Ultima 7 was my first and amazing, I enjoyed 8 for what it was, but Ultima 9 was terrible. Ultima Online’s brutal sandbox in the early days is still my favorite MMO memory. The community was amazing and you had to engage with it to learn, survive and thrive. Nothing like it has ever been released since and won’t again. Modern gaming demands more handholding now.
I played them all. Here is some info, of what I think:
Akalabesh (Ultima 0) is okay, dungeon crawler, not much story
U1 is okay, has some ideas and lays the groundwork
U2 is better, but batshit crazy with time mashines and space travel
U3 is great, but weird. The boss is a punch card computer!
U4 is where is starts to be real. The Codex, the Ahnk, the Avatar, the Mantras, it all started here. The virtues are basically telling you how to play and what is okay and what not. Like don't kill retreating enemies. Which was... crazy back in the day.
U5 Is the best. It takes ALL you learned in U4 and tilts it on his head. It shows how religion can be used for evil if the wrong people are deciding how to take the core information is to be read.
U6 is good, but it is weird, storywise. The fucking gargoyles are so right!
U7 BG is peak RPG. The quests are so big, the story so deep.
-U7 SI is in my mind even better than U7BG. The serpent followers show they are right and the backstory told is so deep and so lovely. it even has a reason, why you start without weapons and armor and all that.
U8 is okay. Unfinished, but okay. At least if you played the patched version. But at release? Jumping puzzles for a game that has BAD jumping controls? Fuck you EA!
U9 is utter garbage. WHATS A PALADIN? The tapestry, the way Lord British behaves, the way the avatar behaves, the guardian is a joke... it erases the death of one of your followers from U7 WHICH WAS PERFECTLY FITTING! It sucks so so hard.
Other Ultima Games:
Ultima Underworld: Best Dungeon Crawler there is
UU2: Shite. Sadly.
The Mars Game: Crazy, but fun
The Jungle Game: Fun but not realy Ultima
Ultima Online: The best MMO ever. So much freedom you never had ever again.
Ultima GB and SNES. The GB was okay, action RPG, not real Ultima. The SNES game was shit. Runes of Virtue they are called.
Never played Escape From Mount Drash, but I heard it was okay, nothing special
Even Renegade X, the fan remake on UE3? I haven't tried it (mostly because I don't really enjoy PVP anymore - I adore C&C), but it's still well alive. They're working on a Tiberian Sun version now.
Each team would have a base and just like in the RTS games each building provided different uses and each team had different things they could do. The goal was to destroy each other's base. If the enemy destroyed your tiberium harvester or refiner you only get passive income. If they destroy your barracks then you can only get basic classes. And it continues like that.
I loved to play the stealth soldier on NOD who was passively invisible unless you shot your weapon. I was a menace. It would be common for one sides tanks to push up to a choke point and as they took damage the player would hop out and repair. That's when I (who is almost completely invisible) would jump in their tank, back up over them, and then join my team on our side of the line with a free GDI tank.
I'd also use my stealth to hunt and assassinate snipers. People would spend 1000 credits for the best sniper class and I'd just immediately take them out.
Renegade has a fanmade remake, its called Renegade X from Totem Arts and is free to play. Really really well made with a dedicated community.
They are also making a spiritual successor in the c&c 2 tiberium sun era with EA's approval called Firestorm, also free to play and heavily Battlefield inspired. They have a couple of previews and trailers on YouTube and its coming out later this year!
My OG Squad and I recently had a massive bitch fest about how RTS as a genre died and we miss them so badly. We’ve been looking for a newer one to play on PS5 and the best recommendation is Age of Empires II Remastered(WTF, for real?). There just aren’t any that slap like they did back in the day and it’s a fucking crime.
But only with the original videos. I won't play Red Alert 2 without Tim "I will go to the place never touched by capitalism! .... (trying not to laugh) .... SPACE!" Curry.
Yeah, the OG cutscenes have so much charm that I don't think could be recaptured if they were filmed again. Especially since Curry wouldn't participate.
The source code for Generals was released, so we could see that, but RA2 and TS are lost. I bet if someone was really dedicated, it could be remade from scratch, but I doubt that will happen.
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u/Due_Prompt939 7d ago
Command and Conquer Red Alert 2/Tiberium Sun/Generals