Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar is yet another in the long lineage of the Ultima role playing game fantasy series. The VGA edition is primarily the same as the original, only it features a great performance patch from Joshua Steele. This patch seemed to improve the graphic display and MIDI files, as well as catch bugs in conversations. It adds some commands for reloads, and fixed some of the cut scenes and font displays. Beyond those nice tweaks, it is the same Ultima.
Ultima IV is a singularly unique game because of the goals set before the user.
Instead of running about rescuing princesses and slaughtering hordes of mindless monsters, the goal of this fourth Ultima installment is to become the Avatar of Britannia and lead the people to spiritual health. The avenue to this goal is the performance of good deeds and the making of morally sound decisions. The game is complex and each action seems to have a consequence, either good or bad. There are eight basic virtues that the Avatar is expected to uphold and demonstrate an understanding of through consistently holy behavior. Honesty, compassion, valor, sacrifice, justice, honor, humility and spirituality are all evaluated in every act. The game does not actually tell the story of this great Avatar, but instead lets the user become the great Avatar
through his or her own actions. The user actually makes choices that affect the character, making it a true role playing game. For example, when the character battles a band of soulless creatures, and injures one, it would be morally wrong to nock an arrow and send it hurtling into the last survivor’s fleeing back. Despite the fact that you are ridding Britannia of an evil, you are doing it in an unethical manner, resulting in loss of compassion and honor points.
The game map for Ultima IV is absolutely huge and there are a great number of opportunities to add to or detract from the Avatar’s moral merit. There is much more interaction with non-playing characters than what took place in previous (or some later) installments of the series. Of course, the graphics are still outdated, even with the VGA upgrade, and the sound is not stereo realism, but the game is very playable. It should be downloaded and played, if for no other reason than to witness the true potential of role playing in computer games.
