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Ultima V
by cheffrey Ask any fan of computer-based RPGs what their favourite series of games is, and you can make a pretty accurate guess by their answer how old they are. If the answer is the Elder Scrolls or Dragon Age, then they're probably in their teens. If they reply with 'Final Fantasy', then they're probably now in their 20s. And if the answer cometh ... 'Hail Ultima, king of adventure games!', then they are probably well in the grasp of their second mid-life crisis, or are one of the peculiar cult of jaded players that are currently abandoning the vapid slew of current releases in favour of the vintage classic. Hopefully I fall into the latter category and haven't become too existential just yet. Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny had a lot to live up to. Its 1985 predecessor, Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, had done as much to shake up the whole concept and potential of video games as Elite had done a few years earlier. Up until that point, RPGs typically revolved around the predictable and paper-thin premise of 'you must save the land from the Evil Skull-Wizard because, err, you just have to, OK?!'. Ultimas I-III fell foul of this unimaginative rent-a-plot, but IV turned everything on its head by introducing a moral crisis as the main villain, and as the hero you had to do genuinely heroic things and master the 8 virtues that constituted the new philosophy put in place to become 'the Avatar', a spiritual leader for the people of Britannia. From this point on, the Ultima series set the bar stratospherically high for games that challenged the player to make tough moral decisions during a deep, character driven story. ~Plot~ The game starts with you, the newly appointed Avatar of Britannia, having returned to Earth and not been summoned or able to travel back to Britannia for a long time. All but ready to give up hope of ever returning, a moongate appears in the mysterious stone circle in your back garden, beckoning you to step through it as you sense Britannia is in peril. Returning, you find that the land you came to call home for so long has been corrupted, with Lord British (the ruler of Britannia) missing, and the unjust ruler Lord Blackthorn having taken his place. The principles of Love, Truth and Courage which you help to found having been corrupted by the emergence of the three Shadowlords (who look a bit like Nazgul from Lord of the Rings), with Blackthorn perverting the humanist virtues to their most extreme interpretation to use as a political tool to oppress everyone. With a bounty on your head, as well as those of your old companions, it is up to you evade the tyrannical armies after you and to restore the freedom and peace of the land. But things are no longer black and white in the world of Ultima.. Are Blackthorn and his cronies really evil, or have the Shadowlords corrupted them? And if so, are they really responsible for their actions? Should they be shown compassion and forgiveness, or the hard edge of justice for their crimes? It is the moral dilemmas like this that make Ultima V stand out so well. ~Gameplay~ The game plays in exactly the same way as Ultima IV did, which means anyone familiar with the series could drop straight in. The top-down tile set view is the same, with inventory and statistic windows on the right to give information about your party of characters. Commands are given through the arrow keys to move, direct combat and interact with people in the world of Britannia, including dialogue and spending your hard-earned loot on better armour and equipment. The gaming world is huge, with forests and castles and towns to explore, as well as monster-filled dungeons which can be punishingly difficult to conquer. The story unfolds mainly through talking to people, and this is where it falls down a bit. Too much is given away too early, as it is established what the Shadowlords are, and what they are are up to, within the first few minutes of playing. Ever heard of building suspense? One redeeming feature of this setup though is that it does give the player the feeling that Britannia is a living, breathing world that continues on in your absence, and doesn't just have the inhabitants hanging around waiting for you to turn up and solve all their problems (like in the abomination that is Ultima IX). Where it does get more interesting is talking to your former companions, as they are all on the run, quite desperate and all have different opinions about how to tackle the challenges that face you. Wanted posters with their faces are pasted all over the towns and cities you visit; the crash from hero to outlaw here is all too real. All of this calls for you to be all decisive and Avatar-y, which is good. Your status as Avatar is also in need of constant maintenance, having you lead by example and be all virtuous still in a society which has a horribly twisted view of the virtues. Of