Ultima Online: A review

[slick]

Let me jsut give you a quick review of the game that I love over every other game I have ever played. This being a hardware forum, graphics are usually held in high regard, but I am here to talk about a game that is neither graphical nor demanding on your computer, but instead, extremely fun to play! (A rarity nowadays).

I am, of course, talking about Ultima Online. Let me make myself clear right from the get go. I do not play the pay server. The game went completely downhill after EA baught it out and screwed it over with their extreme game-ruining powers. I play free servers. I am part of the community that created RunUO. RunUO is a free UO server emulator, and believe it or not, it is better then the one created by the actual game's developers. We have withstood the beating of over 7700 game clients on a single server at one time, experiencing no lag or crashing (The server is a Quad 3.0 ghz EM64T Xeon, with 8 gigs of ram, but 7700+ users is a feat none the less). A benchmark EA could only dream of hitting. That being said, on to the review.

Ultima Online is vastly different from your average MMO. Yes, it exsists in a persistant world and whatnot, but the play style is totally different.

-First up: No classes?!? WTFm8!?

UO does not have classes. EVERYONE is just a regular human dude. This is where the beauty of UO customization comes in. Skills work very differently in UO. You don't have the usual droning of: Whack stuff, get exp, level-up. Skills work off of a percentage basis. There is no such thing as experience. You get better at skills simply by USING them (what a concept, I know). As you use skills your, er, skill will increase in that skill. It is rated as percentages. As you use the skill, your percent "knowledge" (for lack of a better word) in that skill will go up. Each skills has a maximum of 100%, at which point you have "GM'd" the skill (GM meaning Grand Master). Like I said and will say over and over. The beauty of UO customization comes in again. You do not have classes, so there are NO set templates. You are free to make whatever kind of template that your heart desires your character to be. You can have a total of 700% in skills. Generally that translates to 7 GM skills of your choice, but you can spend those 700 points any way you wish. This leaves you with UNLIMITED choices to what kind of character you want to be. If you wanna be a pure mage, nox mage, stun punch mage, tamer mager, tank mage (often called "Hybrid", uses both weapons and magery), dexxer (pure weapon fighter), theif mage, pure theif, disarm theif (what I play, hella fun), tailor, blacksmith, tinker, and the list goes on and on and on! You can combine skills in any manner that you wish to. Some skills even affect other skills, making them more powerful. The choice is really yours.
This all works the same way for stats (Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity). You don't gain stats by leveling up, but by using skills that require that stat. Fighting with weapons will increase your strength, hiding/stealing/snooping/fighting with fast weapons will increase dex. Using magery-based skills will increase Intelligence.

-The beauty of UO: CUSTOMIZATION BEYOND BELIEF!

As I told you with skills, UO is customizable as anything. It's not just skills either. The way that your character looks, hair type, hair color, skin tone. Every piece of armor and clothing that you put on you can SEE on your character in real time, making your character completely unique, not to mention there are hundreds of different things that you can wear. Another beauty! Huing! You can hue just about any wearable item to any hue (color) you want, and there are thousands of hues out there (some harder to aquire than others, of course),
Probably one everyone's favorite things about UO. Customizable houses. You heard me. When you place a house, you don't just plop one on the ground and there it is. It places a foundation for you, and you get to build the house yourself. Tile for tile. Walls, floors, stairs, windows, roofs, everything, and there are hundreds of styles to choose from, which you can mix and mingle in anyway you want.


There are numerous other things that make it good. There are no Ub3r-1337 weapons and armor that will make you auto win the game (Sorry, no hellfire axe of damnation that sets off a nuclear explotion on your victims face while satan comes up and stabs him to death with a pitch fork). There ARE good weapons and armor, some alot better then others, but they are all within a parameter where they will be effective in combat, just some moreso then others. And there are no special weapons like angel swords and bull**** like that. All weapons are just regular, it's just that some have been crafted better, or have better damage properties.

PvP (Player vs Player combat) is absolutely INSANE in this game. The game basically revolves around it. There are guilds, with the ability to war and join different orders of conduct (Chaos/Order). You also have the ability to attack anyone you wish, when you wish. Though that comes at a price. Let me explain the flagging system first. There are 5 different ways you can be flagged. Flagging changes the hue of your name.

