You are probably comparing a remake of Ultima 1 to a non-remake of Ultima 2; that could explain some of it.

So the original version of the first was like this too? I applied the Legion patch to the second game to make it more pleasing to look at. I didn't realize there had been more than updated graphics on the remake of the first.

Well, considering that Ultima 1 looked more like Akalabeth than anything resembling the later Ultima games, yes. There was something of a massive overhaul.

I finally managed to get a hold of a frigate and that made the game much more enjoyable and less tedious. It's just very hard to get started in this one, for me.

Well, even after, you will still have to grind again and again. One character will ask 100 Go to rise a characteristic, another one 500 Gold to have the best sword, 2000 Gold or more for the best armor in shop (granted, i didn't had the best intelligence out there), 500 Gold for an obligatory item. A lot of Negate Time Ring are needed for the end which mean MORE grinding for those people with the boat during hour and hour. Even the dungeon doesn't help that much since those you can always have those gobliis which will gulp all your food as you try to attain the last floor to get the fuel for the shutte... And i felt like i lost more time trying to grind money in the Africa one instead of just going everywhere killing everything with the fregate.

No, really... I really disliked this one whichi is too bad because visiting planets is awesome.

And no, i nearly finished the Apple II version of Ultima 1 and it wasn't that sadistic. (Couldn't finished it because there was a bug with the Tie Fighter, i couldn't shoot them so i finished the game on PC) To be honest, the remake is more difficult since there is a bug which makes the armor ineffective in dungeon. And i feel like i prefer the line rendering of monster of Alakabeth instead of what there were going for in Ultima 2. (Either way, the overworld is more colorful in the Apple II version of Ultima 1 than the PC version of Ultima II so i felt like it was more beautiful)