Ultima™ 7 The Complete Edition

One of the greatest RPGs and games in general that has ever been created. I spent hundreds of hours playing this in the 90s and i still play it now and then to this day. A go anywhere, do anything game, hell i remember spending like 5hrs baking bread in britannia when i realised you could make money doing it, then robbing the jewelery shop down the road. Truly epic . The only game better than this imo is Everquest, but they arent really comparable. If you want to play the best single player RPG ever made, a game that makes the elder scrolls series look like daikatana, get this game.

Stands the test of time in terms of a fully fleshed out world that lives and breathes. NPC scheduling, Story and lore, world culture. Ultima 7 is the game that defined how it is supposed to work. Origin's crowning achievement. Created by people who founded the gaming industry and built with love and devotion, this is truly the masterpiece of 90s DOS gaming and of RPGs overall. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys good narrative games. The add ons add real depth and scope to the game and it's sequel: Serpent Isle and it's add ons are just as amazing.

Full Disclosure: I haven't played any of old-school RPGs. No Final Fantasy, Wasteland, or Fallout 1 & 2 for me. SO, I may not be the best judge of Ultima VII. That being said, GOG user reviews and history seems to have declared Ultima VII to be the best RPG ever, and so I thought, "if any game's gonna sell me on old-school RPGs, it'll be this." So I purchased Ultima 4, 5, 6, and 7 for about $8. So, the good: The score seems to be pretty great. I like that transitional period between bleeps and realistic sound. From the outset, I could tell that this was going to be a big, epic game, which had me excited. The graphics have aged well. I like old graphics (not so much modern games that harken to those days, but I digress), and this game is a good example of what could be achieved. the colors are rich and the environments surprisingly detailed. The writing is great. So, why did I give this 3 stars? Well, you may have noticed that I was speaking in the future-tense for some of those pros. There's a reason for that: this game has an Achille's Heel that prevented me from playing for more than 45 minutes: THE CONTROLS! Oh, Lord, the controls! First off, every single action I do seems to have a 1 second delay between input and response. Secondly, everything is jerky and imprecise. But those can be dealt with. What really blows is the movement system. You can move two ways: WASD, and by holding the right mouse button. WASD is extremely jerky and unresponsive. The mouse works a bit, but everything moves way to fast, and it's just incredibly awkward. The worst part is that avoiding this movement problem was simple: just allow me to click on where I want to go and have the character move there automatically. Fix the responsiveness on top of this and the controls would've been fine. Maybe the story and writing and score and scale will be enough for you. But for me, I don't like having to fight the controls, and ULTIMA VII's controls are MMA champs.

Short version: if you don't own it yet, for some reason, get it! This is not only the pinnacle of the brilliant Ultima series, but in fact THE best computer roleplaying game ever written and one of the best computer games of all time. Great atmoshpere, an immersive world that sucks you right in, many unique NPCs to talk to, that all follow their own lives, uncountable small things to do and to explore apart from the main quest and a very much 'alive' party of NPC companions. And lots of humor plus many emotional moments. Great music too. I started playing it when it first came out and still play it from time to time. So I can only repeat: if you like CRPGs and don't have this, get it. If you don't like CRPGs get it anyways and let yourself be enchanted. You won't regret it.

There are only the slightest things that weaken this game. The combat was always somewhat limp, a chaos of autonomous warriors scrambling to their pixelated death. But every facet besides will ring true. The music. The story telling. The exploration. The hundreds of 'little things' like kegs that tap, sheep sex, and my favorite: Cheat mode. Where you can create, destroy, place and alter virtually all the content in the entire game through a command menu. If you're going to throw the cash at this, don't forget Ultima Underworld as well, also a DOSBOX masterpiece.