Summary
A lush, vibrant medieval gameworld full of life, intrigue, and adventure
The Good
Ultima VII: The Black Gate follows in the rich tradition of the thirteen-title
Ultima series. While the user interface of
Ultima VI took up over half the screen, Ultima VII showcases the newest 486 technology of the day with lush, well-animated, full screen graphics. What really strikes me about this game, even today, is just how bright and colorful everything is. Along with some of the cheerier titles from Nintendo, Ultima VII sticks out as one of the most visually-pleasing games ever created, from the standpoint of color palette. Now, Ultima does have a day-night cycle, and there are miles of dungeons to crawl, so travelling without a torch may result in a dark, drab world. But hey, if it's night, you can bunk down on the nearest bed for however many hours you choose and wake up to a glorious sunlit morning.
Second most on my list of stand-out features of Ultima VII is the lively feel to the gameworld. Every one of the hundreds of NPCs in Britannia is programmed with a daily schedule. Britain's baker will go to work each morning and make his bread, in the evening head to the local watering hole for a pint of ale and some music, and retire to his home as the evening wears on. Oh yes, and you yourself can make bread: open the bag of flour, spread some on the table, add water to make a ball of dough, place it by the fire, wait a bit, and voila, one loaf of bread. The baker even pays you for your product, although trekking the wilderness looking for loot, or turning to a criminal life is far more profitable (and fun).
Further enhancing the real-life feel is exceptionally well-written NPC dialog. Characters are given real lives through dialog, instead of simply serving the plotline. And, unlike previous Ultimas, everything is mouse driven, so there's no more hunting for keywords; all the topics of conversation are laid out before you as you uncover them. The two basic topics that everyone will cover are Name and Job, which come to think of it are the two things that people in the real world and likely to ask you.
The grandest thing about Ultima VII though, is just how great it is to get out of the starting town, Trinsic, and explore the vast world of Britannia. Unlike the
Elder Scrolls series, you cannot simply go wherever you please immediately. The main continent is large, but parts of it require long, winding, dangerous journey. Furthermore, there are dozens of islands that may only be reached by teleportation (which is hazardous and takes some time to figure out), by purchasing a ship (which takes a long time to afford), or by flying carpet (of which there is only one in the game, unlikely to be stumbled upon by a new player).
Monsters are varied and creative. There's your standard Ultima menagerie of gargoyles (most of whom are friendly), harpies, wolves, and then more fantastical creations like corpsers, who live underground and reveal only a biting tentacle, and headlesses, which, as the name suggests, are human in every respect except for missing one cranium. Just don't ask me how they eat or breathe.
Lastly, the plot of Ultima VII is a classic murder mystery, though the murders are particularly gruesome, and the ultimate cause of Britannia's strife is an otherworldly denizen called The Guardian. This red-skinned fellow constantly mocks and chides you throughout your adventure, with fully-functional voice acting that was groundbreaking for its time. The Guardian stands out in my mind as of the greatest villains in video game history, and your struggles with him continue for the rest of the Ultima VII-IX trilogy.
The Bad
After playing Ultima VII for the umpteenth time, things start to get a little stale. Once you've been everywhere, talked to everyone, broken into every vault, and discovered every treasure cache, the gameplay itself really isn't great. In fact, it could be said that there really isn't any gameplay at all. When you fight enemies, all your party members work automatically. You simply choose what combat style you want them to use, from ranged combat to berserker style to attacking the strongest enemy to fleeing at the first sign of danger. You can choose to manually control your main character, but this is not really a huge challenge. Simply move to your target and double-click to attack. Double-click again until dead. Not terribly compelling gameplay, but back in 1992 you wouldn't think to complain.
The Bottom Line
Ultima VII: The Black Gate is an exceptionally well put-together title from Origin, perhaps the best in their highly successful stable. Richard Garriott himself, the creator of the Ultima series, has stated that it is one of his two personal favorites, and the most masterfully-executed of the bunch. Thumbs way up, and moreso because it runs on modern machines thanks to shell program called Exult, created pro-bono by a group of dedicated fans.
This was an inspirational game for me back when I was 13... but in 2007 I could not in all honesty recommend it when the gaming industry has progressed so far, unless you are a real RPG fanatic, in which case you probably already know and love the Ultima franchise.
