Games

In the seventh installment of the Ultima series you — the Avatar — must go back to Britannia and investigate a series of strange events. Two hundred years have passed since your last visit and much has changed since then. An unknown being who calls himself the Guardian has appeared and is forcing everyone to bow to his whims. In addition magic doesn't work as it should, it seems that all of the mages have gone insane, and quiet towns are being terrorized with ritualized murders. It is unclear what is happening, but initial signs point to some kind of organization called the Fellowship. It is up to you to unravel the mystery and find out what is really going on in Britannia.

In the realm of Sosaria, a land divided by a thousand years of agony brought about by the malevolent sorcerer Mondain, a lone hero capable of turning back the tides of darkness has finally emerged. That hero is you. Your mission, a slight variation on the standard kill-the-evil-wizard theme, is to assemble a time machine, go back in time before the evil wizard developed unstoppable power and, then, of course, eliminate him.

After obtaining aid from the lords of the realm in Ultima I, your character travels back in time, locates the mad wizard Mondain, slays him, and ends his reign of terror. In Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress, Mondain's protégé, Minax, who studied the mad wizard's teachings and writings, returns to wreak vengeance on the person who slew her teacher and lover -- you. And, instead of waiting for you to return to her native land of Sosaria, she wreaks havoc on your own Earth. Throughout Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress, your quest is quite different in scope from its predecessor. Earth is turned into a half-modern, half-fantasy world by the forces of magic and, as a result, things are much stranger than one might expect. As explained in the introduction, your tasks in the game are to "Battle strange creatures across the face of the Earth, search for clues in careless words spoken at the local pub, traverse deep, dark, deadly dungeons and tall, terrifying towers...and conquer Time itself to battle Minax the Enchantress."

Following the defeat of the evil triad in the previous three Ultima games, the world of Sosaria changed beyond recognition: continents rose and sank, and new cities were built, heralding the advent of a different civilization. Unified by the reign of the benevolent monarch Lord British, the new world was renamed Britannia. Lord British wished to base people's well-being on the ethical principles of Truth, Love, and Courage, proclaiming the Eight Virtues (Honesty, Compassion, Valor, Justice, Sacrifice, Honor, Spirituality, and Humility) as the ideal everyone should strive for. The person who could accomplish full understanding and realization of these virtues would serve as a spiritual leader and a moral example for the inhabitants of Britannia; he alone would be able to obtain holy artifacts, descend into the Stygian Abyss, and access the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom. This person is the Avatar.

Ultima IX: Ascension is the final chapter of the longest running RPG series in computer history. While Origin will continue to develop multiplayer online games in the land of Britannia, Ultima IX is the final single player game starring the Avatar. In it, the Avatar returns to Britannia one final time, this time in an engrossing three-dimensional world.

In an attempt to conquer the world, The Guardian encases Castle Britannia and its occupants--including the Avatar--in a giant blackrock gem. The game takes place one year after the events of Ultima 7: The Black Gate. To celebrate the defeat of the Guardian, Lord British invites the Avatar and his companions to his castle. However, in the night of the feast the Guardian attacks again, encasing the castle in a giant gem of blackrock. Deep in the sewers of the castle, another blackrock gem resides, being a teleporter to other worlds controlled by the Guardian. Now you, the Avatar, must travel to these worlds in order to free the castle from the Guardian's spell. This sequel to Ultima Underworld plays exactly as the original, except for a larger game world, a richer storyline and better graphics and sound.

Ultima Underworld is a role-playing game that takes place from a first-person perspective in a three-dimensional environment. The player's goal is to adventure through a large, multi-level dungeon, in which the entire game is set. The player uses a freely movable mouse cursor to interact with the game's world, and with the icon-based interface on the heads-up display (HUD). Each icon has a specific effect; for example, the Look icon allows the player to examine objects closely, while the Fight icon causes the player character to ready its weapon. The player's progression through the game is non-linear: areas may be explored, and puzzles and quests finished, in any order. An automatically filling map, to which the player may add notes, records what the player has seen above a minimum level of brightness. The player character may carry light sources to extend the line of sight in varying amounts. Exploratory actions include looking up and down, jumping, and swimming.

The Avatar, the embodiment of the Eight Virtues and the hero of Britannia, is called back to deal with a grave threat. Lord British, the country's benevolent monarch, has disappeared, and a man named Blackthorn has usurped his throne. The tyrant rules the land by enforcing the virtues upon the will of the people, corrupting their meaning in the process. His fundamentalist visions led him to create a police state, where failure to adhere to the virtues is punishable by death. Behind Blackthorn are the three Shadowlords, anti-thesis to the three principles of Truth, Love, and Courage. The Avatar must understand their meaning and origins, find a way to defeat them, rescue Lord British, and restore the former ethical principles of Britannia.