Ultima™ 4+5+6

If you have ever wondered how modern western RPGs came to be the way they are and what games influenced them the most, then I strongly urge you to pick up this trilogy. Perfectly balanced between "too early" and "too late", these three games mix the complexity of the super-deep RPGs of the 80s and the user friendliness of today's games. With just a little bit of research even a game as early as Ultima 4 opens up before you like the game you always wanted to play, as opposed to the one you just couldn't figure out. Do not let this deal pass you by, these are three of the greatest WRPGs ever made, and gloriously showcase the evolution of the genre over just a few short years.

A significant amount of my youth was spent playing Ultima V the first time around (EGA, Amstrad PC1640 - swapping 5.25 inch disks) - now available without the floppy changing and with its pre and se qual - what's not to like. I still have an exercise book full of notes - keywords for converstions by npc and location, extra spell formulae, mantra's and translations for all the runes writings. As a role playing game it has enough plot and options unseen at the time (you could even go bad - get hold of the jeweled weapons as part of the oppression - "tell him tactus sent thee"), dungeons, an underworld and a world map that felt huge (moon gates helped a bit) . Right time to break out the cloth map and go thwart Blackthorn's oppression again. The Raven See's, the raven saw, and in the corn, he sayeth "Cah".

One of the first PC games I became obsessed with. True open world with a main story line you really had to work to follow. Almost party mystery game to top it off. Top 3 game ever in my mind.

I will try to be quick about this, we are currently in 2017 and I am reviewing a game series that came out in 1985/1988/1990. This review may have spoilers. Ultima 4: with the graphics update, it looks decent. The game itself is good, but terribly unforgiving, but the kicker? This game came out in 85, there was no boss battle, you are just struggling to be a better guy. You have 8 virtues you must max out, and then you can ascend to avatarhood. Think about how many games have "good/evil" sliders and the extremes are stupid. This sidesteps that. You are really tempted to do not nice things to go faster, and the game remembers you did them and rubs it in your face. The game is a bit grindy, but The concept of 8 alignments at once is awesome, and yet to be even approximated. Ultima 5: My favorite. You are now the avatar (spoilers) and you return to Britannia to see that the virtues have become law. Here the concepts of external vs internal motivations are explored. This game is great. How great you ask? I just replayed it 30 years later. Warning: if you have a laptop with no numlock, the game is unwinnable. You need to hook up a keyboard and press numlock twice to access other numbers than 5 and 0. This is almost a show stopper. Ultima 6: Best cover art for an ultima, and one of the best for any game. In Ultima 4/5 you (spoilers) kill many daemons. It turns out, they don't like that and invade Britannia. You need to stop them, but it turns out their motivation is more than just "evil bad guy stuff". Technical aspects: all three games run in dosbox, so they work with Windows, Mac and Linux. Also, U4 is free, so you are paying for 5-6. These games are wonderful and explore philosophical questions, character and society motivations. There is a reason in the Ultima universe, this trilogy is called the age of enlightenment.

These games perform perfectly on dosbox, have no technical issues that I have noticed and are exactly the same as I remember them from my old Apple IIe days. If you are an Ultima fan and want to play these games again then this is it!