Blue (Innocent) - You have no committed a crime, nor are you a murder or part of a war.
Grey (Criminal) - You have recently committed a crime and are subject to getting guard-whacked (if in a town) and can be attacked by other players at will without reprimand to them.
Red (Murder) - You have killed at least 5 innocent players and were reported for murders on those counts. This is basically a permanent grey status.
Green (Friendly) - Your party members/guild members will appear green to you enabling you to heal them regardless of their personal status (Healing a grey or red will normally turn you grey aswell)
Orange (Enemy) - Members of guilds or factions that oppose yours will appear orange to you, enabling you to attack them anywhere without reprimand.

Anywho, you can attack anyone at any time you wish, but after 5 murders you are permanently flagged red.

PvP is also pushed along by Factions. Factions is a giant system of combat which there are 4 warring factions. You can join the faction of your choosing. It is basically a never-ending war to control the 8 key cities on the map. When you capture and control a city you control everything in it from guards to prices on NPC vendors.


IN SHORT, ULTIMA ONLINE IS THE BEST MMORPG EVER!

And for those of you too lazy to read all that. Just watch this video. It was made by one of the best PvP'rs that our shard has ever seen. Enjoy.

http://www.hyru.net/video/UOGamers/U....Test-Hyru.wmv
(P.S. Sometimes that link doesn't work. If not, just goto www.hyru.net and watch UOGamers Promo).

/sigh

Why can't people post in the proper forum, There is a reason we have a MMORPG Forum.

UO was good but its plain and very boring compared to the current MMORPGs. The world is full of L33Ts and there are way too many exploits going on within the game aswell.

Heck for a 2D/Semi 3D game it lags (graphically and connection) more then most MMORPGs out there.

If someone is looking for a full open PVP game, I would recommend RYL, Lineage, Lineage 2 or WoW PVP Servers.

(Didn't mention Guild Wars because I don't consider it a MMORPG)

[NrthnStar5]

I wouldn't touch that game with a ten foot pole...

[FortranDragon]

The game went completely downhill after EA baught it out and screwed it over with their extreme game-ruining powers.

Just a point of clarification: EA already owned Origin when UO was launched. It fact, it was EA that green-lighted the research project that UO developed from. This isn't to say EA hasn't made mistakes with UO, but it is to say that EA should get some credit for making sure UO saw the light of day as a commercial game.

[jolle]

Originally Posted by |MaguS|

/sigh

Why can't people post in the proper forum, There is a reason we have a MMORPG Forum.

UO was good but its plain and very boring compared to the current MMORPGs. The world is full of L33Ts and there are way too many exploits going on within the game aswell.

Heck for a 2D/Semi 3D game it lags (graphically and connection) more then most MMORPGs out there.

If someone is looking for a full open PVP game, I would recommend RYL, Lineage, Lineage 2 or WoW PVP Servers.

(Didn't mention Guild Wars because I don't consider it a MMORPG)

Well, its one of the first MMORPGs ever, so It could be cut some slack hehe..
I thought it was fun while I was playing, but nothing lasts forever.
But its still one of the more "Free" type of MMORPG in the sense of what kind of character you can make, and how you play.. but lacking in terms of story and quests..

Its getting dated, and the fact that EA managed to get it in their claws (EDIT: or had it from the getgo, just read the above post), kill UO2 (UWO:Origin , the old one), and then kill Origin off, means they are going to pump out expansions and crap until the last UO player dies of old age.
then perhaps they will make a UO2 and release under their own name..

btw the reason Origin renamed the original UO2 to Origin was cause EA wouldnt let them but the company name on the box anymore hehe.

[slick]

Originally Posted by FortranDragon

The game went completely downhill after EA baught it out and screwed it over with their extreme game-ruining powers.

Just a point of clarification: EA already owned Origin when UO was launched. It fact, it was EA that green-lighted the research project that UO developed from. This isn't to say EA hasn't made mistakes with UO, but it is to say that EA should get some credit for making sure UO saw the light of day as a commercial game.

Yes you are correct, they owned Origin before Garriot even made UO, but never took an interest in it untill it got big, at which point they ****ed it over.

Originally Posted by |MaguS|

UO was good but its plain and very boring compared to the current MMORPGs. The world is full of L33Ts and there are way too many exploits going on within the game aswell.

Heck for a 2D/Semi 3D game it lags (graphically and connection) more then most MMORPGs out there.

