The CRPG Addict: The Underworld, Towns, and Dungeons in Ultima 5
The CRPG Addict has continued his adventure through Ultima 5, and over the weekend posted three updates to his blog detailing his progress in the game.
I actually found the first of the three posts to be the most intriguing. In part, that’s because I never personally played the game that way myself; it just kind of seemed self-evident that the Underworld would be too much for a new and inexperienced party to approach directly. That said, I get what the Addict is trying to do, and it’s really cool…he’s treating all aspects of the game (even its manual) as a whole, and is getting a very rich RPG experience out of the deal.
Equally, though, it’s because I never really made the connection that every aspect of Lord British’s expedition, as described in the game manual, has a counterpart landmark in the game. The manual says that a sign post was placed…and a sign post is found in the game. The manual says that the skiff was abandoned…and an abandoned skiff is found in the game.
We just don’t see this sort of symbiosis between a game and its documentation anymore.
Anyway, the Addict also posted about the towns in the game and the townsfolk that inhabit them, and about the dungeons, the magic carpet…and one of the more annoying idiosyncracies of the game engine. Do be sure to give all three articles a read!
Pre-posting update: Having just submitted this as a draft, I only now take note of the fact that the Addict posted another update today in which he recounts the fruits of a magic-carpet-enabled tour of Britannia.
I’m about to read the articles, but I’ll tell you, the Underworld in Ultima V was hard core. I followed the separate leaflet journal that came with the game, connecting the “story” to the map, and it synced up perfectly. It was an amazing experience, not just because the journal matched the game, but because it was a deadly serious experience. Run out of torches or food in the Underworld and that was you ass on a plate. Brutal by today’s standards, yet amazingly satisfying.
Haha I remember doing the EXACT same thing he did when I finally got enough money to buy my first skiff. That sail around the entire continent was a pain in the ass! Not to mention the stupid Mongbats wiped us out before we got very far past the gravesite.
Like Sanctimonia said, that was a pretty awesome thing when you realized the game matched up with the journal. Another reason why 20+ years later Im STILL playing these over and over.