Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar

The Good
Wow, I wish I could list all of them, but I might mess up and forget a thing or two, so I'll try.

First off, you had a game that tried to resolve you into a better person. I'd be lying if I didn't say that this was a game that didn't change me when I finished it. The concept of eight virtues, from Honesty to Honor, made the issue of beating the game not on your magic wands or Kill spells, but on how well you can follow these virtues. For those of you that were brought up on Doom or RotT, this might be a bit hard on you, so you should sit down and rest...

And because of this, you had a high degree of freedom! Want to kill that guard? Sure, you can do it. Steal a chest when someone isn't looking? Yeah, go ahead and take it. -just remember that it bites you back in the end and you'll be stuck in the game until you clean up your act.

Aside from this, there was the text interaction of characters, the eight cities for either virtues and the eight dungeons to epitomize the antivirtues. Eight character parties were fun, even considering the shepherd (who was there to epitomize humility anyway, so I guess it all made sense in the end; ah well, I enjoyed her sling time anyway).

The Bad
Hmmm... halberds.

The book says paladins are ideal with halberds and I hated the wretched things because they only hit one square away and never against the monster that was striking next to me! :(

-okay, that, and the concept of getting a poison trap every time you open a chest and not being able to evade it (reagents are a valuable commodity!)

The Bottom Line
A game with a lesson; oooo, edutainment. That's right Sid Meier, Richard Garriot beat you to the punch!