course, you always have the choice to act like a total jerk to people and go on mad killing sprees, but it's not really recommended, especially as you are treated as something less than heroic by much of the population. With Lord British gone, your delayed absence has been noted and the population are now either entranced by Blackthorn and his interpretation of the virtues, or so fearful of his rule that they dare not speak out against him. Winning over the people of Britannia is not easy, and is the most human part of the story. For much of this game the Avatar is treated as an outsider, with Blackthorn and his puppet politicans less than thrilled to see you turn up. This is a really cool twist given the ending of Ultima IV, where you essentially become a demi-god. Ultima V brings you crashing back down to earth with a bump. All the usual RPG elements are present, with dungeons full of monsters and treasure, systems of magic and levelling up and so on, all of which is fairly intuitive and nicely laid out. The combat system is very demanding though, and requires an awful lot of patience as you will no doubt get wiped out on a regular basis. Fortunately, you can save your game, which was a luxury back in the 80s. Modern gamers are almost certainly going to struggle with this title though, as it is so antiquated it will alienate almost everyone, if you can even get the thing to walk in DOSBox properly. If you are interested in vintage games with good stories it is worth a look, and can be found on the now very rare 'Ultima Collection' box set, or downloaded as abandonware. However, this review isn't just one big nostalgia fest, it comes with a bonus section. Hurrah! ~Ultima V: Lazarus~ In 2005, an extremely talented and dedicated team of independent modders breathed new life into Ultima V. With EA Games sitting on the rights to Ultima and all its content, there is virtually no hope for fans of the series seeing another single player Ultima game as EA squeeze all the cash they can out of Ultima Online. Not that any fan of the game would meet a new title with anything other than a sense of creeping dread after the gut-churningly horrible eighth and ninth games. Anyway, Team Lazarus, as they are known, put in an enormous amount of work to create a total conversion mod for the hack n' slash game Dungeon Siege. With its adaptable engine and game mechanics, it provided a logical platform with which to work. The original story of Ultima V remains unchanged, as do much of the side quests, and it is easy to tell that the team really know the backstory and characters of the Ultima world. The dialogue is really well written, with new characters and quests added to flesh out the experience, and the whole of Britannia is realised well, with familiar towns and landmarks instantly recognisable. Encounters with the Shadowlords are creepy and atmospheric, and there is a palpable sense of fear amongst the population of not only these new demons, but also the political tyrant on the throne. The game mechanics are easy to use, with spell casting, interaction with the world and inventory management all mouse-friendly and intuitive. The attention to detail is great, with everything from swamp boots and moongates, to the Underworld and headless monsters being present and as every fan would want them. Freedom to choose the gender, race and name of the Avatar is implemented, and there are nearly always different options to solve the problems at hand, though the game does tend to steer you towards diplomacy where it is viable. Combat can be paused at any point, which is useful, as it does require some micro-management during the tougher fights to change tactics, formation and chuck spells at enemies. Graphically, it's a bit dated and clunky, but it doesn't really matter as the story is so strong and the game world lovingly realised. The character portraits are my favourite, drawing inspiration from the ones shown in Ultima VII, but with their own twist and style to them. To play this wonderful remake of Ultima V, all you need is a copy of Dungeon Siege (the first one mind, the Dungeon Siege II will NOT work) and a decent internet connection to download the hefty zip file that contains all the Lazarus mod resources needed to convert it. You can pick up a copy of Dungeon Siege from Amazon for mere pence these days, so this is a must for anyone who enjoyed Ultima games back in the day. It's a hell of a lot better than the last two official Ultima titles, that's for sure. The Lazarus website with all its resources is here: http://www.u5lazarus.com/ - I can't praise the team enough for what they've achieved. If only EA had just a fraction of the respect for the fans. Read the complete review |
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Quake