Hardly boring. Maybe it's just me, but I prefer more direct player to player action, rather then just working quests. Your comment about exploits is blatantly not true. There are literally no hacks for UO on a RunUO server, and very little on the PTP servers (even the hacks that do exsist are just little gay things like text re-huer and crap like that). The game is so server dependent that the client controls nearly next to nothing, which is good because it makes it next to impossible to use hacks for it, but bad because, as you pointed out, it takes a VERY high end server to support a large player base. Though if you have a nice server and connection, like ours (Quad 3.0ghz EM64T Xeon, 8gigs of ram, and literally unlimited bandwith), that is not a problem. Frankly I like the old 2d graphics on this game better then some of the new blocky 3d **** we see in some games. Yea it's 2d, but it is extremely detailed 2d. All of the 2d graphics are done very well and it looks really good IMO. It might not have a wow factor, but it is art that you can appreciate. On a side note of the client sucking, it can at times, but the creators of RunUO also put out a custom client that is quite nice and runs at a full 60fps, smooth movement, etc etc.


Ultima is just one of those games that is rediculously easy to learn how to play, but takes a lifetime to master. I knew that this being a hardware forum a lot of people wouldn't even bother to look at it, but there are very few people I know who have played Ultima and did not have a good time doing so.







EDIT: There were actually two "UO2"'s coming out that got scrapped. UWO and the very recent UXO.

Your amusing, You claim this is the greatest MMORPG ever yet you DONT SUPPORT IT. Here's an example from a post of yours in the "Where's the Beef" thread.

Originally Posted by slik

I, sir, have the answer for you, in a simple 9 step process, you will be on your way to playing the best MMORPG ever, on the best UO shard ever made, with every that that you want listed there, included at no cost.

1. Download UO.
2. Goto www.runuo.com
3. Download Razor.
4. Install UO.
5. Patch UO.
6. Install Razor
7. Run Razor.
8. Choose "UOGamers: Hybrid"
9. Enjoy the best MMORPG ever made (No seriously, and I've played many, including WOW)

If the game is so great, why don't you actually BUY the software and PAY monthly to play it insted of supporting unofficial servers? Sure your method is free but is a great insult to the creators of the game you so worship.

I said this before and will say it again, If you (anyone) honestly love and support a game, you will buy it and then give it praise, Not steal it and then praise it.

[Arioch]

UO was a great game for its time. I preferred its skill-based system over the predominant leveling system most games used. I also loved the tradeskills in the game. Yes the game had many shortcomings but I would be all over a Ultima with a modern game engine that had the amount of content the original did.

[Marcos]

Originally Posted by |MaguS|

Your amusing, You claim this is the greatest MMORPG ever yet you DONT SUPPORT IT. Here's an example from a post of yours in the "Where's the Beef" thread.



If the game is so great, why don't you actually BUY the software and PAY monthly to play it insted of supporting unofficial servers? Sure your method is free but is a great insult to the creators of the game you so worship.

I said this before and will say it again, If you (anyone) honestly love and support a game, you will buy it and then give it praise, Not steal it and then praise it.

pwnt

[slick]

As was mentioned in my pervious post, once EA got their hands on the game they RUINED it. And evidently you failed to read the second paragraph.

Originally Posted by slick

I am, of course, talking about Ultima Online. Let me make myself clear right from the get go. I do not play the pay server. The game went completely downhill after EA baught it out and screwed it over with their extreme game-ruining powers. I play free servers. I am part of the community that created RunUO. RunUO is a free UO server emulator, and believe it or not, it is better then the one created by the actual game's developers. We have withstood the beating of over 7700 game clients on a single server at one time, experiencing no lag or crashing (The server is a Quad 3.0 ghz EM64T Xeon, with 8 gigs of ram, but 7700+ users is a feat none the less). A benchmark EA could only dream of hitting. That being said, on to the review.

And secondly, it is not stealing. OSI/EA have never had a problem with the emulation, as long as you don't charge money for the server. It has even been recognized by EA as a complete and secure UO server platform, and frankly I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to license it.

[jolle]

Originally Posted by |MaguS|

If the game is so great, why don't you actually BUY the software and PAY monthly to play it insted of supporting unofficial servers? Sure your method is free but is a great insult to the creators of the game you so worship.

I said this before and will say it again, If you (anyone) honestly love and support a game, you will buy it and then give it praise, Not steal it and then praise it.

Most people HAVE bought the game, even if they play on Freeshards..
And well yeah, support the creators?
No you would be supporting EA, not Origin who made the game, Origin is dead thanks to EA.
Garriot and alot of EX origin people are working at Destination Games, partnering with NCsoft I think.
I always loved Origins Ultima series, shame there wont be any more of that.

UO is still going strong with over 30k players regularly and new expansions releasing yearly. So even if your supporting EA as a company, the people behind it are still making a game even if its nolonger under the Origin banner.

As for most people, I never mentioned them or anyone else... My post was directed towards Slik who literally stated to download the game and play on a shard because its free.