Ultima IX gets an insane ammount of flak due to a fair ammount of retconing, but at the end of the day, thats its only real flaw. If you hold the story of Ultima franchise very dear to heart (it's not something to write home about really, the continuity of the series is pretty horrid as is, and the retconing happened even before the infamous IX), then you definitely should avoid this entry, but if you enjoy an open and somewhat different take on Action Adventure/RPG genre, i can easily recommend Ultima IX.
Nox is a good Diablo style action RPG, which introduces far improved control scheme and even more action. Also notable is the pleasant 2D graphics engine, which had some really groundbreaking effects, such as dynamic shadows in the areas your character doesn't see.
