Ultima™ 8 Gold Edition

Ultima VIII Pagan was my very first contact with the Ultima series and knowing nothing better I was smitten by this game on sight. The freedom to do anything and go mostly everywhere was what hooked me up, but its chilling, almost creepy atmosphere, some surreal elements coupled with the realism I perceived in the cities and game systems made me stay in pagan forever. My avatar never actually left. I actually had the manual for the game and the story contained there is what made this game stick to my mind for ao long. I picked it up again in the hopes of sending my avatar back to britannia and that's when this game lost a star in my review. It doesn't meet the seeds placed in the manual, the awesome illustrations for each element's area are replaced with bland, placeholder areas containing characters speaking butchered dialogue, convoluted magic system and monsters too powerful for The Avatar. Even still, what this game has o athmosphere and backstory impressess me a great deal. Its worth a purchase for those who want a game hard as nails and wanting to contemplate the difference between what could have been and what it is. I highly recommend a read through the manual before playing as it will inform you of the world, but will also activate your imagination, which might affect your experiece of the game, making it like my first brush with this that I consider the best game of my childhood.

They took the Ultima franchise and made it a console game.

Contrary to many other reviews, I have very fond memories of the game. Then, I never did play Ultima games religiously, so I'm mostly judging the game on its own merits. I liked the atmosphere of the game - dark, gloomy, mysterious but with a sprinkling of humor and hope. I enjoyed exploring the little nooks and corners and hidden places with their own little plots, like randomly walking into a off the path shack unrelated to the plot, falling through the floor, and ending up exploring a little non-quest related catacomb, which led to a nice reward. I remember listening to some old pirate rant dozens of stories in a row, and later accidentally finding that one of the stories led me to a ghost-protected armor. The characters were memorable and I enjoyed exploring the reactions they had to things, and how events and the things you did seemed to affect their reactions. If you want to barrel through from the start and follow the main plot with no deviation to explore, you might enjoy the game less than I did. The journey was more fun than the goal with this game. Forget a walkthrough (unless stuck) and just dive in and explore and experiment. There's a lot of random stuff, content and characters that walkthroughs haven't found or don't mention, because they're not important to finishing the game.

Pagan got canned when it was released. Because it was so different from the previous entries, required a computer from the future to run properly and had some very very clunky mechanism (spell casting is horrible). It has otherwise a great setting, memorable characters, and a dark, grim world and mood that really makes it unique and screams "wasted potential". If you can overcome the awkward magic, frustrating (and unforgiving) jumping puzzles and battle, this is worth trying and finishing.

I feel I'm lucky to have had Ultima VIII before I ever experienced any other games in the series. In fact, I was 6 years old when I first played this game and, I'm unashamed to say, has never stopped being a part of my life. Ultima VIII is the most compelling and unforgettable game I've ever played, to this day. I can understand people's gripes given how different it really is from the rest of the series and especially the series' crowning jewel, Ultima VII, but if you appreciate it as its own creation, it's a wonder. Even the major plot hole regarding the Avatar's "pilgrimage" to the birthplace of Moriens bothers me hardly at all. The game has a chilly aura and a way of leaving the player to his or own devices to figure out the game's objectives. I feel this approach to gamebuilding forgives the occasional arbitrary-seeming plot device. Play Ultima VIII and try not to think of it as an Ultima game, you'll be glad you did.