Ultima (1981)

For a significant portion of my life, I've derived a certain degree of pride from my interest in, knowledge of, and experience with archetypical pieces of media. I spent half of my last year of high school catching up on every single classic Doctor Who episode I could get my hands on. I wrote my bachelor's thesis on the origin of a literary genre, with concrete precedents dating back to antiquity. And ever since my late primary school years, I've spent a rather large amount of time looking into classic video games that I was either too young or too frugal to experience when they were new.

While Ultima is easily the farthest back I've gone, there was a certain sense of familiarity I felt in going through this (admittedly not very long) game— but ironically, thinking upon it makes me realize that most of this familiarity comes from my experience with games upon which it was undoubtedly an influence. The rather roundabout way in which I ended up playing through this game in the space of a couple nights is directly related to this connection; what with the Steam autumn sale coming up, I put together a list of recommendations for immersive sim-style games that I had come across recently, which included the great granddaddies of the genre, the Ultima Underworld duology. A quick search led to a good few declarations that experiencing the preceding Ultima titles was not necessary to understand the stories of those games, but between said predecessors already being present in a previous to-play list I had done (related to dungeon-crawling RPGs) and me being me, I sure wasn't about to listen. Appropriately enough, the prior experiences that this game made me reminisce about were largely connected to both of the lineups I've just mentioned; whether they be System Shock (very old-timey looking UI that ended up feeling very homey and cozy), Elder Scrolls Arena and Daggerfall (randomly generated dungeons where you have to use magic to fuck with the structure to be able to reliably complete them?), or even the prototypical JRPGs like Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy that this game so obviously influenced (I had no idea how far the plot and progression similarities with the latter stretched until I finally finished going through this experience).

While we're namedropping other early RPGs, this is probably a good opportunity to talk about how this game actually functions and progresses. One privilege I do have as someone approaching this game nearly 45(!) years after the fact is the wealth of information about it I can readily access to ease my journey through it, an option I often take in endeavors such as this for the sake of treating my own time with respect; having reached the end of this experience, I can say with certainty that this was the right choice. One point of contrast is that, unlike a lot of what we think of today as "conventional" RPGs, starting your journey by going on a jaunt around the grassy fields looking for baddies to beat up so that you can get stronger and make some money is not really the best choice; you're much better off heading straight into a dungeon and doing it there instead, since not only will you have much more frequent encounters (a necessity in the early game, given that you're always running a food meter that depletes to some degree with every move you make, and refilling it costs money), but you'll actually get free HP refills every time you leave based on how many monsters you slew while inside. What you can't do, however, is improve your stats by slaying monsters, even if you level up; in order to do that, you'll have to save up for a vehicle that'll get you off the continent you start out in and go find signposts in distant islands that'll raise your stats by increasingly small amounts every time you visit (if this also sounds reminiscent of what you do in early Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest games, well, you can probably guess why).

While doing this, or rather after you've spent a while doing it (much like doing the Hermaeus Mora quest over and over early on in Arena, maxing your stats out early is not only the smart move but the expected one), you'll also take on quests from the kings of the lands, whether to visit some of these distant monuments and report back, or to pop into any one dungeon and slay a monster that can be found in the deeper levels (incidentally, while the dungeons in these games and even their immediate contemporaries Akalabeth and Wizardry were far from the first to use the distinctive monochrome vector graphics to create a first person view, they were among the most archetypical and influential in the dungeon crawling sphere; The Portopia Serial Murder Case and even one of the boss minigames in the first WarioWare, Inc. are two examples of Japanese games parodying this kind of dungeon perspective that immediately come to mind). Beating these monster slaying quests will ultimately award you with four colorful orbs, which you will eventually use to travel to the distant past so that you can challenge the big baddie while he's vulnerable— but not before you've beaten up some belligerent knights, rescued a princess, and traveled into space in a shuttle to shoot enough alien ships to earn the appropriate bragging rights (Tiamat is nowhere to be found though).

Honestly, this is all pretty impressive when you consider that not only was it first done on the Apple ][ with some of the most basic graphics you can think of and no music, but it was done well enough that you can still see its influence today. A lot of the basic RPG mechanics that inform the whole experience obviously predate it by at least a few years, coming from the traditional pen and paper tabletop format, but being one of the first major translations of that into a video game format has definitely counted for something in the long run. Given that it shouldn't take you too long to run through this entire game if you use a guide, I would dare say that it's still very much worth checking out today if, like me, you want to experience a prototypical piece of history firsthand. In my case, it may end up as a sort of gateway to lead me back into not only going back and doing a proper run-through of the rest of the numbered Ultima titles, but also related series that found their start in the same timeframe, like Wizardry, Bard's Tale and Might & Magic. Taking one more step even further back and attempting to finally fully run through Akalabeth properly as well will probably end up being the next stepping stone on this journey, though.

Look: 6/10 Functional, not as impressive as I was hoping/expecting. Mind you, I was playing the original release, the California Pacific one for Apple II.

Sound: 5/10 Let's be honest, the battle noises etc are just plain annoying.

Play: 6/10 The battles were too long and boring. I really liked the brief character creation process, the concepts like open world and incorporating space sim in an RPG, and the clear influence on the JRPGs that formed my love for videogames. Hopefully the 1986 remake will help with some of this. I probly hyped this up too much after reading some guides and looking at some maps. I feel like this is a more epic and expansive Dragonstomper, but I had bit more fun playing that.

Feel: 7/10 Definitely one that's better reading about than actually playing. After reading up on it, and getting all ready to play it, even getting through the character creation that usually turns me off of these early CRPGs, it just turned out to be too slow and disappointing for me to push through the Space Ace part or finish the game. Amazing concept, amazing build to the game, but these early CRPGs just aren't for me right now. I hope I'm not turned off of later RPGs now too! Gah. Edit: Oh wow, after reading the preexisting review, it sounds like a theme: learn from us--don't over-read about the game, don't overprepare, and don't overhype. Just jump in if you're in the mood to give a very early CRPG a try. Maybe just have gamefaqs pulled up if necessary for tips or maps, but otherwise try to just enjoy it yourself.

Attachment: 8/10 I love the large open world, the multiple continents, the air car, the plotline. This is a game I will probly remember, think about, and read about more than enjoy heh. Still, was worth a shot. And maybe when I have more patience with games, I should return to this. The fact I know I will be returning to this for the 1986 remake, and giving later Ultima series entries a try, despite my feelings toward this playtest,

To be blunt this game has not aged well (in my opinion at least). My advice for anyone considering this title is to play it like people played games in the early 1980s. Take the time to map out dungeons and the over-world with pencils and paper. Resist the temptation to look everything up online, and instead restrict your reading to the manual and a few general tips. Finally, take your time with this game. Let your time with this title be an act of love.

As far as I can see it this is the best way to play this game. I know this because I basically did the opposite for my playthrough. Applying a modern gaming mindset to this old title made it a slog. The reward of this game is the discovery, but I read walkthroughs and spoiled it all for myself immediately. There was no discovery, only moving from point A to point B, level grinding, and pushing to finish it all as fast as I could. Ultimately this made for an unsatisfying experience.