I start today by exploring the new area of dungeon I opened up. I quickly find my second statue underwater.

I then get to an area with loads of columns. These rise and fall and I have to learn a route through them by trial and error to allow me to get to the final raised area.

As well as a couple of valves to open gates, there is a coloured podium here. This entire dungeon is about putting the matching statue on each of these podiums. I happen to have this one with me and do this now.

I see a cutscene with one of four gates opening up.

Another statue is again underwater. This time I can use a valve in the room to temporarily lower the water and grab it before the room floods again.

I find the final statue for this section in a chest.

I’ve still not discovered all of the podiums but before searching for all of these I run into the bottom of black column. Its in a sewage filled room guarded by another wyrmguard. He isn’t any trouble – I have more problems with the fish in the sewage while I’m trying to swim to the far side of the room.

I swim around the back of the column and can get inside to get the glyph from here.

I quickly find all the podiums after this, opening up the gates to allow me to this new area of dungeon with see through walls. This reminds me that I’m at the bottom of the ocean if I’d forgotten earlier.

This next area of dungeon is entirely optional. The story goes that RG found it so difficult in playtesting that he ordered a teleport put here to bypass it. I’m not going to be skipping it here though, so lets see if it is all that difficult.

The first puzzle of note is a section of little valves where I have to flick them in the right order. When I get the order right a light comes on, but I have to start again if I’m wrong. In effect they are numbered 1-8 and I always have to turn a higher value one for it to light up.

After a lot of trial and error, I manage this puzzle. This has definitely been the hardest puzzle in the game so far but it wasn’t too bad.

Next is a funny little section where I shrink for a while and go into this little tunnel to turn a valve – why the tunnel wasn’t just made larger I have no idea as nothing much is made of the shrinking.

Turning this valve floods the tunnel I came here in and allows me to swim up to a new area through the ceiling. This area has more valves which move platforms around. The options here are limited and this bit is quite easy.

There is a whole new set of statues for this optional area and I find a new one here. I also got one in the transparent area earlier.

Just down the corridor is a new podium for me to use which opens a gate somewhere.

It’s not anywhere I’ve been yet but I get to see the gates opening as ever.

The new passage is back near the 8 valves puzzle. It allows me access to more underwater areas – these don’t appear to have been playtested as I struggle to climb back out of them. I have to resort to using the games dodgy physics by dumping a large item in the water, then climbing on top of it. I find another statue at least and have to use the long forgotten gust spell to blow it off a little shelf.

In a similar area I find another statue hiding under a giant pot. This takes some discovering. This area of the game is without doubt the hardest so far and I can see why it was removed.

There was a podium right, back at the entrance to this area which I now have the statue for. Using this now opens up a small pool in an adjacent room. There is a little valve in the pool which opens the exit.

I swim through the exit and this takes me right back outside and I emerge just by the shrine. This second half of the dungeon has been difficult but other than the dodgy waterline preventing me from climbing out of some areas it played fairly well if you ask me. The dungeons are supposed to be challenging – it perhaps would have been better later in the game but it wasn’t ever frustrating.

I go through the shrine cleansing process and get another stat boost – to dexterity this time.

I pop back to see Katrina and she realises now how the column was affecting her. The next job is to go back and see Samhayne. After that, I’ve got some tidying up to do. I’ve got a couple of sub-quests to complete back in Britain + I’d like to see if I can get the light heal spell bound into my spell book as I could really do with it.

Buccaneer’s Den is a home of pirates as ever and is complete with suitably piratey music. As soon as I step off the ship, I meet a couple of guys wanting to take my money off me. They launch into a speech about how the world owes them a living – this is really cheesy dialog. I don’t hand over my money and fight them off instead.

There are a few pirate type shops in Buccaneer’s Den. This guy sells me a treasure map.

The map isn’t all too clear but it does at least show the surrounding area.

