Ultima™ 8 Gold Edition

Ultima was a complex series of role-playing games, but it suffered from the awkward interfaces and navigation that were common in its time. Ultima 7 improved upon those flaws, and though it was still problematic, it succeeded as an epic adventure in a large, detailed world. Ultima 8 was a rushed pile of worthless bullshit that crushed all the style and value of the series, leaving only the crippling. Ultima's role-playing is gone: The character is no longer the greatest symbol of goodness and virtue, he has become a genocidal sociopath who destroys everything in his path and cares naught about anyone else. You have no choice but to follow the commands of all the irritating characters in this stupid, featureless world, one filled with empty space and confusing wastelands. Players no longer search for curiosity's sake, but because they have no idea where to go or what to do until they stumble upon the right cave. Virtue is irrelevant, as the Avatar must be pure evil. Ultima 8 is not even consistent: Commit crimes most of the time, and you will be killed--but under certain circumstances, you must kill and steal from innocent men. Have fun trying to figure out the difference. Controls, jumping, combat, perspective: All are terrible. Electronic Arts forced Origin to turn this into an action game, but the great combat of Wing Commander and Crusader bear no resemblance to this shit. Jumping puzzles appear throughout the game, but you never get a clear indication of where you are jumping, the position of the target relative to the character, or the length of the jump. One can easily spend hours on a single jumping puzzle. Fighting suffers all the same problems, and involves nothing more than blindly clicking on the enemies, only slightly less tedious and frustating than Diablo. It was compared to Super Mario Brothers, but Mario is defined by its steady controls; clear situational awareness; exciting action sequences; imaginative settings and enemies; and clearly defined objectives, none of which are present in this game. Ultima 8's magic system is a mess: The worst example is a type of magic that requires the player to place items in very specific spots throughout pentagrams, leading to endless frustrations and confusion. This has to be repeated many times to complete one training sequence, one of the many pointless, tedious, extraneous sequences that destroy the pacing. Never play this game. Electronic Arts destroyed Origin, and if its executives get one cent from this game, they should be declared thieves and suffer horrible punishments. Rating: negative googleplex stars out of infinity

I am not taking stars off for old grudges, first of all. So its action spin-off with Ultima theme. Story once developed was pretty good and I absolutely loved magic schools and way spells needed to be cast. There were few fun easter eggs in game (hasta la vista?), some scary moments and despite what many say, and what I thought once, its worthy if bastard successor to ultima series. Try play Origin Crusader games after this one.. (or before), you might have deja vu moments!

Ultima VIII: Pagan is one of a kind. I just finished it for the first time after getting it on GOG and I will say this: it's full of gray caves. Everywhere. You'll find yourself roaming in gray caves most of the time you're making progress in the game. Moreover, there's a place called Catacombs that I always dreaded going, and thus tried to cross it as efficiently and quickly as possible. Guess what? The game requires you to go back to the Catacombs all...the...time. So, by this point,that simply appear beneath you and swallow you whole it may seem I hate the game. I don't. In fact, I picked it up more than 20 years after I first played it so I could actually finish. I played it before any Ultima game (maybe with the exception of Ultima Underworld - which I love) and I can say this game's plotline is fantastic. The characters are awesome, the eerie atmosphere is top notch, the music is superb (especially the cemetery tunes, just 11/10 material) and the magic casting system is very interesting. I had to finish this game because it embodies what a RPG should be: difficult but fair, engaging but not over the top. I don't really mind the constant explosions (you'll see), the hordes of enemies trying to make your life miserable or the platforming. I do mind some ridiculous game design decisions, such as holes that appear beneath you and swallow you whole. Come on, who finds that funny? People that green lighted this should be shot in the balls, for all I care. Anyway, I digress. Pick this game up when it suits your wallet, it never did get outta my head, you'll enjoy it too if you like a good story.

Back when this was released I had never played any of the previous Ultima games so this was my introduction into the series. Since I had no expectations, I was able to enjoy it for what it was. After learning how different it was from the rest of the series I can see why so many fans were disappointed with it, but the game itself is an ejoyable one. My only real complaint is the movement can be a bit awkward at times since it is so heavly mouse driven. It works well enough. Just expect to save often because you'll likely find yourself running into a trap or getting clobbered by an enemy because you can't always position yourself properly. Surprisingly though, the jumping mechanic works really well.

Ultima is one of the greatest game series of all time. It really is. I say this so you know I'm not just biased against it. Ultima VII may be one of the greatest RPGs ever made. The game that followed it set up the rest of the series. By that, I mean it sets you up to realize how much of a failure the rest of the series will be. Ultima online and IX are terrible. I can understand some of the changes like there are no companions. That makes sense, no one knows who or what the avatar is on Pagan. But there are so many other things. There is platforming. I don't know why but there is, and the isometric perspective makes it impossible to judge distances so you'll be falling into a lot of instant death pits. Every level in the game is grey. Not joking. Even the beach you start out on. Every. Freaking. Level. There's no real combat, you only get one handed weapons in one repetitive overhead swing type attack. It's not really an RPG anymore and your character's appearance never changes. Not like that matters since there's no character creation at all. The game is bugged up the butt. The magic system is so amazingly overcomplicated I'm amazed I figured it out. The game is also broken. Within half an hour of starting it, you can max out your strength. No joke. And even then, it still takes 7-10 hits to put down the main enemies in the game. Zombies and ghosts. Those are what you will be fighting. The story looked like it could have some potential, but most story lines were cut. And I do mean most. The ones that stay in never go anywhere because they were cut too. Even if you do stay this game all the way through to the end, it looks like a promising set up to the final Ultima game. But it's not. Because Ultima IX contradicts almost everything VIII. And all the ones before that. To sum it all up: Avoid unless you are a die hard Ultima fan.