Ultima Worlds of Adventure: The Savage Empire

"A wonderfully involving Ultima game."

Savage Empire is an adventure game with RPG elements. It's involving, detailed, and most importantly, fun!

Game Play - 9

There's an incredible amount of things to do, in Savage Empire. And numerous ways to do them. You can interact with just about everything and everyone in the game. A fine example is making a clay pot. Get a stick from a tree. Use the stick to dig up clay from the riverbed. Shape the lumb of clay into a put. Fire it with a kiln, or a firepit. Almost everything you see can be used. Run out of bandages? Harvest flax from a yucca plant, weave it on a loom, and then cut it into strips with a stone knife.

The battle system is easy to learn, and you get decide ahead of time how you want characters to fight. Have your strong characters charge into battle, or have the weaker characters fight from afar, or even flee to safer ground. The Magic system is nice, using a simple offering of a Totem and a Plant to cast a spell. Some of the spells are useless, but others are quite important of the game.

The NPCs are even better. Talk to random people in the village to find out their name, job and tribe. Ask them about local flora and fauna. And these are just characters that don't matter do the plot. Integral characters all have unique personalities, accents, and knowledge.

Quests range from ''ah, this is simple! I know exactly what to do'' to ''oh god, how will I ever accomplish this?''

Story - 8

After getting lost in Eodon, you'll find you'll have to unite the tribes to fight a common enemy. You'll have to do a favour to most of the chiefs in order for them to accept. it makes sense, but it's basically the same story through the whole game.

Graphics - 9

This uses the Ultima 6 engine. Everything is incredibly detailed for such an old game. Go to a northern tribe and everyone's dressed in bear skins. So south and the tribepeople wear grass skirts and flowers. There are large amounts of dinosaurs and animals, all with their own unique graphics. You'll be amazed the first time you come upon a T-Rex. Occasionally there will be still-picture cut-scenes at important plot points.

Audio - 7

Nice, but the music can, and will get a little grating after a while.

Replayability - 7

There are several hidden characters and places that are hard to find on your first run-through of the game.

Overall Score - 9

I may be fond of this game for nostalgic reasons, but it passes the test of time, and every now and again I find myself wanting to play through yet again. :) I highly suggest this game to all old-school gamers looking for another RPG or Adventure game to pass the summer away with.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/22/02, Updated 07/22/02