As well as being night time a storm rolls in while I’m here which is going to make the next few screenshots, really dark. Without a lantern its really hard to find your way around when it gets like this. I run into a guy selling slaves who have bought themselves out of debt by selling themselves into slavery. I could buy and release the slave myself but I don’t have that sort of money on me so I leave it for now.

I also find a guy being beaten by another pirate. I rescue him (with extreme violence) in return for a karma boost.

I’ve heard rumours about a cave with treasure around here so I swim around the coast looking for it and find a very likely looking spot with a ship parked in it.

You can barely see it in this screenshot but the missing silver serpent is in here. I kill off a few pirates, take a key and then release it. The serpent teleports itself back to Britain…..

Buccaneer’s Den is proving itself to be every bit as big as Britain was. It’s split into two islands and I make my way to the Southern island next and find a giant tavern. I learn that the pirate trade isn’t too easy these days due to whirlpools that have sprung up since the columns appeared.

Samhaynes house isn’t too far from here. It’s conspicuous by its overly ornate doors.

Samhayne wants me to sort out the whirlpools which means dealing with the column. He wants me to give Buccaneer’s Den preferential treatment and deal with its column first. In return he is going to give me the codex – god knows how he is supposed to have gotten hold of this out of the void. I should just bludgeon him for stealing the codex but this isn’t an option and I have to do things the hard way. I have no choice about dealing with the column here first anyway.

There is still a bit of Bucs Den I haven’t explored which is the infamous brothel area. There is a nice easter egg where if you drink serpent wine and use this place you wake up with a man….

I’m told that I need to find New Magincia and a guy in the bar tells me to ask the map seller about this. He tells me that I need to use a tunnel between the islands but that I will need the guild password.

Raven tells me the password straight off, without any questing required.

The cave entrance is near another lighthouse. This one is empty and haunted. The ghost wants some rum which I don’t have on me – this is another side quest for the list

I’m asked for the password as soon as I enter the tunnel. The tunnel is a mini dungeon with a few rats but only one straight route through it.

I emerge on the other side into the ruins of New Magincia, much to the amusement of the Guardian.

There is a spell binding circle here and I take the opportunity to bind my first spell. The spell casting in this game works a bit like Ultima 8. I still need all the reagents as in other Ultimas but instead of needing them for each casting, I put the scroll and reagents into a circle like this and can then bind the spell permanently into my spellbook. Once done, I can cast the spell as often as I like, just for a mana cost. I really like this system actually. It gets around the need for carrying around too many reagents (something I’m already doing).

I only have the reagents and scrolls to bind the one spell for now but light should come in handy if I run into any more storms.

Having said that I don’t use it here and end up with another all black screenshot. I followed the beach along for a bit and came to some likely looking rocks which I jumped across. Standing on one of these raises the shrine ruins out of the water. I pop over to the shrine and chant the mantra (which I already know from all the other Ultimas).




This triggers a cutscene where I’m drawn through the water down into the new home of the gargoyles around Ambrosia.

This place is a giant dome at the bottom of the ocean. I guess Ambrosia got flooded after the events of Ultima 3 – it certainly looks a lot different.

I run into a wingless gargoyle. The two types of gargoyle are at war over who should be ruling. By saying the wrong thing I make him think I’m on the other side and he attacks. Rather than have to cope with a world of hostile gargoyles, I reload back before I went to the shrine. I figure that I’m not even supposed to know the mantra yet.

I head the other way from the entrance to New Magincia this time. Most of the place is a wreck but I do see one building still in decent shape.

My old companion Katrina is here. She doesn’t seem to be as humble as she used to be, no doubt down to the columns influence. She does tell me the mantra for humility, and I learn that she has the sigil. She won’t give it to me, however, until I do something about the vultures and wolves that have been hassling her goats.

The vultures nest is on top of a large pillar of rock. I just have to cast ignite on this to clear the vultures.

To kill off the wolves, I need to kill the alpha male. He is inside a ruined building on a small island just off the main one.

This gets me the sigil, so now its back to Ambrosia again.

