(Note: I’m still unable to take screenshots. Sorry…)

Continuing our look at the Ultima games, we now arrive at entry number seven in the series, which came along at a crucial time of transition for Origin Systems. By this point Origin had begun diversifying its game catalog, adding the seminal Wing Commander series of space-combat sims to its resumé, but had nevertheless fallen upon hard financial times. This allowed them to be purchased outright by Electronic Arts (which had previously served only as a distribution arm for Origin’s games), which in hindsight was definitely the beginning of the end for Lord British’s empire; over the next several years EA would gradually exert more and more influence over the creative direction of Ultima and other Origin properties, all of which would lead to Bad Things in the future.

But we will discuss those in due time. For now, let us focus instead on Ultima VII, the first game to be released by Origin following the acquisition by EA (but which, thanfully, was already mostly completed before EA could make any special demands of it), and which is considered to this day as one of the all-time classic PC RPGs.

Ultima VII: The Black Gate (1992): Right away, you realize this trip to Britannia will be quite different in tone from your previous visits. No sooner do you start up the game file than a giant red skull pops out of the screen and taunts you. (Who does he think you are, Captain America or something?) You’re also not asked the Questions of Virtue, despite being forced to start a new character for the game; I guess by this time Lord British knows he doesn’t have to test your devotion to Avatarhood anymore.

When you finally arrive in Britannia, you realize you’ve arrived – in the city of Trinsic, as it happens – just moments after the townsfolk have discovered the scene of a decidedly grisly murder within the stables. You’re greeted upon your arrival by Iolo, looking only slightly the worse for wear despite being well over 200 years old by this point (that’s how much time has elapsed in Britannia between Ultima VI and now, incidentally), who implores you to look into the whys and wherefores of how this could’ve happened. So right off the bat, we have a much more developed story than any of the six previous Ultimas, as well as a clearly-defined “whodunnit” quest for you to undertake.

Not long after you start play, you’ll learn of the existance of a group known as “The Fellowship,” a kind of self-improvement cult that has recently taken Britannia by storm. Turns out that it’s been so long (in Britannian years) since your last visit that the people have begun to doubt the Avatar (that’s you, in case you forgot) ever existed, and as a result belief in the Virtues is at a low ebb. The Fellowship has sprung up to fill this void in the peoples’ lives, by offering a simple philosophy that speaks to the innate desire of everyone to become the best they can be. The Fellowship is run from Britain by a man named Batlin, who once came very close to completing the Quest of the Avatar until a life-changing event at Skara Brae set him on a new path to bring Avatarhood – or something closely approximating it – to the masses.

So not only do you have a clearly-defined villain in the Guardian and an actual (somewhat) linear storyline, you also deal with this new movement that will alternately help and hinder your progress… particularly when you uncover evidence that the Fellowship may not actually be the benevolent organization it purports itself to be. (Hint: If I told you that one of Richard Garriott’s aims in Ultima VII was to make a comment about the self-styled “Church” of Scientology, the true nature of the Fellowship and Batlin may become clearer.)

Pseudo-religious agendas aside, Ultima VII may well represent the ultimate (no pun intended) expression of Origin’s “We Create Worlds” company slogan. As detailed and fully interactive as the previous game in the series was, even that engine pales in comparison to what was being done for this game. Despite the apparent linearity of the game’s storyline, once you get out of Trinsic the world is basically yours to explore until you reach the endgame; you can go anywhere you like and do just about anything you want to. You can even, if you want to, perform decidedly un-Avatarlike actions such as stealing and gambling, if the circumstances are right! (Of course, you can’t always expect your companions to approve of such actions… but who cares? If they get too uppity, you can just dismiss them… or even, if you’re feeling especially bloodthirsty, kill them off entirely.) It is possible to perform just about every action you can think of, at any time you might want to do it… literally anything from fighting bloodthirsty dragons to changing a baby’s diaper. Amazingly enough, you can do everything you need to do in this game using just the mouse! Your hands never once have to touch the keyboard, not even for the more esoteric actions. Not even conversations need to be typed in anymore; clickable keywords now appear onscreen.

