Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar was one of the first adventure games I played, and still has great memories for me. All of what I’m about to write below may sound par for the course today, but man, the idea of traveling around a huge world, fighting monsters, and interacting with characters was so intriguing to find on a computer game in the mid-1980s. Seeing and playing this game, I could envision the decline of role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons.
Your character is transported from the primary world of modern-day (i.
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar was one of the first adventure games I played, and still has great memories for me. All of what I’m about to write below may sound par for the course today, but man, the idea of traveling around a huge world, fighting monsters, and interacting with characters was so intriguing to find on a computer game in the mid-1980s. Seeing and playing this game, I could envision the decline of role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons.
Your character is transported from the primary world of modern-day (i.e., 1985) Earth to the land of Britannia. The game isn’t about the formulaic killing of monsters, grabbing of treasure, and moving up the experience ladder, although these are certainly part of playing. A major object
of the quest is to attain eight virtues that will make you Britannia’s quintessential epic hero, called the Avatar. And you’re not alone--taking other adventurers into your party is not only helpful, but also turns out to be necessary.
Playability is straightforward. The wilderness is presented in third-person view, with movement in the four directions of the compass. You start out walking, but can find more efficient modes of transportation. Exploring a dungeon is done in first person view; not quite Doom or Quake, but neat nonetheless. Zooming in to a battle scenario in both wilderness and dungeon and is reminiscent of playing with lead adventurer figures on a grid, much like a certain role-playing game that we all know and love. Commands like casting spells, boarding ships, etc. are efficiently spread out among the letters of the keyboard. The spell system is very comprehensive, and attaining the ingredients presents a quest.
In town, you interact with merchants, nobles, simple peasant folk, and even other adventurers, all computer controlled of course. Conversations are handled by a clever parser looking for keywords in order to yield clues that help you along the quest. Be mindful of these interactions, as the quest of the Avatar is not only fought in battle, but also won in the hearts and minds of the citizens of Britannia, who tend to have high expectations for their epic hero.
Not having played the first three Ultima installments, going through this game was like reading a fantasy novel. The storyline is presented with the compelling depth of literature-like background and a large cast of supporting characters. Plots and objectives aren’t told to you all at once, of course, but revealed to you a little bit at a time through those that you meet and the quests you complete. As the geography and dangers of the world are unveiled to you in your travels, so the story unfolds.
Some of the lessons learned in terms of becoming (and staying) an Avatar actually transfer well into real life. Obviously I wasn’t going to be fighting a troop of trolls anytime in school or at work, but I couldn’t help but think to myself, “thou hast lost an eighth” when I told even the littlest white lie.
I remember having to flip disks when moving from the wilderness into a town or dungeon and back again, and today such an annoyance wouldn’t stand. Later, when I found the title was available in IBM PC format, it was quite a disappointment to find that the background music was so blandly reproduced. The C64 soundtrack is so rich and memorable, I still find myself humming the tunes occasionally.
Ultima IV is a milestone game. Both gameplay and storyline brought forth concepts that are carried forward into its successors and into other game titles. If players of Everquest and World of Warcraft are looking for their favorite game’s technical, historical, and mythical roots, they need look no further than the land of Britannia and its Avatar.
