Anachronox, Arcanum and Ultima VII reviews

[xantrius]

Could someone point me to some good reviews of these three?

 

[Ander Vinz]

Sure, my friend. You can find them all here.

 

[xantrius]

*sigh*

 

[JarlFrank]

Try sites like gamefaqs and read user reviews, those are usually pretty good as they are from people who've played the game, not bribed media people. People from gamefaqs.com are retards, though, so there might be some stupid stuff in there. If you're looking for some bigger official reviews... well, google is your friend.

 

[Section8]

Gamerankings is a reasonable starting point too, as long as you ignore the major outlets.

 

[Jason]

RP was going to write an Anachronox review until he was murdered by that fiend and impostor, Diogo Ribeiro. It was a sad day.

 

[Nedrah]

Also, while tubgirling people is not only fun but also a sacred codexian tradition, I feel it should be reserved for those who ask all the wrong questions - not really cases where people ask for info about decent to great games. Remember kids, it doesn't make you look cool or something if you don't know when to do it, and how it should be <a href="http://www.forumspile.com/Goatse-Girl.jpg">executed.</a>

Also, <a href="http://www.geocities.com/ataniel/uviireview.htm">here</a> is a player written review of Ultima 7 - guess geocities means it shouldn't be too mainstream. It's not very good either. However, you can also find plenty of information regarding the game(s) on <a href="http://jedyt.tripod.com/">this site</a>

 

[Texas Red]

Funny you should ask this question because a moment ago I was hunting for reviews on Anachronox. I had to go through several sources because all of them lacked fundamental information I needed to prepare myself. After reading a 3rd review I only then found out that there is some kind of a magic system. I still don't know a thing about character skills though because nobody cares to mention it.

Anyway, I launched the game and I was blown away by the sheer awesomeness. The atmoshpere is great, it has plenty of weird going on and the setting is damned interesting as well. Great sci fi. I can't believe that I haven't even heard about Anachronox a few months ago.

One thing: mandatory mini games NEED to be stopped. Please.

 

[MetalCraze]

One thing: mandatory mini games NEED to be stopped. Please.

they won't be stopped. be prepared for some very boring moments because of this.

but otherwise Anachronox is awesome. The story is good, the characters are a mocking of cliches and also lots of fun stuff. yes some Star Wars mocking is also intact.

however beware of bugs - as many people have them. though I've completed the game unpatched (v.1.0 that is) without any problems.

 

[Lemon]

Make sure you play on hard. Easy and medium will bore you to tears in Anachronox.

 

[Hory]

The unofficial patch has a shortcut so that when you press a key, everything moves 10 times faster. Works outside of battle too.

 

[Paulie]

As a newcomer to the Ultima series , i also did a bit of searching for good reviews about Ultima 7 which i really want to play. I don't want to start a new thread for this so i'm asking you guys what do i have to know about Ultima 7. Is it worth playing? ( gameplay mechanics, story , roleplaying -everything ).

 

[Jasede]

There's no roleplaying as such, combat is brokenly easy in realtime, but at least not tedious, the story of Part 1 is good, of Part 2 is incredibly excellent, the music is great, the mechanics are incredibly simple and mean very little since the addon of Part 1 basically maxes our your character completely, and there's no roleplaying, no choices and no consequences as far as I am concerned.

That aside, it's one of the best RPGs ever made. U7-2 is in my personal top ten. Why don't you just play it and see for yourself instead of trying to find what other people think? Other people are usually retarded anyway.

 

[Nedrah]

First of all, get yourself <a href="http://exult.sourceforge.net/">exult</a>, so you can run the game without any hassles. Also, make sure you have a translation of the runes used ingame (part of the manual) and an ingame map (I recommend just getting a translated one). You also need to understand that there is not one Ultima 7. You have Ultima 7 The black gate + expansion (the first game) and Ultima 7 The serpent isle + expansion, which uses the same engine but can be played as a standalone game. While many people would agree that serpent isle is better, you still may want to play the black gate first to get the full experience.

Can't really say wether it's particularily roleplaying heavy. It certainly isn't in the sense that the Witcher or NWN2:motb is, but you still get to play through a great story and a world that lives and breathes in a way that few, if any, games have managed to achieve so far. You can certainly have a fair amount of freeform gameplay. Do not expect too much c&c, but fully expect the effects that you have on the world (and vise versa) to be non-trivial.

Combat sucks, so does your companions combat AI. It's bearable, though, especially if you add the rather well executed magic system into the mix.

Also, Jasede's of course right, you should just pay and play every game ever instead of trying to make an informed decision by asking people whose oppinion you trust. In that spirit, make sure not to frequent any forums that are mostly about people (who are retarded, you know) arguing about games and sharing their oppinions and experiences. Just play the fucking games.



Edit:

Is it worth playing?

Hell yeah

 

[Binary]

It is of course slightly different playing Ultima 7 when it was released and playing it nowadays for the first time. It's still excellent today (only Ultima 6 and Darklands compare imho), but when it came out it was an absolutely "killer app".

 

[Nedrah]

Yeah, those graphics are still somewhat pleasant to look at in a strange way today, although they make me want to play Ultima online pretty badly. I remember the game being fresh, though - everyone was pretty sure that was as good as rpg (or pretty much any graphics) were going to get. Needles to say that its gameplay was way ahead of its time.

 

[Texas Red]

So in Anachronox you have absolutely no control over your stats? The characters just improve themselves when leveling up?

 

[DraQ]

So in Anachronox you have absolutely no control over your stats? The characters just improve themselves when leveling up?

No, you don't. You also don't play Anachronox for it jRPG-clone mechanics. You play it for story, characters and lulz. This game looks like a result of Final Fantasy and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy having a hot night together. The best thing you can do is probably treating it like an adventure game with jRPGish tag-along combat (which can be enjoyable too as long as you just click buttons and sit back enjoying animations).

There is a "magic" system of sort, but since revealing it would be a spoilar I'll refrain from talking about it.

 

[k_bits]

Could someone point me to some good reviews of these three?

mobygames.com ?

 

[afewhours]

One thing: mandatory mini games NEED to be stopped. Please.

Was the "Mandance" mini-game from Anachronox mandatory? If so, then all the mandatory mini-games I fought through were worth it for that one moment.

 

[Redeye]

There is a cheat code to skip combat, but it doesn't work properly for the last couple of boss fights.

I used it out of boredom.

Sometimes the fights are fun. Nuclear explosions/etc.


Even if I was using the skip codes to avoid boring fights, I would still be careful to keep upgrading weapons/etc.


The magic system is definitely worth figuring out.

 

[xantrius]

Thanks for the info/ suggestion given.

 

[Texas Red]

What exactly does leveling up in Anachronox do? I can see the added 100 health and apparently a boost in damage, which is not indicated anywhere .

Any way to turn off the cinematic action during combat? It all spins around like crazy right now.

 

[Shannow]

Thanks Nedrah, If always wondered how to find reviews. Although I think you made a mistake there.
I think you wanted us to see this review:
<a href="http://www.forumspile.com/Goatse-Girl.jpg">http://archive.gamespy.com/reviews/august01/anachronox/</a>

 

[mirrorshades]

mobygames.com ?

+1

Usually my first stop for game info. Here you go, to save you some clicking:

http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/ultim ... black-gate
http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/a ... ck-obscura
http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/anachronox

User reviews usually begin about halfway down the page. Each of these games has around 10 user-submitted reviews; reviews are moderated and must be approved, so they tend to be at least somewhat decently written.