This is the classic Lord British epic: Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar. Once again, you, the 'stranger' from Earth set out to become the 'Avatar' of Lord British's virtues. How do you go about doing that? Simple: Travel throughout this world and explore dungeons, towns, interact with hundreds of characters and figure out the puzzles. Make the right choices to display your nobility, humility and overall goodness.
This game allows you to have quite a large part in comparison to other role playing games of this era.
Like in other RPGs, you need to make sure that your party of heroes has the right set of equipment, spells, and (a staple of all Ultima games after this) food. Afterwards, take your band and go slay the plentiful monsters in the land. Kill bad guys and gain levels. The trick in this game is that everything you try to accomplish is in your greatest good. You control what type of character you are to become by making choices about things like battles or looting. There are seven virtues that you must try to attain and exhibit.
For all those people out there that are expecting something along the lines of Ultima IX when it comes to graphics,
sounds, etc., you had best steer clear of this one unless you want to go to your gaming roots and see the games that your parents played when you were younger. Little 'blips' are all that you're going to be getting out of your speakers.
Graphics, if you compare it to previous Ultima titles that are in the series, are greatly improved. Dungeons are mostly following the same type of navigation that you've seen in the past, but are not populated with characters and walls that are wonderfully rendered and look like a scene from a movie. On the overworld, there's a lot more detail to the terrain in comparison to the previous games, once again. The characters' icons, when you're moving them around, seem more 'fleshy' in comparison to previous Ultima games.
Dialogue is pretty basic, as can be expected of games from this era. Simply type in a keyword when you're speaking to the right character and you find out information. Easy right? Finding those keywords is half the challenge of playing this game. The parser is reasonably intelligent, but you will have to pay attention to the clues that are dropped as people speak so you can keep the dialogue rolling.
A tidbit to point out about this particular Ultima game is its rather basic spell system. When casting a spell, everything is corresponding to a certain letter. (i. e. W = Wind spell, X = Xit, C=cure, etc.) Now, since there's no runic letters or complexity like in later Ultima games, all you have to do is get the right components, mix it up, and voila you have a spell to cast, so long as you have the right amount of MP. It is one of the simplest strokes of genius to the game.
All in all, the game is a must-play for any die-hard RPG enthusiast, and while you're at it, pick up the later titles as well and help the Avatar (that will be you in the game's completion) be the Champion of Britannia.
