"A real classic."

Ok, I'm not the biggest fan of modern video games. They worry to little about gameplay, and too much about graphics. For this reason, modern games usually can't hold a candle to older games. Ultima is a perfect example.

Gameplay 9/10

While the game is simple hack-n-slash(-n-shoot, later) action, I absolutely loved the gameplay, since there was always something to do. You travel across an overworld, made up of four continents, each containing two castles, with a lord in it. You start of running errands. As you perform tasks and sack evil monstrosities, you gain experience. Every 1000 exp., you gain a level, up to level ten. You earn money by fighting monsters, and you buy weapons, vehicles, and armour. As the game progresses, the stuff you can buy becomes increasingly advanced, up to the point where your equipment and vehicles are reminiscent of Star Wars.

The control is very good, and very simple. Forget the mouse. Every thing's down on the keyboard. Every command has an assigned key, (A for attack, T for Talk), and you just press the key you want. Simple as that.

I did take a point off, because at the end of the game, you go into space, and the game uses a very simple space combat system, which can get very tedious.

Difficulty Easy/Medium

I had a hard time at first, since I didn't understand some game mechanics, but once I figured out what was going on, It got pretty easy, until the space part at the end.

Graphics 6/10

I prefer older graphics over the newer, ''better'' graphics, so I tried to be fair. For it's time, these were pretty good. No glitches, and the use of lines on a black background for dungeon crawling looks great! However, most modern gamers would hate these. Ranged combat and spells are simply an orange circle which floats at the enemy, and there aren't any animations. When you move, the graphic for your character moves over one tile.

Sound 3/10

There isn't any real sound, just beeps when fighting, and those are barely audible. This was typical on games released in 1980.

Replayability 5/10

The game's pretty short, and there aren't any sidequests, except for maybe trying to save all the princesses, but the dungeons are randomly generated at the beginning of each game, so you might find that interesting.

Recommendation Buy

Not only is this a good game, but if you can find a place that rent's this, I'll shoot myself(Not really).

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/07/03