Ultima™ 7 The Complete Edition

If you haven't played Ultima 7: The Black Gate, you are missing out on what I believe is the very best RPG in video game history. It features a massive open world like Skyrim, a conversational narrative akin to Mass Effect 1 and 2, and a living, breathing world where every NPC has a life of their own. The sprite-based graphics are colorful and still wonderful, even 22 years later. The music is subtle, almost ambient at times, and fits the emotion and character of each moment, each town, and each environment perfectly. The combat is simple: employing auto-attacks and a handful of AI selections to customize your party's strategy in real time, ultimately keeping the flow of the journey going without turning combat into a chore. And lastly, the story is one of the most memorable in the genre. Both a murder mystery and a discovery of a threatening evil, no other game has such a focused, linear story existing in a completely open, non-linear world. Add to it the massive amounts of side quests and characters in every town that further pull you into a world that you will never want to leave. I can say, without a doubt, that my love for this game is not mere nostalgia. This is a genuine masterpiece of the craft, and I encourage every RPG fan, young or old, to discover the world that is Ultima 7.

When I purchased this game, I initially felt that my enjoyment was driven by nostalgia as I remembered playing it in my parents basement in high school. However I have to admit that I have continued to be thrilled by it, not because it brings back memories of childhood, but because it is by far the best RPG ever created. The story is Tolkienesque in it's depth and the characters go far beyond the one dimensional cliches. Don't let the clunky graphics, inventory management and combat dishearten you. This is truly a game for the ages that you will not be disappointed in. However, I must warn you that it's worth it to have a pen and paper to jot down details every so often. There are no quest markers in this game nor is there an in game log. You'll have to become comfortable with reading lattitude and longitude into order to make your way around. You'll also need to become proficient in the runic language of the land. This is a game for people who like to use their brains. The puzzles are challenging and fun and there's real satisfaction in solving the multi-layered mystery of what's happening in Brittania. I don't want to provide any spoilers but I would strongly recommend that you purchase this and explore the vast, open-ended world of Britannia with all of its characters and mysteries. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: This review is based on my experience playing the game in 20202, and is not weighted for nostalgia. This is another old game I bought when it was originally released, but never finished for one reason or another. Fast forward to 2020, and I discovered for reasons unknown to me, Ultima 7 is in my GoG library. The game really looked terrible on my 4k 55" monitor, so I installed Exult, which allowed me to sharpen up the graphics, and provide improved audio. After tweaking Exult, the game looks and sounds surprisingly well. The game immediately starts out with a fun murder mystery that quickly pulled me in. I was enjoying questioning the townsfolk of Trinsic, searching locations of interest, piecing the puzzle together. Eventually The Avatar determined he needed to travel to Britain to question to people of interest. "You just missed them, the went to Minoc!" Then to Vesper, Paws, Moonglow, Jhelom, back to Britain.. Clearly the game was more enamored with the concept of "you just missed them!" than I was. Yes, we can move The Avatar pixel around the map. Fascinating. When can we advance the story? I probably would have continued playing if there had been a major plot development after quickly catching up to the persons of interest. Along our many pointless travels, each and every animal the party encountered became hostile and attacked. Aside from this being a complete misunderstanding of animal behavior, it's tedious, unnecessary, and time consuming. I think I would have been much more inclined to slog through the "traditional RPG" elements of this game as a teenager back in the early 90's. Not so much in 2020.

this series is great, except for the first 5 games. but 6,7,8 are excellent. I played this game when i was a kid a long time ago, and to be honest its one of the games that got me into rpg's in the first place. I remember i used to totally ignore the main plot and just spend time making bread and selling it, then probably sleeping in the local inn come nightfall. like i was living a virtual life or something. great fun.

Something about this game feels so vital. I never got into the dungeon crawling sort of games like Diablo, largely because the dungeons just felt pointless or aimless. Games like Ultima VII never feel that way. Everything you do advances the story, which is compelling and interesting and full of twists. Origin perfected their open world approach with this game. Certain areas are locked until you get to certain parts of the story so you never get completely overwhelmed, but of course you need to scour every drawer and every chest to get the best armor and weapons so you're not unprepared. The characters are easy to get attached to, and it starts right off the bat. Most games of this era, the characters in the game are so boring and 1 dimensional. Every character in every city has a role. That's always been one of the franchise's strengths. Sure a city may only have a population of 20 people but you need to talk with every single one of them and exhaust all conversation options in order to advance the plot. Sometimes this gets tedious but it speaks to how huge and well-thought out this game is. Monk Isle may be the only place in the game that has NPCs you can't talk to - and that's because they took a vow of silence! The only negatives about this game are the classic Ultima pitfalls - inventory management takes up more of the game than it should, and until you get the "magic keyring" in Silver Seed, managing keys is tedious. And there's also the idiosyncrasies within the code that make advancing the plot nearly impossible without having a walkthrough at the ready. (For instance - spoiler alert technically - you need to use the Hound of Doskar on Batlin's Amulet in order to get the password to Skullcrusher from the Gwani... completely unrelated tasks! But you cannot advance without doing that random action.) Have fun with this game! And remember, if all else fails, rub your face on the wall till you find an illusory one.