Ultima™ 8 Gold Edition

As many people here have said, this would have been an excellent game if it were given a different name. As an action RPG, it works quite well, and is groundbreaking in the genre. As a follow-up to the role playing classic Ultima VII, however, it is extremely disappointing. It is not without merit, however. Here is a look at some of the bad and some of the good features of the game, starting with bad. -No more party- The Avatar's companions were an important part of the Ultima experience from IV-VII, and their banter was often funny and usually entertaining. They became like old friends. This game goes back to I-III and the Underworlds with a lone adventurer. -No more portraits- Character portraits were added in VI and kept in VII but abandoned here and in IX. -No more day/night cycle- In Pagan, it is the same all the time. No weather, no day/night, just the same dark palette. -Less interactivity- This game is more along the lines of Diablo and the like, with the Avatar basically just walking around, talking to people, and fighting. No more baking bread, etc. -Arcade elements- With no more resurrection, these arcade elements move the player away from strategy and role playing to relying on arcade eye-hand coordination. Ultima doesn't work well as an arcade game. -Barely detectable traps- Don't be surprised if the avatar suddenly falls into lava and dies. While there are cracks in the ground as a "warning", too many of these are hard to see. -Water of death- although The Avatar managed to flail around after dropped into the water, any other contact with water means instant death. -no resurrection- when The Avatar is killed , a tombstone appears and you need to go to a save or start over completely. -No choice in Avatar traits. The Avatar is always a male character with a tin can on his head. There is no way to choose a female or choose features. These are just a few, given as an example. Now for the good things: -The game has an interesting story, if you are able to survive through it. -Your actions have consequences in the world, and you are constantly tested; The Avatar is often forced to test his virtues. -Psychedelic mushrooms- When the world gets too depressing, The Avatar can briefly forget his problems by tripping on 'shrooms. -Good action sequences- The game has no lack of action and some intense sequences. -Plot twists- There are quite a few interesting plot twists in the game's story. There are more, but these are an example of some of the games virtues. Overall, to enjoy the game, try not to think of it as a cardinal Ultima, but just as an action RPG with some characters and situations suggestive of Ultima. This may have worked as a side project, like the Nintendo Ultima Runes of Virtue games, but as a main Ultima it misses the mark. Still it is well worth $6.

I have played all Ultimas starting from 4. I LOVED Ultima VII the black gate (much more than Serpent Isle) and those games have a special place in my heart. I was in my teens, I had to get a computer that had to be good enough to play them and had no money :). I had to tackle with exe and bat file to enable memory and sound.... Good old games indeed :) I know Ultima VIII has been criticized, despised... well I actually LOVE it. Forget the jumps (that at some point were fixed and became much easier), forget the messy inventory... and abandon yourself to the gourgeous atmosphere. From the intro sequence to the end you are immersed in a brand new world, with its history, its details, its problems, its mysteries. It falls perfectly into the Guardian trilogy.... you see a world conquered by the guardian... where the people where tricked even in victory. A whole new world which is as detailed as good old Britannia. And brand new! Rituals, dark places, titans... plots. OMG, I just started playing it again after the download and I was enthralled even after 20 years. Play Ultima VII part 1 and 2 and then go for this one. You will be a bit disappointed in Ultima IX. Not so much for the game itself that offers some interesting places and sights, but for the plot. Which was a total anti climax imho. But this one, get it, play and lose yourself in Pagan's darkness

Although Ultima 8: Pagan collected some bad reviews, it is impossible to argue that it's a very good game. People who criticised it did that based on the fact that it is more an adventure game than a RPG, breaking with the focus in the previous titles, and it may be so. But it is an extraordinary adventure game with touches of RPG. It develops an interesting story set in a fantasy world, not too large (Pagan is an island) but enough to have lots of places to explore, lots of secrets to discover, many enemies to fight and lots of items to experiment with. Moreover, the game has very good looks considering its age (almost twenty years by now). It was one of the first adventure-RPGs I ever played and it's, still, among my favourites. I use to replay it every year or two. If you never played it, seize the opportunity to get a 30-40h game for a meagre $6. If you like adventure-RPGs this is a definitely must play.

I have a soft spot for Ultima 8. It was the first RPG I ever played and the one that got me into the genre. When I first played U8 I had nothing else to compare it to, and so I enjoyed it. Coming back to it decades later I still feel echoes of that enjoyment, but I am no longer blinded to its many, many flaws. Ultima 8 is a bad game, and not just in comparison to its predecessors. Combat is terrible, with even basic enemies requiring far too many hits to kill. It is also pointless because with the exception of the flaming skulls thrown by ghosts, you can just walk past enemies and they will never catch you. The varied magic systems are a great idea hampered by clunky execution. The dungeons, which compromise most of the actual playtime, are dull and hampered by baffling design decisions, like insta-kill collapsing floors that you can't see coming. And then there's the story. Ultima 8 contains the nuggest of an interesting idea - a hero finds himself stranded in a foreign world, Pagan, while his homes (Earth and Brittania) are being assailed by an evil invader. In order to save his homes he has to destroy the 'gods' of Pagan and steal their power. But this will obviously have a huge impact on the people of Pagan. This is an interesting moral quandry but unfortunately Ultima 8 does nothing with it. You just murder those gods and nope out of Pagan with not even an apology. There is a serious lack of content in Ultima 8. I spent days wandering Pagan as a child but that was mostly down to a lack of signposting from the designers on where to go next. The middle section is an extended dungeon crawl that frankly sucks. And you can really feel the cuts in developer-time in the end game. U8 has no real side quests, just the main campaign and a couple of optional dungeons with okayish rewards (a magic weapon and magic armour). And that's it. The game does have a creepy atmosphere, mostly due to the excellent music, but U8 is still badly designed and ultimately unfinished.