textfiles/games/REVIEWS/ultima.rev

 THE ULTIMA TRILOGY

 Written by Richard "Lord British" Garriott and published by ORIGIN, THE ULTIMA
TRILOGY is a collection of the first three adventures -- ULTIMA I, II, and III
-- in the popular role-playing series. ULTIMA I appeared in 1981 and became an
instant hit; each subsequent adventure expanded on and enhanced its predecessor,
reaching (at the time of this writing) the day-to-day realism and visual
elaboration of ULTIMA V. This review is based on the Commodore 64/128 version.

 THE ULTIMA TRILOGY package comes with three disks, one for each adventure;
Quickstart and Player Reference cards that explain key commands, character
creation, and play-disk instructions; and foldout maps for each scenario. The
comprehensive and nicely-written 100-page manual explains, with text and
drawings, all about the land of Sosaria and its layout and inhabitants, and the
story behind each adventure. ULTIMA III's "Book of Amber Runes" and "Ancient
Liturgy of Truth" are reproduced in the manual as well.

 ULTIMA I is controlled by joystick (for movement) or keyboard (for movement and
commands); the sequels dispense with the joystick in favor of key commands.

 ULTIMA I: THE FIRST AGE OF DARKNESS

 Opening the TRILOGY, and the "Triad of Evil" series, is ULTIMA I, a
single-player quest set in the world of Sosaria. The land is held in the evil
grip of Mondain the Wizard, and your goal is to become strong enough to defeat
him, and bring peace and prosperity to Sosaria. To accomplish this, you must
create a character (Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, Thief) from four races (Human, Elf,
Bobbit, Dwarf), upgrade your six attributes (Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom,
Agility, Stamina, and Charisma), earn items and rewards, accumulate gold to
purchase weapons, armor, and transportation, roam the four continents of
Sosaria, cruise around the heavens, and use a time machine in order to reach
Mondain (currently immortal thanks to a black gem) for the final encounter.

 In each land, you're given quests that send you deeper and deeper into
multi-level dungeons to do battle with fierce and unholy beasts. You must also
explore remote areas of the Sosarian continents to locate important and useful
Towers, Pillars, and Landmarks. Successful completion of the quests is essential
if you hope to defeat Mondain, upgrade your attributes, gather valuable items
and information, and reap economic rewards. Looted gold may be exchanged for the
rafts or aircars you'll need for travel to islands and other Sosarian
continents, the shuttle you'll need to become a Space Ace, and advanced weapons,
armor, and magic.

 ULTIMA I is really just a hack and slash game. But back in 1981, there was
nothing else like it. ULTIMA I (and WIZARDRY) played a major role in creating a
software category of immense popularity, and one that inspires obsession in its
players. Computer role-playing games continue to prosper to this day, and in
ways beyond basic hack and slash.

 The original version of ULTIMA I, programmed in interpreted BASIC, was entirely
rewritten in assembly language in 1986, and it shows: While there is still
plenty of disk access (to load towns, dungeons, etc.), screen scrolls and
character movement are swift and smooth; what's more, the line graphics of the
dungeons no longer have to be redrawn. Although the screens seem primitive when
compared with the sophisticated graphics of the late 1980s, this is deceptive.
In the midst of today's hi-tech special effects, where too much is not enough,
ULTIMA I pleases with a clean, uncluttered look.

 ULTIMA II: THE REVENGE OF THE ENCHANTRESS

 The peace that you restored to Sosaria in ULTIMA I was short-lived. Despite the
annihilation of Mondain, rumors abound: an apprentice with fabulous magical
powers, wars in the making, lurking evils. The discovery of "time doors,"
portals to past and future moments of the space-time continuum, changed the
world dramatically. After a while, the terrors of Mondain faded. Happiness was
the order of the day, and the uncomfortable rumors were ignored.

 Yet, slowly but surely, evil once again infiltrated Sosaria. And when the
inhabitants had no choice but to see it, the powers of the perpetrator had
already reached untold proportions: Minax, formerly Mondain's apprentice and now
a hateful enchantress bent on avenging the death of her mentor, desires nothing
less than the complete destruction of good, a feat nearly realized during the
Holocaust of 2111. Only the time doors allowed some to survive.

 Those who did survive, a group led by Lord British, now believe that the only
way to remove Minax from the present is to remove Minax from the past, thus
altering all that follows. It is this premise that drives ULTIMA II: THE REVENGE
OF THE ENCHANTRESS, an excellent and heady follow-up to ULTIMA I. It's easy to
dismiss sequels, which more often than not don't measure up to the initial
offering. Happily, ULTIMA II is fresh enough to not only avoid the "sequelitis"
problem, but to stand by itself.

 Like its predecessor, ULTIMA II is a single-player adventure. The object is to
create a character (Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, Thief) from four races (Human, Elf,
Hobbit, Dwarf), upgrade your six attributes (Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom,
Agility, Stamina, Charisma), travel throughout the domains of Sosaria and the
heavens, earn rewards and items, and become strong enough to obliterate from
time the very existence of Minax. The time gates allow passage to Sosaria's
distant past, and to the aftermath world of the Holocaust.

 ULTIMA II's particular time travel plot is not new. Yet, it's still a nifty
idea, one that kicks ULTIMA II up a notch from the hack-and-slash foundation of
ULTIMA I.

