Ultima VII - Retrospective Review

The Digital Antiquarian checked out Ultima VII:

Ultima VII

From the time that Richard and Robert Garriott first founded Origin Systems in order to publish Ultima III, the completion of one Ultima game was followed almost immediately by the beginning of work on the next. Ultima VI in early 1990 was no exception; there was time only for a wrap party and a couple of weeks of decompression before work started on Ultima VII. The latter project continued even as separate teams made the two rather delightful Worlds of Ultima spinoffs using the old Ultima VI engine, and even as another Origin game called Wing Commander sold far more copies than any previous Ultima, spawning an extremely lucrative new franchise that for the first time ever made Origin into something other than The House That Ultima Built.

But whatever the source, money was always welcome. The new rival for the affections of Origin's fans and investors gave Richard Garriott more of it to play with than ever before, and his ambitions for his latest Ultima were elevated to match. One of the series's core ethos had always been that of continual technological improvement. Garriott had long considered it a point of pride to never use the same engine twice (a position he had budged from only reluctantly when he allowed the Worlds of Ultima spinoffs to be made). Thus it came as no surprise that he wanted to push things forward yet again with Ultima VII. Even in light of the series's tradition, however, this was soon shaping up to be an unusually ambitious installment -- indeed, by far the most ambitious technological leap that the series had made to date.

As I noted in my article on that game, the Ultima VI engine was, at least when seen retrospectively, a not entirely comfortable halfway point between the old "alphabet soup" keyboard-based interface of the first five games and a new approach which fully embraced the mouse and other modern computing affordances. Traces of the old were still to be found scattered everywhere amidst the new, and using the interface effectively meant constantly switching between keyboard-centric and mouse-centric paradigms for different tasks. Ultima VII would end such equivocation, shedding all traces of the interfaces of yore.

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Thanks henriquejr!

More information.

Brilliant read - even if I'm surprised at the author's view of the game's initial reception. While that certainly seems to mirror the findings of both the game's Wikipedia and MobyGames entries, being informed mainly by German and French magazines back then (c.f. https://www.kultboy.com/testbericht-uebersicht/325/) sure made the game feel like an overwhelming success, and posteriority certainly tends to agree!
Still, if ever the author deigned to put his collected findings and discoveries in a proper book, that'd be one to watch out for!

It was the greatest game I had ever played when it first came out and it still is all these years later. I never knew some Ultima fans actually didn't like it, interesting.

Interesting article. I didn't know Ultima VII and Ultima Underworld were released just 2 weeks apart.

I was never a big Ultima fan, but I could still see the greatness in Ultima VII despite not playing it until many years later. This would be near the top of a list of games I'd like to see remastered along with UU.

Ultima VII (both parts) kind of already has been remastered, with Exult: http://exult.sourceforge.net/

Yeah, I've tried Exult. It's definitely easier on the eyes than the DOSBox version. A few things didn't work correctly in Exult though and I'm not sure if they were ever fixed.

I'm hoping it actually gets finished and feature-complete some day. Still, a true remaster would be nice.

All of the Ultima's could do with a brush-over, and would likely be replayed by many folks. I replayed Seven about four years ago, and it was still a blast to play. Not quite as fun as the week it was released, but still well worth playing. I'd work it in immediately were a revamp done of the entire game.

This game was as "magical" to me when I first played it as was the first Ultima… which for me was Ultima II.

It certainly wasn't perfect. I agree with the inventory management and combat criticisms from the article as well as the bugs… I personally experienced the "disappearing Castle Britannia" bug myself after investing dozens of hours into the game… I started all over again as a result of that particular bug because I wasn't sure if that bug was going to make my game unwinnable.

It was that world simulation and exploration though that really captivated me. I really loved how the manuals that came with the game provided that just right amount of lore to put character into each region of the game world before you even visited it. Each dungeon description put a particular vibe into my mind about what it might be like when I finally visited it.

U7 is definitely one of those rare real life examples of when the sum is greater than the parts.

Ultima 7… Greatest RPG of all time. PERIOD.

I was hooked from beginning to end; from the time I first booted the game and heard The Guardian's sinister voice to the end credits which contained the best developer quotes ever. At that time of release, its state-of-the-art GUI was amazing… if your PC was powerful enough to run it, and if you could tweak MSDOS to free enough memory. Prior to MP3 compression, voiceovers were rare, which made Ultima 7 all the more special for its intro cinematic and occasional use of speech. I remember jumping the first time I heard the all-seeing Guardian comment on my actions in the game. It was also the game that got me active online as I was a regular on the old Origin BBS and had a $500 long distance bill to prove it.

Ultima 8 was just OK, and Ultima 9 was a disappointment.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
All of the Ultima's could do with a brush-over, and would likely be replayed by many folks. I replayed Seven about four years ago, and it was still a blast to play. Not quite as fun as the week it was released, but still well worth playing. I'd work it in immediately were a revamp done of the entire game.

Ultimas 5 and 6 were totally re-made a few years ago using the Dungeon Siege engine and both were well received. If you have DS working, the remakes are a free download!!

Originally Posted by Vindicator
Ultima 7… Greatest RPG of all time. PERIOD.

Yup.

Might & Magic 1 was the game that got me into RPG's, but Ultima 6 and 7 are the games that solidified that addiction for life, and Ultima 7 still remains the most memorable RPG experience of all time. And nothing else is really even close.