Zero1Gaming’s Paul Izod has added the next chapter in his ongoing retrospective of the Ultima series, this time taking a look at Ultima 5:

Set some time after the events of Quest of the Avatar, Warriors of Destiny find the Avatar return to Britannia, but not quite as he knows it. The opening to the game is masterful in driving this home, as the Avatar and his companions encounter cloaked and menacing beings, the Shadowlords, and barely escape with their lives. Indeed, longtime companion Shamino is badly wounded in the exchange. The story is then told of the disappearance of Lord British in the Stygian Abyss and the regency of Lord Blackthorn, his closest advisor. The Shadowlords are proven to be the personifications of negative emotions and traits, corrupting Blackthorn. The opening is more or less perfect for the tone being set and really drives home that idea that, well, ‘we’re not in Kansas anymore’. Rather than a triumphant return that the player might expect, they find themselves in a world that is at once familiar and wholly unrecognisable. With the Shadowlords prowling the land in search of them, corrupting and oppressing the populace as they go and Lord Blackthorn outlawing them all, the player finds the world of Ultima V to be a very different one to those that came before.

The mastery of the story mechanic is in its execution. The fact that when a town is approached it may contain a Shadowlord presents the player with a choice; to enter and risk discovery and the increased hostility of the town’s occupants, or undignified and unheroic retreat. It really creates a feeling of oppression and danger, completely immersing the player in the events.

He goes into greater detail about some of the more interesting aspects of the game’s story and plotting, commenting at length on the scene in which Blackthorn executes one of your companions (among other topics). Click on through and give it a read!