting combat. This wasn't the goal of the designers. It isn't Might and Magic, it isn't Wizardry. It's a game where you bake bread and think on the human condition. What does Serpent Isle offer you? A narrative-driven top-down puzzle game. It's one of the most unique and brilliant games I've ever played in my life. What do you do? You mostly search for secret doors, keys and levers. But you do it in a world filled with rich and complex characters. You want to know what secrets people are hiding from you! That is what makes searching for levers and keys so interesting in this game. The characters are all involved in the narrative, and what SI pulls off very brilliantly, is the feeling of the world moving along with your actions. Whereas BG is a collection of short stories that you experience at your own leisure, SI is one grand drama with many characters. SI is much more melancholy experience, because the theme of the narrative is decay and chaos.

Wow. There’s a lot to say about this game. It can be hard to believe that a 30 year old game can make 50 hours feel like 5 mins, but that’s exactly what’s happened with The Black Gate. The world building and storyline are unparalleled, even today. Playing the previous titles isn’t required, as the game does a good job of introducing characters and immersing you in the world and current events. The story begins with a murder investigation and becomes so much more as you uncover the sinister happenings behind the scenes. The gameplay is incredibly sandbox. Whereas in modern titles, crafting a weapon or potion entails sifting through various menus, The Black Gate is fully interactive. It involves actually hammering heated steel in order to forge a blade, combining water with flour to make dough, and setting up glassware to make a potion. There’s even a location where you can gamble with various mini games. If I have any criticisms, it’s that the combat is a bit janky and the inventory is a complete mess. But these are small complaints completely outweighed by the rest of the game.

For being called "Role Playing Games", they're awfully restrictive sometimes, don't you think? Don't you wish you could just wander around and do what you wanted? That's pretty much how Ultima VII rolls. You want to steal everything that's not nailed down and make your hideout in the woods? Go for it. Want to buy every ship deed in the game and sail the seas? Go for it. Want to steal a cannon and burglarize the Royal Mint? You're free to. Modern RPGs could learn a thing or two from the freedom of Ultima VII.