Paul Izod at Zero 1 Gaming has continued his retrospective of the Ultima series with a look at Ultima 4:

ased in 1985 following the solid and resurgent Ultima III, Ultima IV was expected to be more of the same: an ambitious and expansive RPG based around a central threat. What it turned out to be, when it eventually hit the public arena, was the foundation for everything that came after in the series, taking it to a hitherto unknown level of sophistication.

Gameplay mechanics wise, the game remained largely the same. The navigation was more or less unchanged from Exodus, with the party traversing the world seen from above while on the surface world, with each party member individually stated. The main mechanics change was that the game no longer reverted to 1st person when in a dungeon. Now, the game remained in the top down format of the open world, a concession to the party mechanic, now allowing for more tactical party management in combat. This was a pattern that was followed in all the main Ultima games from this point forward up until the latter stages of the series’ life.

While this was a fairly significant structural change to the game mechanics, it was more or less in line with what had come before. What was different was pretty much everything else in the game.

As usual, Paul ably deconstructs this Ultima title, noting its vastly increased scale and major tonal shift from the earlier Ultima games, and its broader significance within the gaming industry.