by cheffrey For those of you old and/or geeky enough to remember, the internet in 1996 existed for only one purpose - for bulletin boards and forums to serve as the battleground for the most important question in the history of mankind: which was the better of the unreleased Quake and Duke Nukem 3D. In the mid 90s, there was no such thing as a ... first-person shooter. There was Doom, and then there were Doom-clones. And while the world of video games saw many valiant attempts to dislodge the scary demonic game from its throne of first-person based mayhem, none were so hotly anticipated as Duke Nukem 3D (made by rival shareware publishing house Apogee), and id's next venture, Quake. id software certainly made no bones about what they set out to achieve. Before its release, they boldly claimed that 'Quake will be to Doom what Doom was to Wolfenstein'. But did it live up to its own vaunting? ~Premise~ It was never quite clear where Quake stood in the id universe. It was kind of billed as a sequel to Doom, but in reality turned out to be more of a spiritual successor. Set in a medieval/sci-fi mash up world, strewn with numerous diabolical references, these influences from Doom were clear to see, aesthetically at least. It also drew directly from the world of HP Lovecraft's 'Cthulhu Mythos', referencing Shub Niggurath by name and plonking him in as the main antagonist. Really, though, nobody cared about any kind of story, as id create games that are born guns blazing. Quake was no exception. ~Gameplay~ Unlike its predecesoor, Quake is totally 3D. While not the first game to use polygons over sprites, it was certainly the first to attempt to do so and keep the action at breakneck speeds. Its 3D design demanded a high end machine (for the time - at least 100MHZ! Gosh!), and angles of walls and buildings do not distort when looking up and down (unlike Duke 3D, which wasn't really 3D at all). The HUD is kept to a minimum, showing just health, armour and ammo counts, maximising the field of view. The id team give us no end of nightmarish monsters to take on. From skinned, rabid dogs to chainsaw-wielding ogres and the almost unstoppable Shamblers, their monster modelling team did very well. They also changed tack from Doom, which was all slow tension followed by bouts of intense fighting, and the arcade silliness of its sequel which chucked monsters at you til your RAM creaked. Instead, the pace of everything in Quake is cranked up to the maximum. Monsters race toward you, rockets zip by at high speeds and the guns burn through ammo at a ludicrous rate. And when you've run out of ammo, there's always your trusty battle-axe. The levels are well designed, so far as taking advantage of the new full 3D engine is concerned. Bridges criss-cross, sewers intertwine and platforms move about. But here is the first major criticism to be thrown at Quake - the colour palette is incredibly dull. After just twenty minutes I had to walk away, my eyes throbbing from the strain of picking out sludge-coloured enemies on brown backgrounds and attacking them with my mud-coloured grenade launcher than fires beige ammunition. In trying to create a gloomy world, id mistook bland for atmospheric. The music is great though, supplied as it was by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. id paid tribute to him by making the automatic nailguns a staple weapon, and emblazoning the ammo boxes with his trademark NIN logo. I think you can still ge the soundtrack somewhere too, which is very cool. Powerups are freely scattered around too, which make life a bit easier every now and again, but here's the second gripe; its difficulty levels are way off. Easy is just too dull, medium is probably hard for most players, and hard is nigh on impossible. And if you find the secret Nightmare portal, just turn round and head back. Death comes swiftly in Quake, and you'll soon be mangled into blocky chunks of gibs. ~Multiplayer~ Multiplayer was where Quake really held its own. Deathmatch Doom had become enormously popular online, and is the forebear of the likes of Halo and COD today. One gets the impression that single-player Quake was more of an afterthought, and had been designed with multiplayer at its core. Many of the levels are suited to Deathmatch, giving loads of variety from twisty, claustrophobic labyrinths, to open-area sites for rocket sniping. There was also a brilliant level called Ziggurat Vertigo, which had no gravity and a huge ziggurat streaming lava with craftily placed pilalrs to bounce grenades around. Deathmatch Quake is even more frantic and fraught than the singleplayer, creating arenas of rocket-filled feuds. In all, id took a bold step with Quake, opting for an all-polygon based game. But as a single-player game it feels somewhat lacking, especially in the variation of levels and colours. Its content caused quite a stir at the time, for much the same reasons that Doom did, for it cod-Satanic imagery and violence. I found it a bit tame though, as the 3D graphics were far too chunky to be taken seriously. It is of historical importance in the development of video games, but I think a lot of people would struggle to return to it today. And it arguably took itself too seriously, lacking the humour and level of immersion that its big rival Duke Nukem carried in spades. It also undermines its own attempts at horror, as the protagonist can sprint at silly speeds indefintely, wrecking any sense of tension or fear. As the Duke says when the San Andreas faultline slips during one level, 'I ain't afraid of no Quake'. I found myself returning to Duke Nukem far more, it was just a lot more fun. Maybe I'll necro-post my opinion on a defunct message board from 1995, if I can find one in some murky corner of the web. Read the complete review |
