Yes, it’s still my #1 RPG, though it wasn’t perfect; I’ve talked about some of the minor flaws before. The one real problem with the game, though, is that it had no legs.
In most RPGs, you replay to find stuff you missed, to try out a different character or party mix, and/or experience a different path through the game. None of that mattered in Ultima IV.
There was only one path, and it had to be followed down into the Codex Room; that was the only way to win. You needed a full party of eight, and it was always the same party, pretty much. It would be slightly different, depending on your class, but that was trivial.
The real meat of the game was gathering information: learning the mantras, the locations of the virtue stones, the three-part keyword, where the shrines were, and which NPCs would join, among other things. You had to talk to a lot of people, often several times, to find out everything important.
But once you knew all that, replaying the game was mechanical. You’d learned the mantras last time, so no need to track them down. Ditto for pretty much everything (and everyone) else. You just bounced around the map, picking up who or what you needed, as soon as you were able. Talking to people almost (not quite) dropped out of your activities.
It’s a sad thought that what I consider still the best RPG is really a one-time experience. Of course, I did play it a second time, to ensure all my notes were correct (which meant talking to everyone again, urgg). But that was all.
When the game was released to the public domain, I downloaded it and tried it once more. But I didn’t get very far. I knew it too well, even after all that time, and there didn’t seem any sense in continuing. So I didn’t. Sigh.
But hey, it was great the first time around, and that’s what counts. I’m glad there was that first time. Ah yes, the good old days…
There’s no such thing as the perfect game. Ultima 7 was very close, but the combat system is a shame. Ultima 6 didn’t have as many strong points as 7, but it didn’t have any weak point, and the game is less linear than Ultima 4.
Whew! Your memory is clearly better than mine, since I’m pretty vague about the details from that long ago. However, I almost never COMPLETE an RPG, let alone play one twice. (When I do load up an old game, I usually start over from the beginning,… and quit about the same point where I quit the first time.)
No matter how much I like a game, I tend to get bored with it after awhile and want something new. Am I really that unusual? As a game-player, I mean. I KNOW I’m unusual. :)
I played Wasteland over and over again. Partially that is because I really enjoyed the story. But also wanted to see how high I could get my characters using the reset tool.
I also played Darklands repeatedly. This one was because of the freeform nature of the design and all the little random quest to do, many of which were mutually exclusive. I also liked playing different character types. Although because it was so buggy I never actually finished the main story.
Not really a true RPG as we would call it but Starflight, Universe II, and Elite all got high marks in replayability.
Played Fallout a few times just to make sure I got everything. Fallout II bogged down a couple hours in and despite trying again a few months ago I STILL can’t get past the town with the thieving little kids. FOT:BS I love playing still. But it isn’t a RPG in any real sense.
Modern games tend to bore me very quickly and the ones that require 100+ hours to finish I get 20% in at most.
A few months ago my son asked what was my favorite game so I loaded U4 and we played it for an afternoon. He didn’t stick with it, probably the retro graphics didn’t appeal to him. What I found out is that after over 20 years of playing it I have forgot many of the details so it would be playable again to me. I remember that there was a mantra CAW, and the hidden city of Cove, and many other things, but a lot was like it was new. I had forgot the location of many of the the shrines and stuff like that. Strangely enough, I remember the details of Ultima III better than IV.
Memory is a funny thing. I seem to have a very short memory for films and books. I can read a book 20 years later and it will be like reading it for the first time. I will remember some details, maybe the basic plot, but sometimes not even the ending. On the other hand I was recently converting some albums to MP3 and could sing along and remember the lyrics of songs I hadn’t heard in 30 years. I think that might be the key for me, repetition. The songs I had heard multiple times, the book or movie was a one time thing. The movies I have seen several times I can remember well, but not the ones I saw a single time.
I don’t mind how long a game is if I am still having fun. I probably have 60 hours into Kings Bounty now, I just opened the passage to the 5th and last continent. I am still enjoying it even after that amount of play. The Witcher was the same way - I was still enjoying it when it ended. Others though, I got tired halfway through. After 60+ hours of playing Oblivion I got tired of it and just followed the main story line to complete it, leaving several side quests unfinished. Titan Quest was another that became an endurance contest to get to the end.
also xian folks can be visual or oral in their memory. books a strange category of visual, but the music definitely oral. so your oral clues/retention may be better then your visual.
