Ultima: Worlds of Adventure 2 - Martian Dreams

Moby ID: 1625
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Following the events depicted in The Savage Empire, the Avatar and his friend Dr. Spector receive a book that contains the knowledge of time traveling. They are taken to the year 1893, witnessing Percival Lowell prepare a space cannon not unlike the one described in Jules Verne's works, with the intention of sending humans to Mars. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, the cannon is fired during the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, with several famous people of the time on board. The Avatar and his companions follow, only to be transferred into the mysterious and dangerous world of the Martian civilization.

The second entry in the Worlds of Ultima series is very similar to its predecessor visually and gameplay-wise. Like the first game, it utilizes the Ultima VI engine, and is a top-down role-playing game set in a seamless graphical environment and featuring turn-based party combat. Conversations with characters, interaction with the game world, and acquiring crucial items occupy a significant portion of the gameplay. Many supporting characters are famous real-world figures from the depicted time period, such as Marie Curie, Sigmund Freud, Nikola Tesla, and others.

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 78% (based on 9 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 33 ratings with 6 reviews)

Some game-ideas are even above the unusual ones like Populous and (inspired ?) Alpha Centauri !

The Good
It has every strange twist one can ask for . THIS is high-adventure and the thrill of RealTimeStrategy made onto the planet-board ; it is rare to experience this journey of mind in other TurnBasedStrategy-games or RolePlayingGames , Bravo Lord British !

The Bad
That it's annoying to install 5 diskettes ?

The Bottom Line
A sophisticated chess-game mixed with travelling upon unsolid grounds ...

DOS · by Thomas Dahl (1) · 2004

One of my favorite games of all out of the Ultima series

The Good
The graphics were small, but very well done. The music was original. It was very evocative of the 1800's. Even a friend of mine who dislikes computer games couldn't help commenting on the music and how great it sounded. The storyline was imaginative and interesting, and the Martian civilization was original to me. I also liked the idea of the Dream Machines. The fact that you could talk to many different people from that era was wonderful--it was a bit of a dream come true. I know many people did not seem to like this game when it first came out, but I loved it. It was the first Ultima game I ever played, and it still remains my most favorite. They even had the Face on Mars there! This was a very clean-running program.

The Bad
Not much. The endless walking around could get annoying, but eventually you'd do less of it as the game progresses. The Dream Worlds tended not to be as interesting as the rest of the game itself. I thought this was a refreshing break from Britannia.

The Bottom Line
Though it isn't set in Britannia, this is a wonderful game nonetheless. Give the game a try, and you won't be disappointed.

DOS · by OceansDaughter (106) · 2002

Edutainment! GOOD edutainment! (did Sid Meier take part in this game?)

The Good
The plotline was very well-inspired. The concept of meeting the famous men of the Victorian Era, from Carnegie to Tesla to Freud gave an extra kick (asking Freud about your mother gets you a very interesting response) and even made me more interested in the history of the Victorian Era, and taught me about famous figures I never heard of before, such as Sarah Bernhardt and Louis Comfort Tiffany. They even provided a tiny booklet that gave little biographies that described these famed men and women.

The idea of dreams and psychological ideas were all equally interesting, where you would find yourself facing your own and others' nightmares, and it was also the only way you would gain levels (reminiscent of Ultima V).

Finally, I loved the easter eggs. What better easter egg can you get than having Warren Spector in your party?

The Bad
If you did not understand what you were doing, you could die very quickly and until you get a reasonable supply of oxygen, ammunition can become fairly limited.

This game almost REQUIRES the map unless you understand how to use the sextant (which you can not find until a little later). Some things you must realize doing or else beating the game becomes impossible . There is not much you can get out of killing monsters aside from the experience and one monster in particular can steal your valuable oxygen (and, no, you don't get it back when you kill it). Finally, there is the character creation mess-up, which happens simply because of the way it is presented. I love the Freud psychological analyzing idea, but I have seen way too many people end up making female characters by accident with stats they did not want.

The Bottom Line
Before the concept of steampunk entered our common knowledge with such games as Arcanum, there was Origin's Martian Dreams. Not only did this game use the classic Ultima VI engine, but intertwined historical figures and the mythos of the times for a plot that helped carry you away in the world of gentlemen gunslingers, women who could fire a deringer like any other man, and the many fabled tales of the red planet and its inhabitants...

Unlike the old Ultimas and even its previous alternate universe, "The Savage Empire," armor is replaced by clothes, which provide help against the ravages of the cold half-dead planet and its even colder nights... elegant firearms and dueling sabers replace longswords and crossbows and even the concept of coined money is non-existent, replaced instead by an odd-tasting blue globular sort of thing that saves you from the thin oxygen levels of the red planet.

For any die-hard Ultima fan, there is the cameo of the Avatar's favorite three sidekicks (no spoilers here). For those that played the previous alternate universe of Ultima, there is the recurring character Johann Spector (obviously inspired by Origin's Warren Spector, one of the brainchilds behind Looking Glass Studios and the famed Ultima Underworld games) and easter eggs that one can find including a certain pair of slippers that could grant your one wish true...

DOS · by Don Lee (8) · 2001

[ View all 6 player reviews ]

Trivia

The Worlds of Ultima (or Worlds of Adventure) series was originally intended have more games than just two. Some planned settings for the games were King Arthur's Britain and ancient Greece complete with the local gods.

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Related Sites +

  • Crapshoot
    A humorous review of the game
  • Nuvie
    If you have an original copy of "Ultima: Worlds of Adventure 2: Martian Dreams", you can use Nuvie to run it on modern systems.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Old man gamer.

Windows added by Picard. Macintosh added by Sciere.

Additional contributors: Timo Takalo, Apogee IV, Patrick Bregger.

Game added June 16, 2000. Last modified March 28, 2024.