The second game in the Ultima series is easily the worst. Ultima I was
slightly incomprehensible because of its weird mesh of subjects but
Ultima II just totally goes into overdrive. Minax, the apprentice and
lover of Mondain whom you killed at the end of Ultima I, is pissed off.
She decides to destroy your homeworld...earth. So using the 'timegates'
that spawned after the death of Mondain she comes to Earth, causes an
holocaust in 2111 or something and then hides at the origin of times
thinking she's safe. Obviously she wasn't because at the end you kill
her.
Reaching her ain't easy though since this game is so idiotic. First off
forget about playing this game as a good guy because you can't, you
need to kill guards to get keys and you need keys to solve the game. I
don't know if you could steal the keys from the guards though which
would not be as bad as killing them. Also the timegates system is quite
confusing early on requiring a lot of trial and error before getting a
feeling of how to use them. Most of the game is spent wandering around
with no clue of what to do, most hints you are given are quite short
and cryptic in nature. The game isn't nearly as tightly sewn as the
first game, at least in Ultima I you had quests to solve and princesses
to save. Here you have no goal except to try and find out what the hell
is going on. The game just feels plain random. The dungeons are
absolutely useless, you can and will solve the game without ever
putting a foot in there. They are also quite confusing unlike the
simple dungeons of Akalabeth and Ultima I, so don't even think of
trying them out if you're not a cleric (since he has the go down a
level and go up a level spells). There's even some invincible monsters
running around, specifically an invincible balron in Minax's castle. So
Minax ain't the most powerful entity in the game? Okay...
I even think there are some missing hints in the game, or at least some
really dubious ones. At one point in the game someone tells you that
only the quick sword can kill Minax. Okay, point taken. Then one day
during a spree of carnage in which you kill dozens of guards once again
you might talk to someone who tells you "Beware! I have a quick blade!"
Now tell me, would you make the link between that line and the earlier
line? Even if you did, would you know what to do with it? Would you
think of giving him 500 gold pieces? I'm telling you this game is
RANDOM.
The graphics are not as good as the ones in the Ultima I remake but
that's to be expected since UII was released in 1982 compared to 1986
for the remake. The sound is also worse, in fact everything is worse.
This is just the worst game in the series by far and no one except
masochists should play it.