Pedro, right, no game is perfect. That doesn’t matter, if the game as a whole is good enough to rise above the flaws. However, U4 wasn’t linear in the usual sense of the word. Think about it.
Xian, yeah, after 20 years, a lot of details in any game can be forgotten. Heh. But I also have my notes, and even just browsing over those would bring a lot of info back to mind. And without looking at them, I could tell you where all the party members are and what they are, and most of the names, too.
TW, some games have replayability at a high level, and, alas, many don’t. Wasteland was a good one, and not until Fallout was there a true successor to the post-nuke game.
WC, yep, we know you hardly ever finish ;) But given the quality of most games these days, that’s not a surprise.
You really can’t get that “new game feeling” back, no matter how fond of a game you were. I have wonderful memories of certain games, but no matter how hard I’ve tried, I can’t recapture it by booting it up again–more often than not I ruin the memory. Experiences and expectations change over time. Patience also tends to diminish with a lack of time.
I remember booting up Serpent Isle, my personal favorite, in Exult and couldn’t distinguish certain items due to the blocky graphics; I believe in substance over glitz, but I literally had to figure out what some things were. I then recalled that this used to be common–many times graphics were more symbolic than representative. Ironically, U7 and SI were amazingly beautiful when first released.
Now I have no time to reply; I actually look for reviews that knock great games for brevity. The only game I have replayed and intend to replay again is Planescape: Torment, which may be imperfect as a game but is as close to a perfect experience as SI was.
Cherub, so true. I touched on that waaay back in Why I Can’t Go Home Again. Even the most replayable games wear thin after a time.
Strange about the graphics in U7, but I’m not familiar with Exult. Didn’t have a problem myself (that I recall) when I played the original release with the visuals.
Exult is an open source engine for U7 and SI. It allows the games to run in modern OS’s and also adds quite a few features.
Even more than dated graphics, clumsy control systems limit replayability of older games. Back when I was a kid (in the pre-mouse days) and had nothing but time, technical obstacles meant nothing. Shifting items and money between my characters over and over in Ultima 3, for example, was not a big deal–I had time to waste and there was no better alternative. Now, something like that is an annoying waste of what little game time I get. (It’s also why I won’t play console ports unless completely redone for PC, which is rare.)
I suppose great memories should just stay great memories…
I loved all the Ultima games from IV to VII. I could probably replay them, because my memory isn’t so great that I remember every detail… and I still find them fun. I also played Lazarus when I found that. I’m looking forward to the U6 remake too.
Great memories will remain that, no matter how imperfect the game, but it would be nice to see modern updates of those games, or a good revival of the series. It will probably never happen, and even if Garriot himself managed to re-aquire the license, I’m skeptical that he could recapture the magic of the series.
I’d rather not see updates, especially not of Ultima. The games would have to be “updated” for the “modern audience”, and I haven’t the least doubt that the results would not be Ultima as we knew it.
I’d love to see basic updates–only higher resolution tiles (for the earlier ones), mouse support and keyboard shortcuts, and modern OS compatibility fixes. Exult already takes care of U7/SI. I actually replayed the Amiga version of U3 via an emulator; it was slow but great. Just the mouse support made the experience so much smoother.
I played U3 & 4 when I was < 12 years old, but never finished. I think I was concerned about getting gold, buying armour etc. I didn’t even take notes. And wasn’t keen on visiting dungeons. Make my own maps? Crazy…
In fact, even though I played U5, U6 as well, the only Ultima I completed “natively” was Ultima 7 part 1. Mostly because I didn’t have a safe computer to use when U5&6 were out. I’ve since gone back to complete the whole U7 series in Exult. I played Ultima III in 1 day on a Mac: http://www.lairware.com/ultima3/ I did use a cheater. And freely available dungeon maps. Now, I’m on Ultima 4 through XU4.
Even though I’ve only played XU4 for a couple of days, I’ve made more progress (story-wise) through it than I ever did as a child. I also don’t think this program needs to be updated. Although I’d love to see auto-combat in XU4… Combat is so boring and tedious.
Well, you were probably a bit too young for those Ultimas, unserious. Naughty, though, to use a cheater to finish U3 ;)
Yeah, combat can get to be a bit much. But with careful use of the moongates, and I think there’s a moongate spell, you can avoid a lot of the fighting as you get closer to the end.