Ultima IV is often seen as being one of the most important rpg in the
history of the genre, and is often included in top games of all time
lists and whatnot. It's true that the game was truly incredible back in
the day and it has surprisingly aged well, or at least some parts of it
aged well.
Unlike the previous games in the series you don't have a big bad guy to
kill, instead here you need to be an example to the people of Britannia
and become an avatar, the perfect representation of everything that is
right so to speak. So how will you achieve this? By talking to a whole
bunch of people and taking notes. Ultima IV introduced the classic
Ultima gameplay that is like a cross between a classic adventure game
and a western rpg. It is thoroughly unique in the sense that you need
to engage in conversation with NPC's, ask them keywords, take notes and
use some logic in your decisions. This is what keeps the game fresh
today still. The problem at this point is that those conversations are
far too simple to be truly enjoyable, and the world is basically a huge
landmass of nothing. There is a couple of towns and dungeons here and
there but it generally feels quite empty. The core gameplay is
interesting but is too simple to really enjoy, especially in 2007.
A good part of the game must be spent in the dungeons and this is where
the game falters: the dungeons simply have not aged well. Unlike the
rest of the game, dungeons have been made over and over again since
Ultima IV's release and it really makes them really dated here. There's
absolutely no fun to be had in there and since the endgame is spent
mostly in the dungeons prepare to be bored out of your mind if you want
to finish this game. This truly drags the game down which is sad
considering it starts so well.
From a general gameplay point of view the game kept the battle system
from Ultima III, a tactical rpg grid system, but sped it up quite a
bit. That makes battles go by quicker but I have to admit that they're
still not very exciting. Fighting has never been Ultima's strong point
though so I guess that can be excused. Another thing I don't like is
the fact that the more characters you have in your party the more
enemies you will have to face. This encourages players to not recruit
companions until the endgame which doesn't feel natural. It would have
been better if they had used the experience levels of your main
character to decide how many enemies you would face on the battlefield.
The graphics in the original PC version are flat out horrible but you
can download a patch that upgrades them to VGA. They are much better
that way and I recommend it to anyone wishing to try their hand at this
game. The original version also didn't have the music included in the
commodore 64 version of the game and the patch also adds that. The
music is pretty good in Ultima IV but the tunes are still far too
short, you hear them looping all the time and they'll quickly start to
grate on you. At the end of the game you WON'T want to hear that battle
theme again, especially since it isn't that good. The game has some
GREAT songs but overall i'd have to say that the base compositions are
not as good as the ones in Ultima III. The overworld map theme is
annoying and so is the battle theme and they're the two songs you'll
hear the most. The rest of the soundtrack is pretty good though.
Overall Ultima IV is a good leap over the first three games but it
isn't quite at a point where I would consider it a good game. The
dungeons are simply too antiquated to be enjoyable and it drags the
whole game down. Luckily this game has been released as freeware a
couple of years back so it doesn't cost much to get going. It could be
worth it as an history lesson on RPGs and games in general but not much
more.