I meet a winged gargoyle who sends me off to see Wislem. The gargoyles are back to calling me the false prophet again and he tells me how I will bring about the destruction of his race but it is inevitable so he will still help me in the meanwhile. This stuff was all dealt with in Ultima 6. The destruction would be averted only through the sacrifice of the false prophet. The gargoyles took this literally but it was actually referring to sacrifice in the other sense. This was one of the key plot points to Ultima 6 and I don’t think much about it being brought back here as the destruction was already avoided as far as I’m concerned.

But if I’m going to kill off all the gargoyles, I may as well get on with it. I start exploring the area and find a room with 3 books containing the gargoyles philosophy. By reading these, a 4th book appears and reading this gets me a power cube.

I find Wislem and he wants me to activate his statue in the likeness of the gargoyle queen. This is going to be a problem as I need to fly up to it.

A bit more exploring nets me a crystal which opens up the jail cells.

I rescue a young wingless gargoyle who is in here for killing a winged gargoyle. I’m not sure I should be doing this.

I don’t have a lot of choice if I’m going to finish the game though. He shows me a secret wall behind which he has hidden some flying boots.

Before I find any boots, I find a guy who has been shipwrecked down here and is trying to build his way out with a ship made of rocks.

This guy acts as a shop in this area. I buy myself a light heal spell, which would be very useful but when I eventually find a binding circle I find I don’t have any garlic to bind it into my spell book. I didn’t think to buy it here at the time.

I get my flying boots down here. These don’t allow me to fly as such, its more walking in the air. They are pretty nifty though and its a nice trick to be able to move in 3 directions.

They allow me to explore the rest of the place, and I’m told to turn on the statue again.

I head on up to the statue with a power cube and start it spinning.

This has a disastrous effect on the dome.


Wislem sees how his pride led to this. He wants me to save the gargoyle race by taking a queen egg to the gargoyle in LB’s castle.

I have to get out of here first which involves finding another power cube to open some giant doors.

These doors open up allowing me access to the queens chamber.

The queen doesn’t take well to my presence and starts throwing things at me.

I dash in and grab a queens egg from behind her before running out again.

A teleport just out of here gets me to Hythloth which is a giant sewer in U9. My flying boots don’t work here – they would have seriously upset the balance of the rest of the game so this is probably not a bad thing.

There is a bit of a clue as to things to come – a small statue stands on a block near the entrance to the dungeon. I’ll be seeing a few of these before I get out again.

I discover a valve which lowers a lift.

This lift is in a really nasty area which poisons me the moment I go in the water. There are some swamp boots on the far side however + a cure poison potion. The swamp boots are so effective that I can swim underwater now and not get poisoned.

The lift I lowered earlier, gets me access to a lever which lowers a portcullis allowing me further into the dungeon.

I’m making good steady progress in U9 but unless it speeds up there looks to be enough game here to keep me going for the next couple of weeks. The scale of the game is up to the usual Ultima standards. I doubt I’ll get much time on it tonight although I would like to attempt to finish cleansing this shrine. I can see another distraction coming on, in that I started messing around on Dead Space last night but I think I’ll stick to U9 for the most part. Other than the graphics, I’m deeply unimpressed with Dead Space so far and U9 is the better game by a mile. First impressions of Dead Space are that its shallow, unoriginal & contrary to the reviews totally unatmospheric. Playing a game like this reminds me why I prefer older games. I’m in the mood for a few shallow blockbusters after a year of oldskool though – I think I’ll be playing a few of the titles I’ve missed out in the last 12 months after U9 before I get started on Lazarus.

I start out today by finding my second Kiran stone. It’s behind a secret door in a wall (activated by a floor switch).

There is nothing else here so its back onto the main route through the dungeon. The path doesn’t appear to branch much and the dungeon is largely linear. I find a temple in the dungeon which restores my health if I light all the candles.

