Deathlord - kind of like an advanced Ultima III, but with a Japanese theme; large world with lots of big dungeons; hardcore (ie. the game saves if a character dies)
Ooooh that sounds
nice. :D I think I'll do that next, since I have no means of getting Ultima II and III.
Ultima... right. I wrote a review for it. I went out and tried to find a place where I could get some reviews for all these old RPGs. I was interested in how they played. However, there is no central source out there. I think other people are like me as well, but I have some free time on my hands. So, I figure I'll play them myself and post what exactly the games are about. I will try refraining from drawing connections to later games in the series, or any other RPGs that came after.
Chefe Reviews Ultima I
Manual
http://ultima.gogab.com/u1a-97.zip
Strategy and Keyboard Commands
http://www.rpgclassics.com/shrines/pc/u ... ands.shtml
Upon first playing Ultima I, you might feel like driving your head through a wall, which is why reading the manual and having the list of keyboard commands handy is an absolute necessity. The story boils down to you being a stranger in this magical land who must defeat the evil wizard bent on worldwide destruction.
There are a multitude of keyboard commands, but the only ones that are really necessary are A for attack, B for entering vehicles, E for entering places, X for exiting vehicles, U for unlocking chests, R for equipping stuff, and Q for save. Character creation isn't anything to write home about. For one thing, charisma is useless as you cannot talk to anyone except shopkeeps and kings. It does give you a discount on buying items, but since you'll be swimming in money that's not a problem. Speaking of which, there are many stores, but only a handful of items available for purchase in each category (except for food, which there is only one), and there is no description of them or their power anywhere. Wisdom, I'm guessing, helps with priest spells, but I couldn't find any. Since combat is turn based, and everyone has ONE turn, I don't see a point in agility.
Gameplay can be addicting, but it's not that compelling. Your race and class provide some stat boosts, but that's it. Anyone can cast spells, although I don't know why you would want to, since spells are really one-time-use scrolls with no descriptions. There is no overworld map or dungeon map. The overworld map is not that much of a problem, but the dungeons are all pseudo-3D wireframe. Going further in a dungeon is not something you want to do because it's impossible to get out without great luck. In fact, because of the health system, it's detrimental to do so! This brings me to my next point. You don't need to go further than the first room anyways. Enemies randomly spawn all the time - and I mean
all the time. You could run back and forth down the same hallway and be accosted by bats, rangers, and thiefs, one after the other. Chests and coffins (same thing as chests, but require you to use O to open them) are randomly generated when you use a ladder (the only means of dungeon level-to-level and dungeon-to-overworld conveyance).
Can you see where I'm going with this? I didn't even mention the best, and wierdest, part. You gain a certain amount of health back when you exit the dungeon based on the amount of enemies you kill. There doesn't appear to be any upper limit to the amount of health you can have. Also, since enemies on the overworld are way too tough for you to handle, dungeons are the only places where you
can gain experience. Attacking is simply a matter of mashing the A key over and over. Therefore, there is only one way to play this game. You enter a dungeon, run up and down the first hallway (and maybe the hallway next to it, if you're feeling adventurous), mash A whenever you run into an enemy, then after killing a few exit the dungeon and immediately re-enter. Rinse and repeat. Unless your keyboard is broken, you'll end up with hundreds of more hitpoints than when you first entered the dungeon. You can also buy hitpoints from kings (lolwut?), but because of the aforementioned method it's pointless.
You also gain money from killing enemies, and it goes up faster than your hitpoints. You can use money to buy weapons, armor, food, and transportation. Weapons and armor, as I already said, are a very limited selection, so you should have the best gear in the game by your second shop visit. Food is something you stock up on early on, then forget completely about. You consume a unit of food every step (or every few steps if using a vehicle), and I guess you die or something if you run out, though I didn't bother trying. At the transportation counter, you can buy everything from a horse to a space shuttle. I'm not kidding. Every little shop in every little town has a space shuttle for purchase. You use the space shuttle to, suprise suprise, go into space, where you shoot some objects that are required to beat the game, and try to dock in an area one pixel wide. In towns, there are also pubs where you can buy ale, but as far as I can tell it doesn't do anything. Also in towns you'll occasionally get a message that a jester or bard says something, but they always say the same line and it doesn't make much sense. More miscellanous stuff includes money being divided up into gold, silver, and copper, which in itself is a good thing, but the full numerical amount of your money is always displayed on screen, so there's no point in it.
Death is a minor inconvenience. You are immediately resurrected, but have no money, no weapon, and 99 hitpoints. You can avoid this by saving (just hit Q) alot. You can save anywhere, even in the middle of battle (well, actually you cannot save in dungeons). Unless you're a true masochist, there is no reason why you would ever continue with a character that just died.
What else? Oh, right, quests. You're given such noble tasks as killing a gelatinous cube and finding a grave. You go up to a king and hit S for service, then he'll say something along the lines of "Go kill a gelatinous cube, and don't return until you've done so!" You are given no direction of where to find any of these monsters or places (hint, hint, they're in the lower levels of dungeons - randomly generated of course, so cross your fingers if you feel like completing these pointless quests). That's it.
There is no sound except the old IBM bleeps and bloops. You can turn off these annoyances by hitting N. Graphics on the overworld let you differentiate from objects, locations, and critters. Dungeons are masses of black with some white lines, but there's not a unique line to tell you which room you're in, and you cannot leave piles of loot around so you cannot create any markers for yourself. There are no wierd pastel colors, so I give the overworld graphics an B+ and the dungeon graphics an F-.
Ultima I can be a fun divergance for an afternoon, but doesn't really go beyond further exploration. I found hitting the A key and gaining virtual points being very addicting. I give it a 2/10. I didn't bother completing it. In case you were wondering, I was a dwarf fighter named Chief.
Thoughts?
