After the somewhat disappointing Savage Empire, I played Martian Dreams. With memory of SE still fresh, MD is immediately a better game from the start. I had found no bugs (Although I did get a fright concerning the Radium Block, so be careful not to use those other than for the story), game doesn't freeze using Roland emulation like in SE, it has multiple animated cutscenes, more so than Ultima 6, more or less better music, a perfect day and night duration, better story and conveniences within the game. Downside... the lag is very bad in this game. While SE was short and felt more like a U6 DLC, MD was an expansion. Definitely felt much more longer than SE, I definitely enjoyed it more than SE. Both games however, would probably benefit in today's game engines and from a different perspective. I loved the Ultima series, while the Worlds of Ultima games would rank below all the flagship titles the potential was there despite its poor sales. I wouldn't want a remake for the flagship Ultima's but SE & MD... definitely yes.
I 'tried' playing this game ages ago, I loved Ultima 6's engine (It was full of colour and detail, even though when I first played that it was in CGA and not the glorious 256 colours VGA) but what turned me away from Savage Empire back then was that the graphics/characters looked really tiny. As if the screen became smaller. It was hard to see. So I never continued. Pushed myself to go all the way this time and I'm glad. Savage Empire is not bad, but I can't help feel like its (by today's gaming terminology) an Ultima 6 DLC. U6 had memorable music, haunting & hypnotic (Partly coz I was using a Creative Game Blaster soundboard). SE's soundtrack was annoying (Using Roland emulation for this game lagged the game and it froze a few times), but I guess it 'fits' the prehistoric theme. What also annoyed me was that the time of day moves really fast, it feels like its always night. I seriously wouldn't have made it without referring to a guide. Things you needed to do at times wasn't clear. I also had to restart from scratch once because this game has only one save and a companion who wasn't in my party at the time got killed before he could join. I also almost quit at an important part of the game where I had to drop a boulder on a T-Rex. The game removed my last party member when the boulder fell and there was no way of getting him/her back in. Thankfully, I managed to figure it out and use two explosions, 1) Push the boulder to the side and 2) Push it down. The other bug that I encountered was the looping conversation with Tristia at the Kurak village. This bug I found was fixed in version 2.1 of the game. GOG's version is 1.6. The T-Rex boulder bug is still not fixed in 2.1 though, I tried. Hopefully, if you read this and faced the same problem; my solution will help you. Still, at the end of the day; this wasn't a bad game. I could imagine how it might be if it was remade with current gen engines and a more fleshed out world. SE just feels very U6 Lite.