Ultima VII also sees a return of something not seen in the series since II: in-jokes and cameos. Fortunately, this time they are subtle and (with one exception) do not break the illusion of Ultima’s ostensibly Medevial Europe-style fantasy world. The Origin staff’s misgivings about the Electronic Arts takeover are clearly represented two ways: First, as part of the quest to stop the Guardian you must locate three evil “generators,” each of which takes a different basic shape; a cube, a sphere, and a tetrahedron. These very shapes comprised the EA logo at the time Ultima VII was released. Even more subtly, you spend most of the game chasing down two roving Fellowship members, whom you end up having to confront in the game’s final battle. Their names? Elizabeth and Abraham… and no, their initials were not arrived at by chance. Moving away from that vein, the castle of Serpent’s Hold now contains characters that are… shall we say… somewhat reminiscent of the crew of a certain famous starship; the lord of the Hold is named John-Paul, his right-hand man is Richter, there’s a Lady Tory, a Captain of the Guard named Horffe… need I go on? Finally – and here is the part that breaks the illusion – you can find a hidden location somewhere on the surface of Britannia where you’ll find the crashed remains of a Kilrathi ship (from Wing Commander)… and just to remove any doubt about what you’re seeing, the background music changes when you find it to a Wing Commander tune.

There are many times throughout Ultima VII where you will find yourself tempted to stray from the path of Avatarhood and take the quick and easy path. This is also a perfectly valid way to play the game – indeed, a popular pastime among Black Gate players is seeing just how many Virtues you can break and still win the game (answer: With proper gameplay, surprisingly many) – though you may make things harder on yourself in the long run if you do. Few temptations are as difficult to resist as the “Armageddon” spell, which you can learn from a teacher at one point in the game. Yes, it’s a real spell; yes, you can cast it (at the cost of one each of every reagent in the game); and yes, it does precisely what its name suggests it will do. If the curiosity is too much for you, I’ll tell you just what Armageddon does – cast this spell and every living thing in the game dies, except for yourself, Lord British, and Batlin. They all have some interesting things to say after the Apocalypse hits, especially Batlin (who, as the Guardian’s puppet, is thrilled by this turn of events as you’ve saved his master the trouble). Another way Ultima VII tempts you into Doing The Wrong Thing comes at the very end, when you have to stop the Guardian’s entry into Britannia by destroying the titular Black Gate. However, you also know that if you do this, the chances of your being able to return to Earth are somewhere between “microscopic” and “nonexistant,” as this is the last remaining portal linking Britannia to other worlds. Knowing this, you can – if you want – decide to race through the Black Gate yourself, for a gauranteed return to Earth… however, if you’re truly the Avatar, you wouldn’t even think of abandoning your liege lord and his realm in their hour of need like a common coward… would you? (Yes, you can actually do it if you want, but you’ll just get an abrupt “BAD END” that makes you feel just awful. Trust me on this.)

Ultima VII is often considered by players the best overall game in the entire series, citing its deep and immersive gameplay, compelling plot, and interesting puzzles. Indeed, no less an authority than Richard Garriott himself has proclaimed this game (along with IV) to be his own personal favorite. Even today, its attention to detail and richly-woven tapestry of plot and character development are unmatched in the genre. The only drawback: It can be difficult to run the original DOS game on modern PCs, even with DOSBox (this is the problem I myself ran into when trying to make screenshots). Fortunately, a project called Exult has brought Ultima VII into the 21^st century, allowing you to run it natively on everything from XP to FreeBSD with full sound and music support. Even better, you can edit map and character data with an additional tool, allowing you to (in theory) create an entirely new game using the Ultima VII engine! Alas, Exult’s development is not yet to the level where you can do this… but it’s getting there. (Note that you will need a legal copy of Ultima VII to use Exult; it is not a standalone replacement for the original game, and EA has not given permission for the copyrighted material to be distributed in this fashion.)

(One final note. There is a “retrogaming” compilation available on the PSP called EA Replay that purports to have Ultima VII on it. It does not. What it has is a God-awful (IMO) SNES port of Ultima VII that turns the game into a Zelda-style adventure, and replaces the Fellowship’s ritual killings with kidnappings instead. No self-respecting Ultima fan would ever, ever recommend this game to anyone. Just so you’re forewarned.)

Next time: Alas, it would all be downhill for Ultima from this point. However, little evidence of that would be on display when the Avatar ventures outside Britannia for the first time in many years, to explore the curious – and curiously familiar – world of Serpent Isle.

If you liked that, try...

1. Retro-Active: The History of Ultima, Part VIII - Balance Game
2. Retro-Active: The History of Ultima, The Finale: Stark Raven Mad
3. Retro-Active: The History of Ultima, Part VI: Prophet Motive
4. Retro-Active: The Better-Late-Than-Never History of Ultima, Part IX: Super Avatar Bros.?
5. Retro-Active Special: The History of Ultima, Part V: Lord British Takes a Holiday

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