I started off by heading for the space capsule to get the explosive – when I get there its all gone already.

I go back and tell Carnegie and he suggests asking Roosevelt for help tracking the culprit.

First time round Roosevelt isn’t much help as I need some evidence. I walk back to the capsule again and pick up a broken metal band that was holding the explosive originally and take this back to him. Now he needs a microscope to examine it. Nellie Bly helpfully tells me where to get one at this point.

The teleporters are invaluable in the game with all the constant fetching errands between cities. I’m back with the microscope in no time and shock horror the culprit was Rasputin. Now I need to get into Argyre to see him.

I sail my barge round and its one square too big to sail right up to the gates. I’m not too happy about this but a smaller one cannoned barge is not so far away to the NE. I try this instead but it still won’t breach the gates. I must be on the right lines so I start asking everyone.

Peary is a good source on Argyre and suggests the cannons himself but I need steel balls first.

Carnegie makes them straight off and after making room in my backpack I head back to Argyre.

The new balls do the trick and I’m inside.

There are only a couple of main characters inside Argyre + some commoners who don’t get named or have much to say. Emma Goldman gives me a long talk on the merits of anarchy and overthrowing government which is apparently why she is helping Rasputin.

Rasputin immediately points out the need to disguise my metal colleague and also tells me that the explosive is now in the dream world. Aside from deactivating the dream machine he can potentially blow the planet up by transferring it back again without care.

I’m not getting anywhere with Rasputin so I go for the berries instead. There are a few bushes around so I grab all the berries I can see and head back.

I get the dye made by Sarah Bernhardt.

Then take this to the machine in the pumping station and the process is a complete success.

She now has the appearance of the woman who came to my door right at the start of the game in the intro – this sort of reversed cause and effect thing are one of the things I like about time travel stories so its nice to see that here. She suggests we go see Segal at this point.

Segal and the others start work on making more bodies while we have to go and fetch the explosive so its back to Argyre again.

When I get back all the commoners are dead and Rasputin, confesses how he was lured to Mars by Raxachk. He has retreated into the dream world and I have to follow him to get the explosive and save Mars & Earth.

In the dream world I immediately bump into a familar face in the shape of Faulinei – one of the shadowlords from Ultima 5. Its nice to see a tie-in with the main series although this is pretty much the same idea as the gargoyle shrines in Ultima 6. The idea here is that the shadowlords are still part of my subconcious and in my dreams they still exist. They want to prove their virtues over mine so I get a series of three tests.

The first test involves two doors, two Spectors and I have to decide which is real. There is a mirror which I push infront of one and it reflects a martian instead of a human being. This must be the false one then and thats 1 test done.

Next up is the shadowlord of hatred.

This test involves a dying martian allegedly wounded by my friends. I have the option to kill or save him and of course help him out.

For the final test of courage, I need to kill off a leviathon. This is just a case of walking on and nearly but not quite dying.

The tests are perhaps a bit easier than I would have liked. It would have been nice to see a bit more made of these since you get through the lot in 5 mins. I’m now face to face (through a glass wall) with Raxachk. I can see the explosive but can’t reach it and there is also a door I can’t get through. Talking to Raxachk, he wants me to entertain him by facing three fights.

The first two fights are pretty easy, the last is a lot tougher with a leviathon + hordes of tentacles coming after me at once. I have got an elephant gun by this point which helps + I get as many goes as I like.

Raxachk leaves me to entertain myself. I’ve picked up two lots of berries by now. One shows me the inside of the locked area and another gives me the telekinesis ability to pull the level that opens the door. Inside is a huge quantity of dreamstuff.

I grab a bit of dreamstuff and first time get an M-60!

I attack Raxachk with this and he goes down straight away.

I transfer the explosive back – it appears that some of the harmful effects of transporting from the dreamworld are true as the world is shaking when I return. I leg it over to the space cannon.

When I get there every character in the game is lined up and ready to go. I can talk to them for a brief line if I want.

Talking to Carnegie, gives him the explosive and the end sequence starts.

I’ve had a blast replaying this game. It really stands out as one of the great RPG’s for me. There is perhaps a bit too much tooing and froing between cities fetching things but the teleporters stop this from taking too long. I wish more people had played ths game. Apparently there were intended to be ancient greece (with gods) and King Arthur games to complete a set of four Worlds of Ultimas but this never happened due to the sales. I’d have liked to play both those games but will have to be content with the 2 we got.

Next: Wing Commander 2 – Special Operations 1