Ultima VII - The Black Gate

History: When Origin released Ultima 7 it was a huge game for its time and demanded most powerful hardware. The Ultima 7 engine is a much improved version of the Ultima 6 engine. The graphics now fill the entire screen, windows like the "paperdoll" inventory screen or the backpack only appear when they are needed. The graphics are now much more realistic with changing weather conditions. Typing keywords has been replaced by a mouse interface. Turn-based combat has been replaced by a real-time engine, unfortunately the AI of the NPCs is absolutely terrible. Also, the concept of speech in the game has been introduced. Lord British decided that for future Ultima games he will need external help, so the negotiations with Electronic Arts started in this time. The three symbols of the Guardian in Ultima 7, sphere, cube and tetrahedron are clearly a spoof of the EA logo. However, it turned out to be a bad move since the vermin in pinstripes in the EA management always bugged Lord British with time constraints and clipped his creativity severely, forcing him to cut large parts of the storyline of Serpent Isle, Ultima 8 and finally Ultima 9.

"Avatar! Know that Britannia has reached a new Age of Enlightenment!" The Guardian makes a speech in the Intro.

A scene from the short but well-drawn Intro sequence.

Background: In Ultima 7 Lord British returns to the "Big Foozle" idea and introduces a powerful enemy, the Guardian. But what an enemy! The triad of evil looks like naughty children compared with him. The red titan is cunning, sarcastic and manipulative and keeps the Avatar busy for the next five games. Also the concept of speech has been introduced in Ultima (if you don't count the Mac version of U3) and Bill Johnson's dark bass voice of the Guardian taunts you continuously, adding a great atmosphere to the game. In this game, the Guardian tries to gain power and enter Britannia with the help of a sect called the Fellowship. While this seems to be a benign organization at the first glance, the Avatar soon discovers the evil plans of the Guardian and the head priest of the Fellowship, Batlin.

Getting some spiritual aid from your local Fellowship Leader.

The inventory system with paperdoll, backpack and the spellbook.

Recommended Version: Although there is a pitiful console version of the game, the Black Gate is designed almost exclusively for the PC. Playing the english version also allows you to install the Forge of Virtue Add-On for this game. There are german and french versions of the game, but I heard they don't support the Add-On. The PC versions of Ultima 7+8 use a crazy memory management system, thus they are hard to install under Windows. There are patches for Win9x as well as a complete remake of the Ultima 7 engine, called Exult. This engine runs smoothly under newer Windows versions and allows to install some fan-made mods and bugfixes, too.

Lost in the woods.

The party near the edge of a swamp.

Statistics:

Party with 1 created character and up to 7 NPCs.
71 different magic spells
Introduction of linear (mana-free) spells
Dungeons/Outdoors/Buildings 2D
On-Screen-mapping: Yes (No in dungeons)

What's for desert?

Sailing the high seas.

Morale: While any similarity between game characters and living real-world persons is purely coincidental according to the statements of Origin, the whole story about the Fellowship and their attempt to gain influence suspiciously reminds one of certain control-hungry sects, especially one. The whole system, the hierarchies, the taxes, the membership terms, the attempt to recruit followers in high positions, the set of questions for beginning members, all this is a clear warning to be aware of sects which threaten individual freedom and democracy more and more. As the Avatar discovers in the later game, the Fellowship even uses some sort of psychical manipulation. Well, in the game this problem is easily removed by disabling a technical device. In the real world, the problem will be much more difficult to deal with: Creating filters and detectors for subliminal manipulation attempts and making laws against them without allowing the laws to create more injustice than the act of manipulation itself.

Britannia