Windows

Ultima Online: Age of Shadows

Just by the way it's designed, Ultima Online can be many things to many people, so it can be a tough one to critique given all of the different variables and play styles. That said, Age of Shadows will appeal to some and completely turn off others.

Ultima Online: Age Of Shadows is an excellent expansion for existing players, but it's unlikely to bring new players into the fold. We can't quite recommend it wholeheartedly because for all its new features, at the end of the day it still has the Ultima Online engine at its heart and that simply won't be enough for many new players.

My heart missed a beat when I was asked if I wanted to review this game. You see, the original Ultima Online was my first experience with MMORPG’s. And it was love on first sight. I could not play it for long, didn’t have the time for that, but thanks to a GM, a game master, I was able to visit the entire country of Brittania in one (very) long night. Later on more of this kind of games appeared on the scene, but UO kept a big amount of the players because they got a tremendous amount of absolute freedom to specialise in whatever ability they wanted to master.

So langsam macht Ultima Online den Sims Konkurrenz: Age of Shadows ist erstens bereits das fünfte Add-on zum Online-Rollenspiel und ermöglicht es zweitens, Häuser von Spielern mit einer Vielzahl an Möbeln auszustatten. Mehr noch: Es gibt zwei neue Charakterklassen, darunter den Totenbeschwörer, der erlegte Monster zum Leben erweckt, und den Paladin.

Age of shadows is the fifth expansion pack for Electronic Arts classic, Ultima Online. One of the biggest Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, the game boasts a history that stretches back to 1997. EA have released expansion packs for this game to try to bring it up to date to compete on a level footing with other MMORPGs on the market and on the near horizon. Whilst new games, such as the upcoming Star Wars: Galaxies can start from a clean slate; UO must appease its army of fans as well as try to capture a new audience. This is proving to be a significant challenge.

The Ultima series of games has been with us for many years now. Ultima Online was an offshoot of those games and was groundbreaking in its scale; it was the first multiplayer online role-playing game and it still has many features that have not been replicated by other games.

Bringing Ultima Online out of the shadows? Don't think so.

Let me start by saying that I am not a fan of PvP (player vs player) games. I avoided the previous Ultima Online releases due to their lousy reputation for being a PK (player killer's) paradise. I did not even consider playing the game so I could do this review until I read that there was a 40 hour 'young' status during which you could not get Pked AND you get a free month (I can play 40 hours in a month no sweat!).