Review Ultima 7 - The Black Gate Review

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Origin Systems; Ultima VII: The Black Gate

<p>Spoony released <a href="http://spoonyexperiment.com/2011/02/01/ultima-7-the-black-gate-review/" target="_blank">another one of his video reviews</a>, this time on <strong>Ultima 7 &ndash; The Black Gate</strong>.</p>
<p><em>Know that Britannia is about to enter a new age of enlightenment&hellip;</em></p>
<p><em><br /></em></p>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/101466-ultima-vii-the-black-gate-video-review.html">Gamebanshee</a></p>

 

[kmnWolfman]

Old news is one week old.

Ultima VII is up.

http://spoonyexperiment.com/2011/02/01/ultima-7-the-black-gate-review/

It is long, which worried me, because I thought there might be more stupid Chuckles shit, but fortunately it was (almost) entirely about the game.

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

This is the Codex. All news is old. Especially old news.

 

[Metro]

Stopped watching after eight minutes. Not familiar with this guy but does he ever start to actually review the game rather than recount the narrative? Only critique I picked up was the flaw in revealing the Fellowship as the bad guys right away. Legitimate but... yeah... don't feel like watching another eight minutes of exposition for another critique/opinion. Reminds me of those skits with Chris Farley on SNL where he'd do those comedic 'interviews' with celebrities where he'd just enumerate all the cool accomplishments they had done rather than ask actual questions.

 

[Xor]

It's supposed to be a retrospective, not a review. I did think the first 6 videos were better, though.

 

[Metro]

In that case I stand corrected.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

There's a whine in there about how the game has no journal to help you keep track of quests, assignments, hints, clues, rumours and whatnot.

THAT'S WHAT THE PEN AND PAPER WERE INVENTED FOR, JACKASS!

 

[AlaCarcuss]

There's a whine in there about how the game has no journal to help you keep track of quests, assignments, hints, clues, rumours and whatnot.

THAT'S WHAT THE PEN AND PAPER WERE INVENTED FOR, JACKASS!

PEN AND FUCKING PAPER!! I 'spose you still walk around with cash in your wallet too?

 

[zeitgeist]

There's a whine in there about how the game has no journal to help you keep track of quests, assignments, hints, clues, rumours and whatnot.

THAT'S WHAT THE PEN AND PAPER WERE INVENTED FOR, JACKASS!

Speaking of pen and paper, I would really like to see proper journals and maps once again appear in cRPGs as more than just an afterthought. For some reason I'm very fond of typing personal notes on various things, making my own waypoints with descriptions, writing down codes, riddles, etc. and for a game to fully support that, it also requires a certain school of design (that doesn't really exist anymore) that makes this if not outright necessary, then at least useful.

This obviously isn't applicable to multiplatform games, but in PC games, it's possible to achieve this really neat synergy between the input system, the general PC (and OS) conventions, and the actual game (Deus Ex is one somewhat simplistic example where the designers actually understood that the player would be using a PC to play the game, which is very apparent in the UI design. Although, now that I think of it, I have no idea how they handled copypasting, code entry, typing notes and such in the console port of DX, has anyone played it?)

 

[Metro]

There's a whine in there about how the game has no journal to help you keep track of quests, assignments, hints, clues, rumours and whatnot.

Glad I didn't bother watching until the end... Not like there was some massive overload of information that couldn't be jotted down on a spare post-it note.

 

[taxalot]

I do not remember the Fellowship was THAT obvious to be the bad guys. Sure you had hints, but wasn't a fair part of the game spent finding evidence?

 

[made]

I do not remember the Fellowship was THAT obvious to be the bad guys. Sure you had hints, but wasn't a fair part of the game spent finding evidence?

Even when it became evident that the inner circle was in league with the guardian the situation wasn't clear-cut. The lower ranks did a lot of good for the poor that had been abandoned by LB and the avatar, while certain other members used their position to exploit the populace. Moral ambiguity done right.