Just down from here is a guy trapped in a hole, with walls moving in to crush him. I must have extraordinarily good timing as I’m just here in time to pull the lever and release him. This guy turns out to be a companion of the two people from right back at the start of the dungeon.

I find a book with some details about Kiran’s shield. The pages detailing further items are missing but it looks like there is going to be a full set of Kiran armour.

One of the Kiran stone clues I got was that it was behind a waterfall so when I get to a watery area of the dungeon I’m looking for it straight away. A lever here opens up a little area behind the waterfall with the third stone. It also has a bag there (which is incredibly useful in letting me carry more).

I’ve already passed the place to use the stones so I head back and put them all on the correct plinths. The shield appears in the middle.

There is only a tiny bit of dungeon left. This is another great looking area full of lava, a menacing looking column and a wymrguard in the way.

After a few hits I find out that the wyrmguard is Iolo himself and his soul is being held captive by the guardian so he is forced to act on his behalf. I shave a choice but obviously spare his life. I don’t especially like the idea of my companions ending up like this but I do at least get the chance to help them out.

I can walk inside the bottom of the column here and get the glyph.

Its then a long trek back out of the now empty dungeon. When I get back outside I’m accosted by Blackthorn + one of his guards only to be rescued by a mystery woman.

Her name is Raven and she wants to take me to her employer (Samhayne) but only if I prove that I’m the avatar by finding one of the runes. I need to cleanse the shrine to do that.

To cleanse the shrine I need the sigil which is in the hands of the mayor. I head to his house and am told he has gone to Paws to rescue his daughter.

I head out of Britain, to the West this time. I veer off to the North and find a little house with a tempting lever. The moment I pull the lever the house’s owner attacks me but I do at least clear a path behind the house.

This leads me to a load of brigands who have kidnapped the local farmers wife (and killed the farmer). I hack them all down and rescue her.

The bandits journal mentions a hiding place for treasure which sounds interesting.

I head off looking for this and get near enough to Paws to trigger off an in-game cutscene.

This shows the mayor of Paws being saved from a giant rat by a crippled man – cue a policy rethink.

The bandits treasure is hidden through an underware cave which I have to swim down. All the time I’m down here, a giant fish keeps nibbling at me.

This is a bit dubious to say the least but I can refresh my oxygen supply by swimming into these bubbles. This is a bit console platform game for my liking. I get a load of coins and gems from the cave anyway and swim back out.

I can hear some strange noises coming from over the hill so I jump up to have a look and find this unlikely looking place.

A lift takes me up to the house and I find a mage who’s last spell looks to have gone wrong. He is flying around making very strange noises.

Theres nothing I can do with the mage so I head for Paws. The mayors daughter has been kidnapped by goblins – he is of course just standing around doing nothing about this and gives the job to me to sort out….

The same goes for this woman. Paws has no fresh water because the cart never delivered a new valve. The townspeople are not heading out to get it because of a goblin in the way.

I find the one armed miller lamenting his lot and being sent here unfairly.

The house with the goblins is at the furthest side of Paws. I have to kill them all off to rescue the mayors daughter.

In a bit of spontaneous compassion, she decides to stay here anyway and help the poor here.

The mayor is grateful enough to give me the sigil. Time to cleanse a shrine.

On the way back, I find the missing valve. There is a goblin on the bridge who wants 10 gold – I just have to ask him how many and he spends so long figuring it out I can just run off and take this. I detour back to Paws to fix the water supply then head back to the shrine.

There are more distractions on the way back to Britain, when I run into this all-seeing blind person. She tells me a bit about karma – basically by doing good deeds I improve my stats. I think this just affects mana store but I’m not certain. After certain deeds I get a sort of sitar sound anyway which signifies my karma increasing.

I find Britains docks on my way through this time. Raven is waiting for me on the ship but I still need the rune.

I find “the avatars biggest fan” just North of here. This is another nice joke character. I remember a story about some bloke turning up naked in Richard Garriott’s house after completing Ultima 4 looking for his “reward”. This sort of thing sounds like an urban legend if I ever heard one. I can’t even remember where I heard it now.

