This game stands as an icon of just how long EA has been gutting and ruining otherwise promising gaming franchises, solidifying its position (at least for me) as the "Game Developers Graveyard" where once great gaming companies go to die (Bioware and others are there now, and you can already hear their death-rattle as well). The Bad: The game itself was a sloppy mess; poorly constructed, badly paced, cut down to a fraction of what it should have been, and of course rushed out the door incomplete in typical EA style. The plot itself is a railroad, leaving the player with little to do other than follow the bland story with almost no incentive to actually explore the world at all. There were bugs up the wazoo when I first played this game, and while GOG does provide the latest patches that somewhat fix the most glaring issues, many issues still remain. And of course there was the horrible platforming which was just a terrible idea and still bewilders me to this day as to why the designers ever thought it would be a good idea to add to an RPG. The Good: There are some good things about the game which prevents it from being a 1-star for me. While many complain about the magic system, and I can admit that it was convoluted, I still enjoyed the concept immensely even if it was executed poorly. Each magic system actually felt distinct, each having different systems for casting which really felt magical rather than simply clicking a spell out of a list. Granted this made the magic much more difficult to use than previous games, but I can at least applaud the innovation and creativity behind it, and its pretty much the only thing I still can remember fondly about this game. This alone does not salvage the game however. Overall, Ultima VIII is just not worth the money, not even the pittance being offered by GOG. This is by no means GOG's fault, and I understand them adding this game to their list for the sake of completion, but I would still recommend against buying it. It just isn't worth it.
