I've been thinking to get that game... mainly because of its flawless 5 star score. Is it really that good? I mean is it worth the 5,99? and what are combat and story like?

Ultima 7 is a hugely influential game that's interesting from a historical perspective. It's also over 20 years old and has had many if its better bits copied. I love it but I don't know if a younger gamer would. Hmmm... I guess it all depends on how you feel about baking bread. ;)

The game is a world simulator and not very focused on story. There's a scenario going on but you have to discover it for yourself through exploration and talking to npcs. Combat is largely automatic and a total joke but few care.

largely automatic? so you have only very little control over what's happening?

I need to reinstall that.

There goes my Sunday. :P

TELL ME ABOUT THE GAME! please :3

It is pretty darn amazing.

Stuff like NPC's don't just sit in one place waiting for you to come to them, they actually go about their daily business, their work and so on, throughout the day. There's a day and night cycle, random weather patterns - storms can come in unannounced, rain can just happen. You can bake bread if you get all the ingredients and put it in an oven. The world is completely open, like literally you can go anywhere from the start. Pretty much every "object" in the world is interactive, you can pick it up, put it in a bag, there's very little that you can't pick up (and that's generally stuff that's too big like trees).

There's no traditional inventory system or HUD, you simply get bags or containers and put items in them, and arrange them how you like (there's no "grid" or list of items, it's simply a bunch of stuff packed in a bag, you just click on objects to move them or take them out of the bag). This might seem annoying (and it is), but everything about the game is designed so it's immersive and "real". So magic stuff isn't just a menu like most RPG's, you open up your spell book and flip pages to find spells. You need to find that one item, you'll need to find it amongst all your other crap.

The magic system is so huge it's scary, and there's so many spells it's impossible to keep track, you also need to prepare spells with the right ingredients and combine them (or am I thinking Pagan?).

The story is very complex and non-linear, also everything about it is mostly based on mystery and finding out clues. Your companions who follow you around often comment on things and have conversations, and they all play into the story.

It's kinda like Morrowind in that the world feels like you could live in it. And literally it's easy to just not follow the main quest and just go out exploring or get sidetracked doing other stuff for hours. But unlike Morrowind where NPC's are very static, Ultima 7 actually feels like it's a functioning and living world.

The combat is not very good. You hardly have any control over it, and while you can in theory cast some spells, for the vast majority of the combat, it's easier to just let your party auto-attack. In fact, I don't think I ever used an in-combat spell during my playthrough of Ultima 7 party 1 & 2 (both are full length games)

The story is good, but not exceptional. It deals with some rather heavy issues in a mature way, and it has its interesting moments.

What makes Ultima 7 (part 1 & 2) shine though are the worlds, which feel alive. All the NPCs have schedules for what they do, and it's not just daily ones. I don't know exactly how extensive they are, but it would seem like they are at least weekly ones, with exceptions on certain days. Also, apart from the regular guards, all NPCs have their own dialogue trees, with well written dialogue which makes sense in the context of the setting. There are by the way a lot of NPCs in these games. The world is also quite large, and fun to explore. In some regards Ultima 7 is still unmatched in terms of having a living and interesting world to explore. The dialogue is considerably better than later open world games.

The thing that struck me about it was the jump from the other Ultima games. I'm not a huge fan of the series but I dig them and U7 just seemed so much smoother on the layout and controls; yes all of that is dated by today's standards but when you are playing one Ultima after another in order the jump is amazing. I should note that I also loved 9 which everyone thinks I'm an idiot for so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

i ahve 8 and 9. I've played 8 for a while and didn'T know what to do. i somehow ended up in an arena with a giant beast that killed me...

IIRC, some creatures alter their behavior a bit, but it's mostly cosmetic in part 1. In part 2... well, some of those storms aren't quite natural...

oh im not part of a younger generation by the way.

Lol!

my favorite is Ultima 8 which everyone hates almost as much as 9 so I feel for ya...

@Soccorro: controlling your party in combat in Ultima 7 feels like trying to control a bunch of headless chickens, except more random. But the game is a must-play classic and for $5.99 I'd say definitely go for it. Even just the random weird stuff you can find while venturing off the beaten trail is worth the experience.
I prefered Ultima 8 with its darker atmosphere but Ultima 7 is a fully fleshed out, complete product so overall more worthwile your time.

Judging from the many reviews and posts about Ultima VII, that seems to be one of this best features. There's scarcely a positive text about that game that doesn't mention the Baking of the Bread. It might have been groundbreaking at the time, but today there are few RPGs without some form of a crafting system so it's nothing special. In Skyrim you can chop firewood, but that's hardly a thing to be excited about. I'm just curious why everybody keeps mentioning bread in Ultima VII. It's a nearly useless item, so why bother crafting it at all?