I place the sigil and rune on the shrine…

Then say the mantra and we the light show starts.

The graphics for the shrine restoration are really nice and it feels like an appropriate reward for my efforts. I also get to pick a stat to increase and go for strength.

This cleansing has had a remarkable effect on Britain. It even has a new theme song. As ever the music for the game is pretty much unparalleled.

LB wants me to go and sort out all the other columns now.

He also tells me that there is a problem with the moons and they are not holding their regular orbits.

I notice around this point that I never got the rune from the shrine. This is a bug Natreg warned me about. Some quirk in the physics means that the rune and sigil don’t drop back down after the shrine is cleansed. I have to use a cheat code to float up into the sky and pick them up. This is no big deal anyway – I stress that I won’t be cheating like this at any other time (unless I run into more bugs).

I head back to Britain and discover that clearing out the column has opened up the first circle of magic. I ought to spend some time binding in spells but I leave it for now.

Instead I head for Raven’s ship. She sees my rune, agrees I’m the avatar and sails us both off to Bucaneers Den to meet Samhayne.

I’m getting more and more into U9 and I’m coming to the conclusion that this really is a genuinely great game despite the problems.  The seamless world is superb and the dungeon design of Despise was similarly excellent. I like the way the engine is coping so well with the diverse environments – exploring Britannia itself was never better than it is here. If only Origin had been given a bit more time to polish the game up a bit, maybe this could have lived up to everyones expectations.

This second day on Ultima 9 has been a long time coming. I got side-tracked by the new Wallace & Grommitt game which then led onto the Strong Bad games which I bought at the time but have been too busy with all these Origin games to ever actually play. All of them are great games but none of them took too much finishing and I’m back now to play U9 through to the end with no more distractions.

I start out by exploring LB’s castle. First off a find LB’s bedroom which contains a scary looking mirror.

Clicking on the mirror gets me a cutscene showing some sort of cataclysmic wave sweeping over the landscape. This is a cutscene that couldn’t be fit into the new storyline anywhere by the looks of it so I get it here. I think its showing the destruction of Skara Brae (which I’ll find out about much much later).

There are a few people about in LB’s castle to talk to but its a bit less well populated than in previous games. The conversations tend to be just a few lines so there is no room to weave in subtle hints or much sidestory. Most of the conversation is directly linked to matters at hand although its not always obvious what I’m being pointed towards. Siona here gives me a clue about the powers of music which sounds a lot like the old clue about playing stones in LB’s bedroom from an earlier Ultima.

There is a gargoyle called Vasagralem in LB’s main hall. He has been banished by the gargoyles when he disagreed with them building a dome around Ambrosia. I’ll be seeing this dome later.

I get a clue about fighting styles from the guy in charge of the armoury. He offers to train me but I’ve no experience yet.

Theres a nice joke for the fans as in the jail, is a guy claiming to be LB (played by Garriott).

There isn’t a whole lot to do in the castle so I start exploring the grounds. The mayors house is just outside.

The mayor isn’t around but his associate tells me that he is helping to banish all the poor and sick from Britain. The mayors daughter is in here and doesn’t sound too well herself but denies that anything is wrong. I see an obvious plotline coming…

LB’s castle now has a hedge maze, complete with giant rat accessories.

In the middle is a flaming sword which is going to be my weapon of choice for the early stages of the game.

I’ve not been outside LB’s castle grounds yet but the world here definitely feels large already. This is going to be a much bigger environment than U8’s it would appear. I like the little details like these butterflies which hover around the water in the bowl and fly off when I get near.

I head for Britain next, which as ever is right next to LB’s castle. I meet the town baker who is complaining about the miller being shipped off to Paws as he lost an arm in his milling machine. He now has no flour of course.

The town mayor is making a speech about how sending off the sick and poor to Paws is actually compassionate as it enables Britain to be more prosperous and it can then send aid to Paws which would otherwise not have been available. That sounds like a reasonable point but I don’t expect its working out quite like that.

