First of all, Ultima VII is a detective game where combat and dungeon exploration are merely an afterthought, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The problem is that, althought the game is mostly about talking with NPCs, traveling from town to town, and manipulating and pushing objects around to find clues and solve puzzles, these core activities got overly streamlined and dumbed-down.
For example, the dialogue system got streamlined in favor of a mouse-only interface, so you no longer can type keywords to prompt NPC reactions. This is a baffling decision for a mystery-themed game as it cripples the whole clue-gathering aspect so important to the Ultima series. Because of this, clever players can no longer sequence-break the now rigid plot, there can no longer be implicit or environmental clues, and oblivious players will be able to unlock all dialogue options without much thought (I remember solving a crime in Empath Abbey just by mindlessly clicking all dialogue options available, it was so lame). Karma meters are also gone, so you no longer can say things that could hinder your progress later on, and of course, character stats and spells will never affect these activities.
Earlier Ultima games had an abstract presentation, while Ultima VII tried a more realistic and "cinematic" (and vomit-inducing) top-down perspective. This seemingliy minor detail had huge consequences in game design, like the removal of many interesting systems, a dumbed-down combat system where you can only control the main character in real time (yes, I know that most Ultima games have mediocre combat, but before Ultima VII this wasn't set in stone yet: Ultima VI had a serviceable turn-based system, while combat in Ultima V was actually top-notch), and many other decisions like having to manually fed party members like fucking babies every couple of minutes. There's for example no more blink spells to avoid enemies and reach hidden spots; horses are now useless and only there to please LARPers; there's naval exploration, but winds no longer affect navigation, there's no more ship to ship combat nor boarding stages, and ships are now indestructible; there are moongates but they're no longer puzzles to be solved; and the magic carpet quickly renders all other transportation means obsolete anyways.
Character customization became meaningless, with no character creation nor classes, worthless stats, and little to no moral choices. Quests got also more linear, and the loss of interesting systems like teleportation spells or being able to blowup doors made them more generic (Ultima was no Quest for Glory in that regard, but before VII quests with multiple solutions were not rare), and for a game with so much emphasis on moving objects around and some rudimentary physics, it's hard to believe that character attributes and spells barely affect these activities. It would have been nice to have some strength checks when pushing objects around, dexterity or intelligence checks when playing instruments, and so on, but unfortunately by this time Garriott had become a full-fledged LARPer.
The plot in Ultima VII was actually good, but it's also a more generic good vs evil tale compared to Ultima IV or VI. Britannia itself on the other hand is a setting that feels dumber the more detailed it gets, and Ultima VII offers by far its most detailed iteration. There's also lots of seemingly interesting bits of lore that seasoned players will recognize as the plots from the previous Ultima games being retconned.
Because of all this, newcomers tend to enjoy Ultima VII way more than many Ultima veterans. This explains why the game got slammed by critics and had poor sales back in 1992, while today it's considered a huge classic.
And to be fair, it can be argued that many of these flaws (or virtues) that I associate with Ultima VII were already present in Ultima VI, but I believe it should get a pass for being a very exciting step forward in game design at the time, unlike Ultima VII which just polished that formula in the lamest way possible, while ignoring what made Ultima IV and V (arguably the peak of the series if we ignore the Underworld spinoff) so great. At the very least Ultima VI still offered a competent enough turn-based combat system, a superior dialogue system, and the illusion of moral choices.