 On successfully returning from your adventure, no one (other than the small
group of survivors of the Holocaust) will know that you're the hero responsible
for the peaceful world of the present. This is really good stuff: Who needs a
hero with a big mouth? Besides, it's obvious from ULTIMA II (and from the three
adventures that follow it) that Richard Garriott, the creator of ULTIMA, grows
with the story, even as the rich world of Sosaria unfolds before us.

 ULTIMA III: EXODUS

 EXODUS, the second sequel to ULTIMA I and the final chapter of the "Triad of
Evil" series, proceeds logically from ULTIMA II. It also departs from the
framework of the two tales that preceded it: No longer a single-player scenario,
ULTIMA III jump-starts players into a new and wider world by way of a
four-character party of adventurers.

 Moving the series up yet another notch, ULTIMA III offers a long and
complicated quest that takes you throughout Sosaria, into many dungeons, through
"Moon Gate" transporters, into the maelstrom to a Lost Continent, and into
combat.

 Through the discovery of an ages-old manuscript penned by the mad Minax, we
learn of the existence of Exodus, the sole offspring of Mondain (ULTIMA I) and
his apprentice, Minax (ULTIMA II). Whether it is man, monster, demon, or
machine, no one knows. What is known is that Exodus lives on a newly-formed
island, and that he rises from the pit of Hell to seek vengeance. This time out,
Sosaria is in really big trouble, so much so that ULTIMA III replaces the
solitary adventurer of I and II with a group of four heroes.

 The goal of EXODUS is to create a party of four adventurers from ten classes
(Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, Thief, Paladin, Lark, Illusionist, Druid, Alchemist,
Ranger) and five races (Human, Elf, Dwarf, Bobbit, Fuzzy), develop their
attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom), loot enough gold for
first-rate weapons, armor, and magic, and unearth the information to locate the
items that will accomplish the destruction of Exodus.

 The Moon Gates are shimmering portals to other areas of Sosaria. The space
travel of I and II has been dropped in favor of a Lost Continent and a fleeting
visit to Dawn, the city of Light and Magic. In addition to the usual combat with
monsters and the ever-present, all but unbeatable guards, there is also combat
with abstracted pieces of the environment: invisible floors, something called
"grasss," and, in a different sense, poisoned fountains.

 Like any role-playing game, the basic plot is the same: "Good Guys versus Bad
Guys." But while the story of ULTIMA III progresses logically from ULTIMA II,
its style and implementation are utterly different. ULTIMA III offers much more
than merely hacking an orc into several pieces or disemboweling a gargoyle
(although you'll do this, too). Everything in the game is important: You must
visit every dungeon; you must speak with everyone; and you'll need a ton of
gold, not only for items but for bribery. Despite being overly complicated,
ULTIMA III is neverthelss well worth the effort to complete.

 THE TRILOGY REVISITED

 Taken as separate games, the adventures that form the TRILOGY proceed
logically, although it could be argued that ULTIMA II and III are contrivances.
(Oh? Mondain had an apprentice? Oh? Mondain and Minax formed an unholy alliance?
Why wasn't Minax's manuscript wiped from her timeline when she was?) While
contrivances are now rife in the world of RPG software (are evil wizards
rampant, or what?), back in the early- to mid-80s, all of this was new. And
contrived or not, the three tales of THE ULTIMA TRILOGY do progress sensibly.

 (A side note: ULTIMA IV and V depart in radical ways from the TRILOGY -- a
departure telegraphed by the complexity of ULTIMA III. The basic ideas are the
same, of course, but the size of the games (ULTIMA IV is "sixteen times" larger
than III), the obsessive attention to unnecessary details (such as the sun
rising and setting), and zillions of "advanced" graphic enhancements (such as
ticking clocks and flowing fountains), all conspire to circumvent the simplicity
and good ideas that marked ULTIMA I and II.)

 I suppose it would be unfair to blame Lord British for the tendency of today's
programmers to create games that take months to play, but it seems to me this
trend began with ULTIMA III. All the graphic enhancements in the world cannot
make a bad idea any better, nor do they make game playing more fun. Real life
has plenty of ticking clocks; I don't need them when I'm tripping through a
fantasy.

 WIZARDRY also appeared in 1981; it and ULTIMA I are basically identical in
foundation and execution, if not in storyline. The C64 version of WIZARDRY I was
released in 1987, followed by WIZARDRY II, a scenario disk. Despite the
similarity, WIZARDRY falls far short of the revamped version of ULTIMA I, which
looks as good and plays much better.

 Technically, THE ZORK TRILOGY was not a trilogy, but rather one large mainframe
program split into three separate games in order to fit into 48K and 64K
computers: fundamentally, one complete game. The ULTIMA series, however, is an
ongoing epic adventure, with each installment building logically upon the
hack-and-slash foundation of ULTIMA I.

 A world unfolds and expands in THE ULTIMA TRILOGY, a world alive with important
ideas and events. And it is in this unfolding that much of the charm of the
series lies. As dated as it is, as outclassed as it is by fast-moving, 3-D
graphics and animation, and despite the questionable intricacy of ULTIMA III,
THE ULTIMA TRILOGY can be considered a contemporary classic, an integrated work
that set the standards from which all subsequent role-playing adventures have
evolved.

 THE ULTIMA TRILOGY is published and distributed by ORIGIN.

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