Ultima VII or Ultima VIII

[kad3t]

Hey!

I've got both, Ultimat VIII Pagan & Ultima VII (both parts of it). Question is which is better? Back in the days when these games were still considerably fresh/new I played a bit of Ultima VIII and it was fun but I also heard that VII was much better. Haven't heard why though... So, which one & why?

I'll attach a little poll to make this thread more entertaining... ^__^

[Paco]

you forgot Ultima Online. :D

[Scatty]

Never played Ultima VII though I've got The Complete Ultima VII CD with both parts and their two addons, just didn't have enough time or didn't come around to it since it's a bit different than Ultima VI.
Since I could choose Ultima Underworld I + II I took those two instead of Ultima VIII which is also an excellent game in my opinion. But the two Ultima Underworld dungeon crawlers are unsurpassed for me due to their unique, tense atmosphere and the effective and easiest magic spell system yet of all Ultima games.

[hunvagy]

Ultima Underworld for the win. As stated, nothing beats the atmosphere of those games.

"At last, you are asleep..." :p

[Tomekk]

Underworld.

To this day, it is one of the most atmospheric and immersive games I have ever played. :)

Second to that is the mega-epic-awesome Ultima VII. :D

[Panthro]

U7+SI+addons for me is best.

The Underworld games are second though, they are fantastic (and my favourite FP-RPGs ever)

In third place I would put Ultima 5, since it was my favourite of the old ones.

[yoga]

U8

:thumbs:

[kad3t]

you forgot Ultima Online. :D

Actually I didn't. I was thinking about more of a single player experience. I did forgot to mention it though. ^__^

[kad3t]

(...)

Since I could choose Ultima Underworld I + II I took those two instead of Ultima VIII which is also an excellent game in my opinion. But the two Ultima Underworld dungeon crawlers are unsurpassed for me due to their unique, tense atmosphere and the effective and easiest magic spell system yet of all Ultima games.

That's interesting... I mean, from my point of view. As I've got those also (along with all the other games in Ultima franchise) but was always avoiding them because of the FPP. Not that I don't like it, it's just when I can have it in TPP I'd rather have it like that than play in FPP. I'm weird though. ^__^

[Scatty]

Trust me, saying you're weird is saying every human is weird. People are just all different. And Ultima Underworld requires first a bit of adaptation to it's controls since they ARE unique to other games of that era, though once you learn them it's quite easy to play.

[kad3t]

U7+SI+addons for me is best.

The Underworld games are second though, they are fantastic (and my favourite FP-RPGs ever)

In third place I would put Ultima 5, since it was my favourite of the old ones.

Hmm... Many of you guys seem to be saying really good things about UU. And as for RPGs it's cleat that the most important thing is gameplay/atmosphere. So, if it's really that good I may add it to my "Soon to be played" list... However I do wanna check out U7 also along with Daggerfall & I already planned for WoX And that is many BIG games to go through.

If this thread won't help me in making my mind out I'd end playing all of them in a same time. That is not all at once but all of them over the same period of time. ^__^

Funny thing is, that this question spawned it's devlish life in my head after I watched couple of episodes of Let's play's of U7 on YT by the guy named Kikoskia & they seemed like a game with a lot of fun & big involving World to offer.

Well, so far I'll wait and see maybe I will come to make up my mind and decide on one or two rather than all of them. ^__^

[kad3t]

Trust me, saying you're weird is saying every human is weird. People are just all different. And Ultima Underworld requires first a bit of adaptation to it's controls since they ARE unique to other games of that era, though once you learn them it's quite easy to play.

Well, I played a lot of Morrowind, Oblivion, Mass Effect 2 & most importantly Fallout 3, so I'm kind of alright with FPP controls in a RPG though like I said given the choice I'd always opt for TPP. But since many of the best games were made in FPP I should not be that picky and just learn to deal with it. ^__^

[kad3t]

U8

:thumbs:

Could you elaborate on this one a little bit, yoga?
I mean I played some U8 ages ago but I was just a teenager back then & did not complete it for reason I can't recall now. But I always heard (from people I knew played few of the titles) that U7 was superior to U8. I never spoke to anyone playing UU until today, so I cannot really say anything about these yet.

[Paco]

Please dont make multiple Posts in series. Some like a Doublepost is not liked by Staff. Try to make it in 1 Post. Thank you.

[hunvagy]

Well, I played a lot of Morrowind, Oblivion, Mass Effect 2 & most importantly Fallout 3, so I'm kind of alright with FPP controls in a RPG though like I said given the choice I'd always opt for TPP. But since many of the best games were made in FPP I should not be that picky and just learn to deal with it. ^__^

Mass Effect 2 is not an RPG :p Neither do I consider Oblivion to be one :) And you will find that the controls are pretty different in UU. You can do everything with just the mouse, which is pretty fun and intuitive. Also there won't be a journal telling you everything you need to do, neither an automap that shows enemies and places. You do have an automap, a pretty one at that, and you can litter it with personal notes. Other then that, you need to write down a lot of stuff, which also is part of the fun. Plus at first you have no idea how the real plot will kick in (at least in the first part). And I have to say at every given time, that the engine of UU is one of the best for it's time. It was 3D even before Doom :p

[Scatty]

It was 3D even before Doom :p
It IS actually a true 3D UNLIKE Doom, because Doom / Doom II uses a "2.5D" engine which fools into believing it would be 3D. So you could probably rather say - it was 3D even before Heretic, since that game was the first 3D shooter I'm aware of which improved it's engine to 3D from that of Doom. And Heretic came out somewhere in late 1996, 4-5 years after UU.

