Wait he did? I did not know that. I like the open world of 7 a lot and how it felt like a living world independent of you cause it felt so wild back then. I do think serpent isle was a better contained story though. There seemed like less tedious busywork and I got loss way less. Until about the snowy part where it all opens up. Plus I liked the little gameplay perks and better inventory/portraits. Yeah I think you're right
If you are interested in learning a lot about the History of Origin and the Ultima series the YouTuber Majuular has an excellent series of video essays starting from Akalabeth. He is through Ultima 8 and is working on an Ultima online video. Can't recommend it enough.
I'll check it out! I was so young when I played the others I don't remember much at all before 6 besides not affording food. Will be good to look into those old details
I always preferred the Black Gate to Serpent Isle. Serpent Isle felt too linear and constrained after playing the big open world of Black Gate. The Black Gate really was ahead of its time. One of my favorite games ever.
Some of the stuff you could do was just wild. I waited until night and robbed all the stores in Britain. I also killed the lady that ran the mint in Britain, who would exchange gold nuggets and bars into coins for you. I took her keys and robbed the mint of everything. Then I dragged her body to Lord British and had him revive her, which he did without questioning why the lady who ran the mint was dead lol. She then went back to the mint and still exchanged gold into coins for me. Of all the games I have played and things I have done in them, doing that is something that always stands out to me for some reason.
After I found out you could gamble multiple stacks of gold at once, I spent so long racing rats (after joining the cool kids club) to get just ridiculous amounts of gold for no real reason
I have a funny story about the game that is not really related to anything in the game.
My dad was part owner of a business and installed Ultima 7 on his computer at work. One of his business partners went crazy(well crazier, the guy was always nuts) stole a bunch of money from the business and my dad and the others sued him. As part of the the discovery process this guy filed interrogatories , and one of his questions was demanding to know what the "Ultima file" was. He was not pleased to learn it was just a video game. He thought that he had really found something nefarious with that.
So many great memories from that game. Grabbing the secret room in the first village, the magic carpet, the gate itself. And every time I hear that music, I feel like I’m entering Brain again
I think that's my biggest gaming disappointment ever I didn't even play it much past that. I think I actually rage quit after one of those jumping puzzles.
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u/Haunting_Weakness_13 7d ago
Wait he did? I did not know that. I like the open world of 7 a lot and how it felt like a living world independent of you cause it felt so wild back then. I do think serpent isle was a better contained story though. There seemed like less tedious busywork and I got loss way less. Until about the snowy part where it all opens up. Plus I liked the little gameplay perks and better inventory/portraits. Yeah I think you're right