A storm starts to roll in while I’m looking round – the changes for this are really subtle and I don’t really notice the sky gradually clouding over and the fog drawing in at first. This is all needless as such but this sort of thing really adds atmosphere.

I head in the pub – it has a crowded pub sound effect running in the background but there are about 3 people in here. I hear that the runes have all been stolen from the museum – I’ll have to look into this.

I get another quest from a w0man hanging outside the church who wants me to fetch some serpentwyne.

The church is probably a good place to look for this stuff so I head in.

I discover that the three holds have all been destroyed by the columns and this church is the replacement for Empath abbey.

I also can’t get any serpentwyne as the silver serpent has been stolen. I’m getting plenty of sidequests here at any rate – this is another improvement from U8 which has a grand total of 2 side quests if I remember right.

Tthere is a magic shop in town but its shut as I’m told by the guy hanging around outside. Apparently the columns have broken magic also so it makes little different for now.

Next stop is the museum. This is a nice touch and is full of artifacts from earlier games – some of these shouldn’t technically be here for one reason or another but its no big deal. I’m told that the runes dissappeared …… just after the columns appeared. I’m hearing this a lot, has no one thought to look at these columns in the last twenty years?

The main exhibit in the museum is the tapestry of ages which has 3 pictures for every ultima and buttons underneath to highlight and describe each one. This came as an extra with the game but unfortunately wasn’t this large. Exodus is shown as a demon which seems a bit odd although I remember from earlier manuals that the avatar didn’t reveal the nature of Exodus (presumably not to spoil the ending for anyone yet to play it) so this is fair enough.

I’m sure there are places I haven’t been yet but I leave Britain for now and decide to look for Despise. I’ll be back later to pick up anything I’ve missed. I’m impressed with the size of the place anyway. It’s not the monumental scale of U7’s Britain but its big enough.

Just outside Britain, I run into Sarah who tells me how the columns have perverted the virtues and the people in Britain are not to blame for the state of the place now. She tells me that the shrines have also been corrupted …. just after the columns appeared and wants me to attempt to restore them.

I head off looking for the shrine and instead find a lighthouse which makes a return after missing U7 (I think…).

It’s not working though. This is one of 3 new lighthouses but it never received the gem it needs to power the light. This is another side quest for my growing list.

I carry on looking for the shrine and Shamino talks to me via a statue. He is trapped in some sort of spirit realm – he confirms what I already know about the columns and sends me off to sort it out.

The shrine is just up from here. These corrupted shrines play havok with the local weather and there is lightning crashing down all around. By meditating at the shrine, I learn that to cleanse it I will see the rune of compassion (now corrupted and in Despise) + the sigil of compassion which is in the possession of the mayor. This is going to be a pattern from here on out where I go to each town, get the sigil and mantra, then explore the dungeon to get the glpyh.

Iolo’s house has moved a bit (a lot infact) and is now east of Britain. Gwenno is here but doesn’t have a lot to say to me. This is a real problem with the full speech used in the game, the dialog is just too short and often inappropriate.

I know I’m getting near Despise when I see a giant column looming out of the ground.

I head to the nearby entrance and I’m in familar dungeon territory.

Near the entrance is a locked door with two guys stuck behind it. There is a key right outside so I open up the door and free them.

They were here looking for something called the Kiran stone which is split into four parts. I don’t know why yet but I’ll probably find it useful so I’ll look for this on my way through.

They give me a couple of clues to two of the pieces. One is on the highest column which is just in the next room and involves jumping up progressively higher columns. Jumping is similar to U8 and is pretty much point and click.

From here on I’m working my way through the dungeon. The dungeon is more of a series of puzzles than anything else. I kind of miss the overwhelming and foreboding dungeons of the earlier games like U5 but this is pretty good fun for all that. It’s not quite the usual gameplay but you could say its not far removed from earlier games where you had to step in the right place or push walls, etc. to open doors. The main difference is that combat is quite easy here and certainly less tactical. This is still early in the game though so there is plenty of time for it to get harder.

