Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness

Ultima I appeared in 1981 after Akalabeth: World of Doom , and was 2 times ahead of sales. It was the beginning of the first trilogy, called the era of darkness. Richard Gerriot signed up for the publication of the game as Lord British , and this name became the rolling name of the ruler of Sozaria from game to game.

Unlike Akalabeth , Ultima has a plot. The evil sorcerer Mondain took possession of the stone of the sun, turned it into a stone of immortality, and with might and main engaged in the enslavement of the lands of Sozaria, sending hordes of monsters on them. The player takes on the role of a “stranger,” a man summoned from another world to put an end to Mondane’s reign, for which he has to go through multiple aspects of the game, including exploring dungeons and space travel. The player must kill Mondane and break the diamond.

The world of Ultima is represented in the game in several ways. The protagonist’s travels on the earth’s surface are presented as a top view from a third person, while dungeons use a first-person view. In both cases, the game character is controlled by arrows on the keyboard, as well as various other keys for each specific command (A - for attack, B - for entering the ship, etc.)

Character creation is not very different from other role-playing games. The player is given a certain number of points, which he can distribute between the different characteristics of his character, which will affect the subsequent game. For example, if you add points to the indicator of strength, this will increase the damage that the character will inflict on the enemy. After all points are distributed, the player is given the opportunity to choose a character race, one of four: a person, an elf , a gnome and a bobbit (a creature similar to a hobbit ). The choice of race also affects the characteristics. For example, since elves seem fast and agile, the character will have increased agility. After the race is selected, the player is given the opportunity to choose a character class, which again affects the characteristics. Possible classes: warrior, cleric, mage and thief. You can also set the gender of the character, but this does not affect anything.

The game has four indicators that are important for the successful completion of the game. These are life points , food, experience points and coins (gold in the original game). The points of life determine the character’s health, the more they are, the farther he is from death. Food is consumed with each transition to a neighboring cell on the map, except for castles and cities, and if the food is at zero, then the character begins to starve. Food can be bought in cities. Experience points grow thanks to successful victories over monsters. They determine the increase in the level of the character, for each level you need a thousand experience points. An important item near the end of the game cannot be obtained if the character has not reached the eighth level. Coins or gold are used to buy different things in the game world, such as weapons, spells and food, and can be obtained after defeating monsters and rescuing princesses from castles.

The magic and combat systems in Ultima have a simplified look. Spells are bought in stores and are consumables; each spell purchased is used once. Fights take place against randomly appearing monsters and consist of alternating exchanges of blows until one of the combatants is defeated. In the original edition of the game, enemies in open spaces did not move around the terrain in any way - they simply appeared on the player’s location and immediately started the attack. Enemies in the dungeons are also random, but can move around and follow the player. Buying better weapons and armor increases your chances of battle.

The game also flaunts the arcade mode of a first-person shooter - an element that appears only in Ultima and is absent in other games in the series. The player is placed in a real-time battle environment in space, battling enemy spaceships that need to be knocked down to advance further in history. Richard Garriott said that he added this part only to fill all the disk space with the game and do everything he could.

• Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness on Absolute Games