Worlds of Ultima™: The Savage Empire

This is one of those Ultima-engine games that I want to like but the heavy jungle foliage makes it very difficult to tell what it is you are actually fighting most of the time, and your status and that of your enemy is difficult to discern at a glance, so its hard to be immersed in what you're doing. You'll be attacked from some unknown angle and then some creature half obscured by green foliage pixels will attack you for entering into its aggro zone. The story and setting are actually rather nice, but its very hard for me to give this game a good rating due to the muddy and choppy graphics and confusing scenery. I'm not sure if I can really blame Origin for this with the engine they had to work with -- but Martian Dreams just ends up being more playable for me due to the setting.

Don't look at the game es a continuation of the main Ultima series. Instead, look at it like for example a Final Fantasy game, where there are certain motives and game mechanics are used but the story is self contained. And what a story it is! It's Lost Valley scenario is fresh, the setting is very detailed and a lot of fun. The world is a little smaller than Britannia but that minimizes backtracking to a certain extend. The basic interface of Ultima VI has been slightly improved - including a sort-of questlog: Your companion Jimmy keeps track of everything you need to do without being too detailed. And, of course, being an Ultima game you have all the freedom you want - including really great crafting mechanics and interaction with your surroundings. Add interesting characters, an open quest structure where you are free to solve most of the quests in any order, a solid combat system with underused enemy-types, and a pretty presentation (with detailed VGA graphics and a beautiful Roland-soundtrack) and you get an awesome RPG! Just don't look at it as a main game of the main Ultima series.

I 'tried' playing this game ages ago, I loved Ultima 6's engine (It was full of colour and detail, even though when I first played that it was in CGA and not the glorious 256 colours VGA) but what turned me away from Savage Empire back then was that the graphics/characters looked really tiny. As if the screen became smaller. It was hard to see. So I never continued. Pushed myself to go all the way this time and I'm glad. Savage Empire is not bad, but I can't help feel like its (by today's gaming terminology) an Ultima 6 DLC. U6 had memorable music, haunting & hypnotic (Partly coz I was using a Creative Game Blaster soundboard). SE's soundtrack was annoying (Using Roland emulation for this game lagged the game and it froze a few times), but I guess it 'fits' the prehistoric theme. What also annoyed me was that the time of day moves really fast, it feels like its always night. I seriously wouldn't have made it without referring to a guide. Things you needed to do at times wasn't clear. I also had to restart from scratch once because this game has only one save and a companion who wasn't in my party at the time got killed before he could join. I also almost quit at an important part of the game where I had to drop a boulder on a T-Rex. The game removed my last party member when the boulder fell and there was no way of getting him/her back in. Thankfully, I managed to figure it out and use two explosions, 1) Push the boulder to the side and 2) Push it down. The other bug that I encountered was the looping conversation with Tristia at the Kurak village. This bug I found was fixed in version 2.1 of the game. GOG's version is 1.6. The T-Rex boulder bug is still not fixed in 2.1 though, I tried. Hopefully, if you read this and faced the same problem; my solution will help you. Still, at the end of the day; this wasn't a bad game. I could imagine how it might be if it was remade with current gen engines and a more fleshed out world. SE just feels very U6 Lite.

I got this for my birthday when I was 12, and played it for three days straight - I snuck out of bed at night to play it until dawn, then I snuck into bed again so my parents wouldn't find out. It was far and away the best game I had ever played. The interface has aged so-so, and game-wise it was actually eclipsed by its successor Martian Dreams, but for me it will always hold a special place in my heart.

Great atmospheric game in an even more atmospheric setting. Who likes the games of the 90's will appreciate these games and enjoy in an atmosphere that no modern game can match. Soon as you start the game it brings you back like a time machine and no modern game does that.