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Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress...

aka: Ultima 2, Ultima II: Revenge of Enchantress
Moby ID: 880

DOS version

A piece of Ultima history... literally.

The Good
The concept of the Time Doors was fabulous - travelling through different eras to do battle was a wonderful idea. (Though it caused some gripes that I'll reveal below). And, of course, I love it because its part of Ultima.

The Bad
The above being said, it is my LEAST favourite Ultima.

The space motif remains present here. That just plain bites. And the victory requires you to travel to the mysterious "Planet X", though if its co-ordinates are revealed in the game, I couldn't find them. I just took a lucky guess and ended up there.

The use of the Time Doors required a world where we could relate to the passage of time. I.e. ours. That's right, Ultima II takes place on Earth. Interesting twist, but since I've never heard of rampaging orcs in Earth history, a little hard to swallow.

Although the Time Doors in concept were quite cool, each time was basically just a new map where you fought the same old monsters.

Finally - it has been all but impossible to find a working copy of this game. I own many copies of Ultima games for many reasons - stand alones on the Commodore, stand alones on the IBM and copies in the Ultima I - VI series and the Utlima Collection. In all these, the only functioning copy I have ever found of this game was in the most recent, Ultima Collection.

The Bottom Line
For those who are die hard Ultima fanatics like myself, the game is a must play. The Avatar killed Minax, and I think you should too, or you ain't no Avatar. But unless fictional titles for fictional deeds weigh as insanely heavily on you as they seem to me, Ultima II is the one I would most advocate steering clear of.

by Jeff Sinasac (391) on May 26, 2000

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