I've recently been going back to the classics and...

... I've become absolutely fascinated by Ultima VI. Yes, I'm of the age to have played it when it released, but somehow never did. Now, it's like finding gold in "them thar hills!"

Any suggestions for games to play -- either old or new -- that resemble Ultima VI in camera, art style, and / or combat?

Many thanks for your thoughts and suggestions!

Hello kai2!

The two most obvious suggestions almost identical, since they have been made with Ultima VI's game engine, would be:
- "Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire" (in a prehistoric world)
Savage Empire
and
- "Ultima Worlds of Adventure 2: Martian Dreams" (in a parallel historic setting on Mars)
Martian Dreams

I do understand you, though. I grew up with many of those old games, but for one reason or another did not play a lot of them in their release time. With respect to the old school Ultima series, I actually prefer "Ultima V". The more abstract, almost symbol like graphics in "Ultima V" stirr up my imagination a lot more!


Another futuristic one with a very similar presentation could be:
- "Planet's Edge - The Point of no Return"
Planet's Edge

Also kind of similar, but I do not know this one:
- "Challenge of the Five Realms"
Challenge of the Five Realms

And to a certain degree:
- "Hillsfar" (part of the "Forgotten Realms: The Archives Collection Two")
Hillsfar

I will ponder a little about it, I vaguely remember other games quite similar to "Ultima VI", but need to investigate their names.

Kind regards,
foxgog

Hello again!

Here on GOG.com there is also "Knights of the Chalice", which looks kind of similar (at least the first game in the Chalice series).
- "Knights of the Chalice"
Knights of the Chalice


Not (yet) available here on GOG.com are the MS-DOS games from the "Magic Candle" series.
The two most resembling the "Ultima VI" style are number three and the 'prequel' (Bloodstone):
- "Magic Candle III"
Magic Candle III on mobygames
- "Bloodstone - An Epic Dwarven Tale"
Bloodstone on mobygames

And:
- "Darghul" (German, if I am not wrong about it)
Darghul on mobygames

Oh, and the Lord of the Rings DOS games:
- "J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I"
LotR Vol.I on mobygames
- "J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. II: The Two Towers"
LotR Vol.II on mobygames

The first chapter in the "Yendorian Tales" has a few similarities, but I did not liked it. (It felt like 'shovelware' quality.)
- "Yendorian Tales: Book I"
Yendorian Tales Book I on mobygames

Maintaining a somewhat comparable (camera) point of view, there were still the two chapters of "The Faery Tale Adventure" series:
- "The Faery Tale Adventure: Book I"
Faery Tale Adventure I on mobygames
- "Halls of the Dead: Faery Tale Adventure II"
Faery Tale Adventure II on mobygames

Kind regards,
foxgog

Was about to recommend Knights of the Chalice too (there's also a demo available here).

It's more similar resp. inspired by VII but there's also Teudogar and the Alliance with Rome.

The full version is still available to download from the developer's website here (via the "gift" in the top left corner and then either one of the teacups respectively). For the password to the zip-archive, make sure to read the disclaimer.

To get it to run on anything beyond Win7 I recommend using dgVoodoo2.

- download, unzip and copy dgVoodooCpl.exe, as well as D3D8.dll, D3D9.dll, D3DImm.dll and DDraw.dll (from dgVoodoo2/MS/x86/) into the main Teudogar directory
- run dgVoodooCpl.exe, under General set "Appearance" to Full Screen with Scaling mode "Stretched, 4:3 Aspect Ratio" and under DirectX check "Force vSync" + "Fast video memory access" & uncheck "dgVoodoo Watermark"
- confirm with "Apply"

The Elder Scrolls series is always my first recommendation for Ultima fans, as the Ultima games were a huge influence to the TES games. I also recommend Divinity: Original SIn (haven't played the sequel but I hear it's even better) as it reminds me of the Ultima games with more of a focus on party building.

I can always freely suggest in times like this, the Exile/Avernum/Avernum series, depending on how technologically advanced you want to get.

Multi person party, deep intriguing story, dialogue & quests up the wazoo, and a wide variety of monsters with a turn based combat system of yore.

Thank you, yes I've looked many times at Knights of the Chalice 1 & 2 but haven't yet been tempted enough to play them. WOW. I didn't know these existed! I'll have to search them out! You may want to check out (if you haven't already) Low Magic Age.

Elder Scrolls games are nothing like Ultima 6. The only Ultima games that could be said to be at all similar to TES would be the Ultima Underworld games, and even then that similarity only really covers Arena and perhaps Daggerfall.

As for the original question, I could suggest looking at the two Worlds of Ultima games: The Savage Empire and Martian Dreams. These two games actually are based on the Ultima 6 engine, and as a result could be expected to be pretty similar. They're available on GOG, and are only as expensive as the standalone version of Ultima 4 (not the one bundled with 5 and 6), so I don't think they'll break the bank.

I'll take a look. Thanks!

Queen's Wish is not a party RPG. It's some experiment that has a mixed reception. All of his games follow the shareware model and the oldest ones are now freeware, so play the demos!

Another vote from me for the Avernum series. Avernum: Escape from the Pit is a remake of the first game and is a great way to start. The original seven games are also cheaply available as Avernum: The Complete Saga if you don't mind older interfaces/graphics.

To some degree, the original Fallout 1, Fallout 2 and Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura are also similar, having isometric graphics, a party, and turn-based combat.

Uh, Worlds of Ultima games: The Savage Empire and Martian Dreams.are FREE! :)

How does that make them not the same price as Ultima 4?