Ultima™ IV: Quest of the Avatar

Up front admission: I played this game for the first time as a teen in the 80s. This review has references to that perspective as well as my perspective of today. Ultima IV is not a great game for the modern youthful player who is used to games that challenge the reflexes more than the mind. Ultima IV doesn't have built-in cheats/hints available and there's only one level of play: difficult. You will need to take notes (I pretty well filled a 60 page spiral bound notebook with notes as a teen) and refer to them frequently as there is a lot of back and forth searching, talking, and then going someplace else to talk to someone you've talked to before, but now you know what you really need to ask them. The story is complex and interesting, and there are cameo appearances from real world people even if modern players may not get the references. The game can be a grind as one wanders the expansive world and the dungeons, but even if it can be tedious at times there's often a purpose to the grind as you hunt objects needed for the many quests required for the game, and some that aren't required but are just curiosities (and possibly an artifact of great evil...) One of the great challenges of the game is the moral code that is required for the main character to be successful. One has to act in ways that represent the eight virtues to attain the status of avatar needed for game completion. This was one of the first instances where the character's behavior really drove the progress of the game. Previously in the earlier Ultima games one could murderhobo their way through countryside and cities both, with nary a negative impact. It occasionally made for a good way of venting frustration after an annoying day at work or school, but in Ultima IV it would set you back hours and hours of gameplay. And no restoring from previous saves either. Ultima was one of the best and most challenging games of its day, and is one I still play for fun. Absolutely worth buying.

I love how another reviewer so aptly referred to this game as 'the beginning.' I was 8 years old when I first played Ultima IV and it was definitely the game that made me fall in love with the adventure genre. I found the free download here on Gog a couple days ago and have been playing it ever since! It's amazing how much of the game I remember 25 years later. I've also had little flashbacks of my childhood as I've worked my way through the game. Mainly remembering the horrible sounds my floppy disk drive made as I was manually saving my games to it. Thank you so much for offering this game for free. It has been so much fun to play again.

I remember playing this game on the original nintendo. The game I feel influenced most modern day games. It was a very open game with consequences for your actions. Spells felt more real with components. I really wish there was a more Modern version of Ultima,(any game). The series was fun and was what gaming used to be, fun.

Absolutely one of the most rilevant RPGs ever made. Maybe Ultima 5 is better but this one is still a funny game with very good dialogues. There are too many encounters with enemies and sometimes its frustrating but I like it. I suggest to install the Upgrade Patch.

So this is older than me, mind you, so I cannot be completely objective here. Anyway, just finished this gem yesterday - spent 60 h to finish it. That is a lot for the game nowadays and with all our social/professional duties it could be simply too much. Overall I really liked this game, it is surprisingly well made, the general setting (there is no plot per se, we collect stuff and raise stats) is VERY well thought out. First part is more of a puzzle, we need to move around different settlements and embrace the talking mechanism, which is very great, and make notes on where is what etc. This is fun. The later part of the game is a grind - where you know what's what and where it is you just move a lot to the same spots, combat gets repetetive, you max the stats and gold by doing the same dungeons etc. Also this game gets almost impossible without a walkthrough - where are certain items, how to avoid specific perils and obstacles - I cannot imagine doing the whole game without any help (and you are not supposed to - read all the materials you are provided with this game first!) but the game does not hold your hand AT ALL. Lord British, the main 'king' in a castle in this game, lays on you some general ideas what you need but otherwise, well... I would still recommend it - the first part that involves a lot of talking still shines, but once you get a grip of the world and find better weapons, know when the cheapest food/magic reagents are, you just start to click a lot of buttons and spend the time until the end.