Ultima™ IV: Quest of the Avatar

If you're expecting to play an RPG that holds up graphically, you're looking at the wrong game. And to be honest, there are so many mechanics related to gameplay that can be tedious and cryptic. But despite all the above, this game was revolutionary in its vision / narrative, eschewing the typical quest of killing the ultimate evil for something entirely unique at its time. Your goal is to become an exemplar of virtue, the personification of Compassion, Honesty, Honor, Humility, Justice, Sacrifice, Spirituality, and Valor via action and meditation. There is plenty of combat, dungeoneering, and looting involved, but all are performed with the ultimate purpose of becoming enlightened in said virtues, by allowing non-evil creatures to flee from combat (compassion) and letting treasure chests that don't belong to you be. I don't think many modern gamers will have the patience / time to dedicate to this game, but for those of you who are interested in the history of RPGs or game design, Ultima IV is one to study or perhaps even experience for yourself.

but nowadays, with the expectations and attention spans... I played it about 30 years ago and was engrossed in it for months. Nothing can recreate that time to someone in this age, but credit where credit is due - this game is a masterpiece.

This game established some of the basics of all things Ultima. The system of virtues, running characters such as Shamino and Iolo, and the greater map of Britannia. Most importantly it established the origin point for the running player character known as the Avatar. From this point in the series forward you embody virtue. You the player, not the little guy/gal on screen. It's very meta and 4th wall breaking. This is a grand old adventure where you will travel, meet people, kill monsters, explore dungeons, and save the soul of a nation. The only draw back here is that father time has taken a bat to the whole affair. Ultima 4 has not aged well. But if you can endure the digital bends this game is well worth your time. There was a classic NES release of this game. So if the bends you get from the PC version are too painful seek out that port. Ugly by modern standards but still a classic.

This is an old school game in every sense of the term. And it is old enough that it is the style typically associated with old school PC gaming. At times it feels like you're playing D&D by yourself, all the dice rolls, all the character management all the whims of a bored DM. It has a lot of depth and if you're not thrown off by all the reading, or the micro-managing as if you were taking a family of 8 on a cross country road trip where everyone has a bone to pick with someone else in the party then this is for you. The only reason I removed a star is not for the game itself, but because it deserves the caveat that this is NOT the NES version. The NES version removed a lot of the micro from the game and made it more accessible (not read: better). So if you are buying this off of some late 80's nostalgia this is not what you think it is.

(I would give this a three-and-a-half, but that's not possible on this particular site.) I haven't yet beaten Ultima IV, and I honestly don't know what the likelihood of my doing so is. There's a deconstruction-process that modern-day gamers like myself must go through when playing a game like this: While I'm used to RPGs where everything is well laid-out, to the degree of being too simple, Ultima IV (and really any RPG from around it's time) are the polar opposite - They're vague, mysterious, and honestly rather unintuitive. I acknowledge the influence it's had on it's genre, and really it's not a bad game- the combat, while primitive, is simple and fun, the world is surprisingly well-realized for the time, and the conversations are interesting to navigate once you get the hang of doing so -but I have to be honest: It's a chore to play today, simply for the fact that it's extremely hard to know what you're supposed to be doing or where you're supposed to be doing. Maybe it'll get better the more I play it, but for now I think of it as a poorly-aged landmark.