[yoga]

Trust me, saying you're weird is saying every human is weird. People are just all different. And Ultima Underworld requires first a bit of adaptation to it's controls since they ARE unique to other games of that era, though once you learn them it's quite easy to play.

Scatty is abs. correct.

@Kad3t

Why yoga likes U8?

Because the game is so colorful like a fairy tale.
Because I am able to cotrol battle of Avatar.
Because the game offered nice scenario and here is no need to develop yr combat ability. ( If you meet v. strong opponent you may simple run and avoid battle. Till in some games the opponent killing is abs. mandatory to continue the game)

But there is a big discomfort. Yes, in this game if you make mistake, game didnt stop you and you continue and lost many efforts and time till suddenly you are off the game. It is not fair..

Ty

[kad3t]

@hunvagy

OK. I'm gonna have to agree to clasiffy Mass Effect in a similar genre as Diablo games - action RPGs - where the action part is superior to it's RPG counterpart. However I cannot say the same about Oblivion. As far as I remember it, it's no less of a RPG than it's earlier parts and for that matter not that much worse (story-wise) either.

As for UU it sounds very, very interesting & if it keeps getting so many positive responses it will have to appear in my revised signature. ^__^ The idea of not having a journal available is equally interesting as it is scary. It involves player in a gameplay much thorugher however missing a bit out of the plot by taking a break to answer the door or phonecall can mean that one misses out on important quest or story line...

@Scatty

I get it. 3D enviroments + 2D sprites for creatures, weapons and their effects. ^__^ Just on a side not I wonder how well if well at all it was optimised for machines of that time. ^__^

@yoga

What about the World? I mean is it big enoough for a long game? As in if I could play for let's say anything between 5 to 10 hours a week, could it offer me a good month of gameplay? From what I heard U7 (especially in complete pack with addons) offers absolutely massive World to play in and countless hours of gameplay that's why I was sort of leaning towards 7 rather than 8.

[Scatty]

The world of U8 is a lot smaller than that of Ultima VII I presume, since Ultima VI's world was already bigger than that of U8 and Ultima VII would offer more than Ultima VI, being it's successor. But where U8 offers a bit little in terms of game world it makes up with it's rich, dense and dark atmosphere and uniqueness in gameplay compared to other Ultima series. And compared to Ultima VI which had a large enough world, Ultima VIII actually still takes a bit longer time to finish it.

[hunvagy]

@hunvagy
OK. I'm gonna have to agree to clasiffy Mass Effect in a similar genre as Diablo games - action RPGs - where the action part is superior to it's RPG counterpart. However I cannot say the same about Oblivion. As far as I remember it, it's no less of a RPG than it's earlier parts and for that matter not that much worse (story-wise) either.


Oblivions Imperial Province is a like a sandbox for little boys compared to Vvardenfell or Dagerfalls enormous map. Storywise the quests might be interesting, but that's where the true RPG heritage ends. They simplified controls, skills, nearly everything just for the sake of the console releases. It has the worst case of consolitis I have ever seen. The inventory is friggin small if not modded, the compass showing way points is a big immersion breaker, regenerating health & mana eliminates the need to rest (in one hour you can regain all your health and mana). And there is my grime which I had since Morrowind, the leveled list. I mean what kinda sense does it make, that the roadside bandit would still be standing there waiting for unsuspecting victims, when he's wearing an armor that costs 20k gold? Also why do wolfs get extinct when you are too powerful, and the whole world gets inhabited by Minotaurs and Dryads? I know most of these problems can be fixed with mods, but we are talking about the unmodded game. And that is a horrible console action game thingy with sporadic RPG elements.


As for UU it sounds very, very interesting & if it keeps getting so many positive responses it will have to appear in my revised signature. ^__^ The idea of not having a journal available is equally interesting as it is scary. It involves player in a gameplay much thorugher however missing a bit out of the plot by taking a break to answer the door or phonecall can mean that one misses out on important quest or story line...


Why would you miss anything because of a phone call? Text does not scroll away, books and notes don't disappear, and you can pause the game :) Plus you can write your own journal :)

[Dewfire]

Ultima 7 by far, I spent countless hours and days playing it even before the expansion.

Although, I have to admit, Ultima I is a ton of fun too :)

and yes the Ultima Underword series were awesome.

[kad3t]

I had couple of free hours yesterday and decided to spent them doing a quick test run of ultima 7 & WoX. As for WoX I've remade the starting team & left it at that but when I've done a test run of U7... God! I've found myself playing it two hours after my free time was over. ^__^ I've run it through exult and it works like a charm but I've got a question - is it normal that my character after getting killed is ressurected in a wooden hut with all his companions around him, saved by a doctor of some kind? Because there's a cheat option in exult and even when I turn it off, when I restart it it's on again & I'm not sure if that's not part od that cheating & I'd rather not cheat. ^__^

[Mighty Midget]

And now the Holy Handgrenade: Try Ultima IX. Bugs and glitches everywhere, as an Ultima game it is simply horribly wrong but it has it's good sides as well. I guess it's one of them games you either hate, period, or love for the awfulness unless you are duped by the 3D, glittery graphics and just love it. Am I serious about suggesting you to try it? Absolutely. Check it out and see for yourself what that game is about.

Other than that: U7 is one I never got around to finish but I remember it to be an absolutely fantastic game, with the huge world where I could do, if not anything, then at least way more than I could in any onther game I had tried back then. U8 I did finish and it's not bad, far from it, but I still prefer U7, with the travelling Party unlike U8, where Avatar was a loner running around. Last: The Ultimate Ultima game is still U Underworld 1 :D Nearly everything was done right in that game, the atmosphere, the gameplay, the interface, the magic, it was near perfect.