I’m really quite enjoying my return to U9 so far. My only complaints would be with the dialog. The voice acting is on the sub-par side. RG’s attempts with his character in the dungeon were at least up to the level of the rest of the voice acting, and anyone who has heard the UW1 intro will know this can’t be a good sign. More than this there just isn’t enough dialog for nearly all the characters. I’d like to be seeing around 20 times as much, at least. My reunion with Gwenno should have been a major event but here its just a few lines of text. I’m not entirely convinced by the quality of the writing either. This could be a symptom of having so few lines to get your point across but it feels a bit like the dialog in a Kings Quest game and I expect more from Ultima.

Sacrifices have definitely been made to have 3D with full speech – the short dialog, no underworld, no NPC schedules. This is more along the lines of Ultima 4 in 3D than Ultima 7 for those reasons. But I still loved U4 and while I don’t think this is going to live up to those standards either, it still strikes me as a much better game than most reviews would lead you to believe.

It’s been a long time coming but I’ve got to the final game Origin ever made. I have finished this before but last time I played it I hadn’t played most of the rest of the final trilogy so I’ll be curious to see what I make of it this time around.

Before it was released this was the most hyped game I’ve ever come across and was basically marketed as the best game of all time which would complete and tie up the trilogy of trilogies… With several years of hindsight I pretty much know this isn’t going to be the case but I still liked the game the first time I played it. This game was beset with bugs and major plot inconsistencies from previous Ultima’s however. I had to resort to cheating on my first run through this to get onto the Isle of the Avatar (which has an invisible wall around it until you are supposed to go there).

The intro shows a farmer getting crushed under a rock that falls off a giant pillar that comes out of the ground. We will find out more about this later. The intro is very nicely animated for the time – the only company that could compete with this sort of thing back then was Squaresoft.

I may have finished the last game on the guardians homeworld, or at least somewhere with a giant guardians head but I’m starting this on Earth. I’ll choose to ignore this and pretend that this happened before U7 and that the story is picked up again when I arrive in Britannia.

Earth is a tutorial level, which is a first (and a last) for an Ultima. We zoom in through the window to see the avatar in his ridiculously large bedroom. The narrator wakes me up.

This game may be 10 years old but the graphics still don’t look too bad and the world is impressively interactive right from the start. I can flip light switches, move things around, turn the tv on, listen to a remix of Stones on my radio and the like.

Golden ankh’s appear around my house which talk me through tasks.

There are books all over the place which I can read. A lot of the books are just recreations of the Ultima 7 ones which is a bit of a rip off but at least they are here.

To equip things I just drag them onto myself. I get my clothes in the bathroom like this – its a very intuitive system.

Another improvement is that I get a toolbelt this time around as well as a backpack. Searching around in backpacks in the last few Ultimas has been a real chore – this is in effect a shortcut bar to 12 of my items. I can even use the function keys to quickly use anything on here.

My backpack and a key is downstairs + a bit more unneeded advertising.

I also find my compass and a journal. The journal keeps track of my quests as well as allowing me to save the game. Again this is a nice addition and something that would have helped in earlier games.

Once I get outside I get to see the graphics to better effect. They really are superb for the time – especially the sky which gradually changes throughout the day. The music is also some of the best I’ve ever heard in a video game. U9 may have some problems but it definitely has things going for it as well.

My training isn’t over yet. I have to learn sidestepping on a hopscotch course.

I can then hack at this dummy with a sword, and there is a target to fire a bow at. The combat here is basically point and click. Combat was never my favorite thing in Ultima’s – this is a reasonable system, if uninspired. At least it is quick and simple to learn.

I can walk through the woods outside my home next, exploring a bit. There is a cave behind the waterfall.

They have some seriously big spiders in these parts.