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Sonic 2
by Graham1984 Sonic the hedgehog 2 was the follow up to perhaps the most classic and original megadrive game ever Sonic the hedgehog which pitted Sonic against the evil Dr Robotnik. The game was released in 1992 and added a new character that you could play with in Miles "Tails" Prower, You had the choice of either Sonic or Tails on their ... own or what was then considered a multiplayer format with both although seeing as Sonic was the lead character the camera would always keep central on the screen as soon as Tails was out of screenshot you would have to wait for him to fly in and land before player two could control him again. The multiplayer format had benefits as Tails although could get hurt your ring total would not be lost from him getting hit so you could get him to do all the work if needed with the end level bosses. Like the first installation to this series the game was a simple left to right format platform game where you would navigate through the level defeating enemies by either jumping on them or rolling through them using the only updated move which was a charged spin you could use by ducking down and and repeatedly pressing one of the three buttons. If you hurt yourself by landing on spikes or taking hits you would lose all your accumulated rings (100 at the same time would get you an extra life) and they would spew everywhere leaving you vulnerable to attack as if you get hit with no rings you lose a life. As you navigate through the levels there were randomly placed checkpoints that you would restart from if you died but if you had accumulated 50 rings when you hit these checkpoints a ring of stars would swirl on top of it allowing you to jump into them and activate the bonus level. The bonus level on sonic two was a 3D gulley/gauntlet that you would run down collecting rings and avoiding bombs with Tails that if you hit you would lose a few rings. If by the end you got enough rings you would get an emerald crystal that when you collect all of them (7)and by getting 50rings and jumping in air in the normal levels would turn you into super sonic. Super Sonic- There was two ways to get super Sonic on this game 1) As above by getting emerald crystals or 2) At the start menu you go to sound test play track 19,65,09,17 then retart the game press A+start at the main menu and in the level select screen you get put into you go to sound test again and play tracks 04, 01, 02, 06 and a ring noise sounds meaning the cheat has worked..... I remember that cheat off by heart sadly after 22 years due to using it and playing the game so many times (people who have the xbox 360 megadrive collection the cheat still works!) There was a out of main story multiplayer too where two players compete against each other to the finish line, as either Sonic or Tails, in a split-screen race through three of the regular single player levels; Emerald Hill, Casino Night, and Mystic Cave, and a special stage. If one player finishes one of the levels, the other player must finish the level in 60 seconds or the level ends and the first player that crossed wins. In the regular levels, players are ranked in five areas (score, time, rings held at the end of the level, total rings collected, and number of item boxes broken). The player with who wins in the most number of categories, wins the level. In the Special Stage, players compete to obtain the most rings.The mode ends when all stages have been completed, or if a player loses all their lives, in which his/her opponent will instantly win the series. When the Sonic and Knuckles add on cartridge came out it was possible to slot in either Sonic 1 or 2 and play through the same format but with Knuckles as a bonus player. All in all Sonic 2 was another classic simple game from the 90's period that I loved playing in with good quality games that you would play endlessly happily with it's at the time good graphics and a nice mix of different levels and enemies to keep myself amused. It cost about £39:99 from woolworths when it was released but for a child of 8years old at the time it sure saw its moneys worth of gameplay and was one of what I consider only a handfull of true Sonic games compared to the ruined format that followed. Read the complete review |
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