Hi!

I've always been a huge D&D fan. I also like the storytelling / roleplaying more than I like tactics and combat (but those things are lots of fun, too). AD&D games are some of my favorites - everything from Pool of Radiance to Planescape: Torment, Eye of the Beholder to Neverwinter Nights.

When I cut my teeth on DOS gaming in the late 80's and early 90's, I somehow managed to never play a single Ultima game. Now the Ultima sale is winding down soon and I can't make up my mind on whether to bite on it. I was reading the reviews of Ultima VII today and it was nothing but unending adulation. They got me seriously thinking that I should pick up the whole kit and kaboodle for the $18.

As fellow passionate D&D game fans, what do you guys think? What are the strengths of the Ultima series? What will I struggle to enjoy coming from a D&D context?

Thanks for your input.

If you haven't played it back in the day you might struggle to enjoy it. Compared to more modern D&D games like Baldur's Gate, Ultima VII feels incredibly clunky. The interface is clunky, the battle system is a mess and the graphics are awkward.
If you can't look past that, it'll not be as enjoyable as some might try to make you believe.

The battle system in older Ultima games isn't as bad though. It's a lot like the exile/avernum-style games. But less streamlined and incredibly ugly.

Now I know these games shouldn't be played because of their graphics, but there's a limit :P

You can get Ultima 4 for free on this site and try it out. This might cure your desire to ever play an Ultima game again.

Ultima 4 is free, so I'd suggest trying that one out for a little bit to see how you feel about it. If you like it, or even feel like you can tolerate it, you should definitely get the 4+5+6 pack, and Ultima 7 as well. When people talk about how amazing Ultima is, they're usually talking about 4-7. IMO there's no real need to buy the entire pack unless you instantly become addicted, as 1-3 haven't aged particularly well, 8 is more of an action game than a RPG, and 9 is just retcons galore. (Never played the Underworld games.) That way you get the best 4 games for $2 each. If you DO immediately fall in love with the series, then definitely get the whole pack, as it's only a dollar more to get all of them than to get 4 items, and you'll get the best deal if you buy them all at once rather than piecemeal.

It's a very different sort of experience compared to the IE games, but they're still very strong. I consider the Ultima series to be one corner of the Holy Trinity of Oldschool RPGs, with the Wizardry series and IE games being the other two corners.

Sounds like you're not a fan. :^) When they first released Ultima 4 for free here I did download it and play for maybe 30 minutes. It seemed interesting and fun enough, though I had the nagging feeling that I really ought to read the manual or something first in order to really get a handle on what I was doing. I was probably closer to the "tolerate" end of the scale than the "addicted / in love" end of the scale.

4-7p2 are definitely the best of the series. I am a huge fan of both D&D and Ultima (though I played Ultima before ever touching a D&D game).

It really depends on what you like in an RPG. I'm mainly into the story. I'm not a great tactical player. If tactics are really your thing, you may enjoy U4-U6 as they are turn based, though they are obviously not as complex, rules wise, as D&D. U7 combat is real time (can't remember if there is a pause) and its not conducive to thought out processes. It's more 'let everything fly and see what happens.' But the story in U7 is fantastic.

You do need to at least brush through the manuals of these games though as they don't have much in the way of in game prompts for doing things. The good news is that in most cases, they use the same basic ideas across games (such as mixing regents or what spells do what) so if you were to say read the manual for U4 and play the game, when you got to U5, you'd already known probably 85% of what is in the U5 manual. U6 and U7 start changing the interface, but the overall rules system is largely the same.

Ultima is ok for a slow night but Wizardry 8 will kill the weekend... You will be late for work on Monday as well.

Well, I broke down and bought the whole sale. I loved Arx Fatalis, which I have heard is the spiritual successor to Ultima Underworld, and most people seem to think Ultima VII is one of the best games ever made. Combine that with the quality that 4-6 are supposed to have, and $18 sounds like a fair price for those six games alone.

Now they get put on the already gigantic heap of games I haven't played yet and we'll see when I get to them. :^)

You break the rules of the forum, creating an empty and meaningless messages. Where to watch the forum moderator?

This section of the forum, only for the game Baldur's Gate.

I'd say this is quite the place for asking D&D fans what they think of another series.