I’m also attacked by a pirate with a sword who I then hack to pieces. Not really appropriate behaviour for Earth – its a good job I’m not coming back.

When I’ve fooled around in the woods for long enough, I go to meet the gypsy.

She tells me I this will be my final trip to Britannia. I’m not sure what I’m thinking of the voice acting so far. It isn’t brilliant, thats for sure. And some of the lines would be impossible to read for any actor – i.e. here where she asks if I’ve mastered the use of my equipment.

She asks me all the same questions that we saw back in Ultima 4. I like the cards for each of the virtues. The dragon edition of the game came with a real life set of these (as well as a ludicrously big box).

I manipulate it so that I play a fighter.

The gypsy tells me I’ll be left some appropriate gear for a fighter when I get to Britannia.

Then she summons a moongate to transport me there.

Before I can get to the moongate, I have to get through a gazer which the guardian sends after me. This is weak on Earth as it is a magical creature and there is no magic here.

I step through the moongate and immediately get fried by a monumentally large dragon.

We pan back to show Blackthorn watching the scene in a mirror.

Blackthorn is serving as the guardians lackey now in return for getting Britannia after the guardian is done with it. The guardian says I’m still alive and must have been taken somewhere beyond the mirrors sight (Stonegate). I’m not sure I think much of Blackthorn returning here as a lackey. I didn’t see him as being exactly evil in U5 but more corrupted by the Shadowlords. Before Ultima 9 I also imagined the guardian to be momumentally big. There has been plenty of evidence for this – in UW2 I got sucked into his head in the void for instance, or even the start of Pagan where he held me in his hand. Apart from his stature the new guardian model is pretty nice though and the voice acting is excellent with the same actor brought back in. I remember that Michael Dorn (Worf out of Star Trek) recorded the voice originally but there was a change of heart.

We get a stylish title sequence showing a panning view of a stained glass window then we get to the game proper.

Stonegate is actually another tutorial in all honesty. I’m still led through and told what to do at every stage. I get a spellbook to start with.

There are the usual circles of magic in this game with a linear circle at the start. There are a few spells in here such as ignite, douse, hurl rock, etc. I have to use each of these to get through this section. Here I kill a giant rat with a stone spell. I can then jump over to the platform it was on, pull a lever and open the door out. I can even drag the spells onto my toolbelt and cast them quickly from here. The interface for this game really is quite nice and its not getting in my way at all.

I use a gust spell here to blow this vase onto a pressure plate. The physics here is a bit dodgy as it gets stuck in the shelf but at least the gate opens. Every object in the game has independent physics, which is impressive but possibly overly amibitious for the technology at the time.

The standard of graphics keeps impressing me though. This room has two giant statues with water flowing out of their mouths. I have to shut off the flow with a valve, which drains the pool and gets me a route out.

For the final obstacle, I have to douse all these flames.

I walk out of Stonegate to see a status of my old foes, the Shadowlords.

Stonegate towers above me and looks generally imposing.

The guardian is going to let me have a look around before he crushes me and I get a little message from him.

One of his lackeys from the Wyrmguard tries to stop me first but he is no trouble.

I step on the teleport he was guarding and I’m warped to LB’s castle.

His seneshal sends me straight to talk to LB.

I should be getting used to the scale of everything in this game but LB’s hall really is stupendously large. I wouldn’t want his heating bills.

LB is looking a lot older these days. He says some problem has best the land. Black columns have arisen, people are not happy with his rule, I have to sort it out, etc.. He wants me to go to Despise and check out the column there.

So I’ve made it to Britannia and been given my first quest. This is where the real game starts as I’ll have to work things out for myself from hereon out. I’ll have a look around the castle and Britain before I head for Despise. So far Ultima 9 is looking quite good actually. The dialog has suffered as a result of full speech but it could be worse . The graphics and music are both awesome for their day and the engine is intuitive and easy to use (when its not crashing). I expect I’m going to enjoy this one more than Ultima 8.