PS: Spoony sucks

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

I remember that the Fellowship felt creepy as hell to me and I felt like they are obvious bad guys even without knowing that they are in league with Guardian.

 

[Excommunicator]

The Fellowship in the practical sense - that is, the masses of normal citizens with memberships - weren't bad at all as made said, they even contributed a lot to society. Arguably, even Batlin, Abraham, Elizabeth and the like, did things to contribute to society, regardless of motives and immoral side activities (just as with any major religion or large community group in the real world). For someone to say that the organisation in the game was anything but morally ambiguous, it would be a case of being guilty of trying to simplify it into more easily processable gaming terms.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

There's a whine in there about how the game has no journal to help you keep track of quests, assignments, hints, clues, rumours and whatnot.

Funny thing I never really had a problem with that back then. I had no clues, no hint book or walkthrough and yet I managed to get through the whole game myself. Of course, I had missed a lot of things and sideplots, but I was "almost" able to finish the game.

I didn't manage to finish because I was caught by a bug, that one which you fly over avatar island with the flying carpet, and a door closes forever. I knew about it after reading about the bug and had to use a cheat code to remove the door. Only then I was able to finish the game.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

The Fellowship in the practical sense - that is, the masses of normal citizens with memberships - weren't bad at all as made said, they even contributed a lot to society. Arguably, even Batlin, Abraham, Elizabeth and the like, did things to contribute to society, regardless of motives and immoral side activities (just as with any major religion or large community group in the real world). For someone to say that the organisation in the game was anything but morally ambiguous, it would be a case of being guilty of trying to simplify it into more easily processable gaming terms.

To me it was obvious that they have twisted the Virtues or have tried to replace them, even though it was the first Ultima game that I have played.

 

[taxalot]

I wonder if he's going to review Serpent Isle and what he'll say about the last third of the game.

God, that felt broken. People who complain about KOTOR 2's ending should really see the last part of U7SI. Everything stops to make sense. You aren't even told why the Guardian is trying to open the Wall of Lights !

 

[Darth Slaughter]

I wonder if he's going to review Serpent Isle and what he'll say about the last third of the game.

God, that felt broken. People who complain about KOTOR 2's ending should really see the last part of U7SI. Everything stops to make sense. You aren't even told why the Guardian is trying to open the Wall of Lights !

Well, by the schedules he posted in his site, he will. He didn't played underworlds, though, so probably he will only mention them.

 

[J_C]

There's a whine in there about how the game has no journal to help you keep track of quests, assignments, hints, clues, rumours and whatnot.

THAT'S WHAT THE PEN AND PAPER WERE INVENTED FOR, JACKASS!

Yes because a cRPG with dozens of quests does not need an ingame journal at all. Journals are for popamoles.

 

[taxalot]

When's the last time you guys ever held a pen?

 

[AlaCarcuss]

When's the last time you guys ever held a penis?

Fixed.

... and I'm holding one right now.

 

[J_C]

When's the last time you guys ever held a penis?

Fixed.

... and I'm holding one right now.

I hope it's your own.

 

[m_s0]

I do not remember the Fellowship was THAT obvious to be the bad guys. Sure you had hints, but wasn't a fair part of the game spent finding evidence?

Unless you've never bothered to watch the intro, the game basically tells you who they are at the beginning. Remember the play?

 

[Virtual Vice]

I do not remember the Fellowship was THAT obvious to be the bad guys. Sure you had hints, but wasn't a fair part of the game spent finding evidence?

It was reasonably obvious or at least it appeared as very very likely from the early game onward.

The biggest problem regarding this in my opinion is that if you read the game manual it was as obvious as it gets.

 

[Sceptic]

Unless you've never bothered to watch the intro

There's nothing in the intro about the Fellowship is there? There's the Guaridan, an otherworld being of power who taunts the Avatar about invading Britannia, but there's nothing to link him to the Fellowship at first.