Ultima Online: Age of Shadows

The Good
What did I like about this game. Unfortunately, not much. The concept, the idea, is great. The massively multiplayer online roleplaying game. You get to personalize your avatar which is cool and you pick a profession to go into. That, is where the fun stops.

The Bad
I spent money on this game knowing that I would be paying a fee for it. It didn't quite turn out like that, I spent about three hours playing it and then cancelled my subsription. The initial excitement I felt soon ebbed at the character creation screen. Now, don't get me wrong, it's nice to be able to customize a character but it was no Earth & Beyond. Another thing I didn't like was the fact that ultimately, after you choose your profession, all the avatars look alike. The gameplay itself was something different. Basically, you walk around fighting monsters and talking to NPCs to raise your skills. But after the introductory missions, there is absolutely nothing to do. At this point, I frantically searched for a mission, a cause to fight for instead of just leveling and skill building. I found nothing but a few dogs I tamed and had follow me. Finally, I spoke to another player of the game, "What is the point of this game?" I asked. "There is none." Was the answer. Whoop-dee-doo.

The Bottom Line
Average controls, average control, below average character customization, and no point. Basically, it's an online social scene. The only benefit of that is potentially speaking with someone located across the country. I was sorely disappointed with this game and so far, these massively multiplayer online roleplaying games aren't as great as they are made out to be.

Ultima Online: Age of Shadows gets and overall 3 out of 10.

The Good
This is the second in my list of reviews on the Ultima Online series, or namely the expansions released in that series. Please respect that this is personal opinion based on my experience and not researched material. I really enjoyed playing UO, and I appreciate the opportunity to share my experiences through this review series.

After the graphical changes made for Blackthorn's Revenge, I was very surprised at the art direction for Age of Shadows. Going from a comic-book-esque physique for the avatars (with rippling muscles for men and... well... generous proportions for females) to characters that had slightly enlarged heads and almost Disney-cartoon faces. The monsters non-specific to the Blackthorn campaign were again redesigned into 3D versions more like the 2D versions. The game now had a 'zoom wheel' function and 2.5D trees with swaying animations. It was a good change, and I was able to play in 3D full-time.

Ultima Online was over five years old when Age of Shadows was released, and in my opinion it marked the first truly significant game-play change in the series. I don't want to get into semantics talking about patches and interface changes from the previous releases, I'm saying this is the first tangible game-play change for me, and it was a good one.

The main character I played was a straight warrior prior to Age of Shadows, having his entire 750 skill points spent on what a warrior needs to fight independently. Tactics, Anatomy, Healing (with bandages), Swordsmanship, Parrying, Arms Lore, and a cobbling of other minor skills like Spell Resistance, Camping (for quick log-out), Animal taming (enough to tame the many, many horses I went through), Forensics, Lock-picking and Fishing.

Age of Shadows gave weapon fighters a break for once - we now had click-button abilities (similar to spells I suppose) that allowed us to use our knowledge of anatomy to inflict weapon specific effects on our opponents. Goring attacks made with curved weapons (like the scimitar or cutlass) could inflict bleeding status on enemies, quick weapons like the quarterstaff or katana could double-strike - this was a huge game changer and very welcome. I took down game like Elder Gazers much more consistently using hit & run tactics, bleed status, and double-strike to finish a fight (Elder Gazers regenerate a lot during battle).

Age of Shadows introduced only two new skills to the game - but they changed everything; Necromancy and Chivalry. I pointed my arrow jewel down on my healing (bandaging) ability and up on Chivalry and didn't look back. Instead of using a full 95 points to do only one thing I was now able to use Paladin spells to teleport (without paying an arm and a leg for runebooks), heal myself or others, raise my defense, increase my attack duration or do direct damage to an enemy.

I didn't feel impotent anymore, UO is a very free role-playing game that isn't much interested in balance - I played the lone warrior role because I like being on the edge and facing real risk, but far more common were the tamer/mages who walk around with an escort of two Frost Wyrms. The new Paladin system allowed me to keep the risk and excitement in my game play-while easing some of the grievances I had with the interface. If you have ever bought/stolen a boat in UO you know that the ability to teleport is not something to take for granted.

This expansion also introduced BOD's, or 'bulk-orders'. These were aimed at craftsman and offered the chance to get some great rewards like skill cap increases.

Home ownership has always been a big draw of UO. Even with the introduction of World of Warcraft it hung on by sheer fact that people had homes with their artifacts and treasures inside. Pre Age of Shadows there were preset houses you could purchase (provided you could find a patch of land that was suitable and unclaimed). This expansion introduced the house construction set, using tiles and materials (each piece having a cost) you could custom build a home. This fixed the 'keep and tower projects' problem that previously plagued the game. Between a keep (the central portion of a castle, a very large structure) and a tower (approximately 1/4 the size) there really wasn't anything. All of the castle spaces were long taken. So from one point of view the freedom of size and shape afforded by the custom house set was a blessing, from the other... well, I'll get to that below.

The Bad
In the role playing world there is one attribute often over-looked by all but the cleverest player: Luck. Whether it is Fallout, Final Fantasy, or table top gaming, good design features the hand of fate in one way or another. The concept and implementation of luck is only good when it remains in the shadows, however.

In attempting to add to leather armor the same diversity that metal armor always had (being made from the different metals, from steel to valorite) they introduced blue, red, and green leather. Having had a tailor for the whole time I played the game I was initially excited at this. How wrong I was. The blue leather introduced a standard 'luck' value of 40. Exceptional pieces made could exceed this, and by combining items you could transfer luck from one item to another. Seemingly overnight the entire economy became luck-based, and it couldn't have been more annoying - because the amount of luck required to make a significant difference in your loot is preposterous.

And last and certainly not least is the new land-mass introduced: Parking lot. Whatever they intended for Malas, it didn't go down that way. This new continent almost immediately became a parking lot of huge, mostly ugly mansions with tiny dirt-floor hovels interjected into the spaces between them, it was ugly. The free-spawning monsters were lost in this isometric maze like stray cats. What fringe areas of forest or 'crystal field' were left seemed ill thought up and pointless. I don't know if they wanted this to happen, I do know that they advertised a 'new area for player housing', but they really should have thought more about griding, or streets, or form. There were hundreds of players unhappy with their medium-sized housing who had amassed great fortunes - of course they were going to buy huge squares of land and build kitsch versions of rooftop gardens and endless fountains. There were hundreds of players who were homeless, willing to settle for any outhouse sized patch of land to glue down a few belongings that wouldn't fit into the bank - many didn't even build walls or a roof, just left a bare square of earth with a few backpacks on it. All of the player built houses were ugly. Even mine. Admit it to yourself - they would have done better with more restrictions or a 'modular' rather than 'tile by tile' approach to construction. I stopped going to Malas almost immediately after seeing what had been done to it.

The Bottom Line
With the exception of the introduction of Luck, this was a very positive change for the series, without a doubt (to me) the best expansion. Sure I complain about Parking Lot (or Malas if you prefer), but it actually opened up the housing market and let me get a nice place on a tropical island (that had a great amount of buried treasure). I think this represents the high-point of the series from a communal point of view, just before World of Warcraft.