Ultima VII: The Black Gate

Ultima VII: The Black Gate
Studio	Origin Systems
Publisher	Origin Systems
Senior Developer	Richard Garriott
composer	Dana Karl Glover Kirk Winterrows Herman Miller
Erstveröffent- lichung	April 16, 1992
platform	DOS
Game engine	Ultima VII engine
genre	role playing game
Game mode	Single player

Ultima VII: The Black Gate (Eng. Ultima VII: Die Schwarze Pforte) is the seventh part of the Ultima - RPG series and was published on April 16, 1992.

The Black Gate was critically acclaimed and was a huge commercial success. The game is widely considered to be the highlight of the series and one of the best computer role-playing games of all time. In an interview with GameSpot Richard Garriott remarked that Ultima VII was "the most masterfully executed part of the Ultima series". He also says the game is - along with Ultima IV - his personal favorite of the series.

action

The game begins with a sequence that looks like a classic introduction to a computer game on the avatar's screen. Suddenly there is only white noise and the red face of a creature that calls itself "The Guardian" appears on the screen and explains:

" Avatar! Know that Britannia has entered into a new age of enlightenment! Know that the time has finally come for the one true Lord of Britannia to take His place at the head of His people! Under my guidance, Britannia will flourish. And all the people shall rejoice and pay homage to their new ... Guardian! Know that you, too, shall kneel before me, Avatar. You, too, shall soon acknowledge my authority - for I shall be your companion ... your provider ... and your master! "

"Avatar! Know that Britannia has entered a new age of enlightenment! Know that the time has finally come when the only true ruler of Britannia will take his place at the head of his people! Britannia will flourish under my guidance. And all the people will rejoice and pay tribute to their new ... guardian! Know that you will kneel before me too, Avatar. You too will soon recognize my authority - for I will be your companion ... your provider ... and your master! "

The moonstone - a small stone that the Avatar used for teleportation in the past - glows and the Avatar notices that a red moon gate has appeared behind his house - a portal to get into the world of "Britannia". Through this he returns to Britannia and appears in the city of Trinsic , where he meets his former companion Iolo . Iolo tells him that two centuries have passed since the Avatar's last stay in Britannia. The townspeople are terrified because a ritual murder took place last night - the body of the blacksmith Christopher was found brutally mutilated in the stables of the village. Finnigan , the Mayor of Trinsic, asks the Avatar to investigate the incident.

While he is still in Trinsic, the Avatar meets several members of a new religious organization, the "Fellowship" ("community"). Later, in the capital of Britannia, Britain , the Avatar meets Batlin , one of the founders of the Fellowship, and Lord British , King of Britannia, who advises him to join the Fellowship, as the organization does many good things for the people of Britannia. Lord British is amazed at the presence of the avatar because he did not call him, but then tells him that most of the magicians in the country have gone mad and that the magic no longer works as it should. He asks the Avatar to find the cause of this fact.

Most of the game consists of solving the Trinsic murder and investigating the Fellowship. Little by little, the suspicion that the fellowship is involved in shady machinations is strengthened. More mysterious murders occur, and ultimately the Avatar decides to go undercover to join the Fellowship for more information. His journey takes him to most of the places in Britannia known from the previous parts, including Minoc , Skara Brae , which has now been destroyed and is ruled by a Lich , Yew , Moonglow and Bucaneer's Den .

As the game progresses, the Avatar learns of a significant astronomical constellation that is about to occur and of the three generators created by the Guardian that are responsible for most of the problems in the land, including the disruption of magic. After destroying them, the Avatar and his companions follow several tracks that ultimately lead them to the Isle of the Avatar . The members of the Fellowship have created a black moon gate from the mystical material Blackrock , through which the Guardian is to enter Britannia as soon as the astronomical constellation occurs.

The Avatar meets the high-ranking members of the sect waiting there and defeats them. However, Batlin manages to escape. When the astronomical constellation occurs, the Guardian begins to pass through the black gate, but the Avatar succeeds just in time to destroy it, so that it is impossible for the Guardian to get to Britannia. Due to the previous destruction of the generators, conventional moon gates can no longer be used, and the Avatar is thus trapped in Britannia and cannot return to his homeworld.

Gameplay

Game system

With Ultima VII, some major changes were introduced to the Ultima series. The most striking is that the world no longer seems to consist of a grid of playing fields ; Internally, playing fields are still used, but in a much more complex way so that the player can hardly notice it. The avatar and all non-player characters can move seamlessly through the game world and the position of objects and items is also no longer tied to the game fields. The representation of the game world is much more complex and multi-layered than in the previous parts, for example objects can be stacked on top of each other in several layers. This affects the movement of the characters and is even part of some puzzles in the game; some places are only accessible for the avatar after he has stacked several objects in a suitable way and thus created a kind of staircase.

Another noticeable change is the fact that in Ultima VII the entire area of ​​the screen is used to display the game world. No fixed areas are reserved for portraits, dialogues or buttons .

Ultima VII is the first part of the series that can be operated entirely with the mouse ; the use of a keyboard is only optional. The first five parts of the Ultima series could only be controlled via the keyboard, in Ultima VI the mouse could be used as an optional, additional input device. For example, in order to move an object in Ultima VI, the player first had to select the "Move" command, then the object in question and finally the target field. In Ultima VII, on the other hand, the object can simply be moved to the desired location using the mouse using the drag-and-drop method.

In this game, for the first time in the Ultima series, pop-ups are used to represent the contents of containers. For example, if the player double-clicks on a backpack, a pop-up appears in the form of the opened backpack, in which the objects that are inside the backpack are displayed and arranged by dragging with the mouse or from the backpack to one can be moved to another location. This technique is also used for the display of books, scrolls, maps and the playing figures themselves. After double-clicking on a figure controlled by the player in the game, a status pop-up appears with the current character traits of the figure, as well as a representation of the clothes and items of equipment put on.

Ultima VII plays - in contrast to the previous parts - completely in real time ; there are no more game rounds. The game time is only paused while a dialogue is taking place or the inventory or the main menu is open. The lack of game rounds has a significant impact on in-game fighting. The combat system has been adapted accordingly: each character in the group of the avatar is controlled by artificial intelligence ; the player can only give each figure rough information about a general behavior in combat (for example "attack with a melee weapon" or "fight from a distance with a long-range weapon"). The character of the avatar itself can be controlled directly by the player in battle.

Game world

The game world of Ultima VII offers an enormous amount of interactivity . Almost any object (that is not overly heavy) can be taken, moved or otherwise manipulated. For example, it is possible in the game to bake bread, forge weapons, milk cows, play musical instruments, draw pictures and change the diapers of small children. If not regularly supplied with food, the Avatar and his companions will complain of starvation and may even die from it. Some characters show and comment on their feelings, such as disgust, and even vomit when they see or smell something particularly unpleasant. After excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages, the characters show signs of nausea.

Ultima VII has a largely "open game world": There is a main storyline and several sub-tasks that the Avatar can pursue, but once he has left the city walls of Trinsic, it is possible to travel to all places in the game. The main story has to be completed to end the game, but this is not necessary for movement, the development of character values ​​and the fun of the game. The Black Gate is therefore highly non-linear and there are only a few cases in which there is a predetermined order in which certain places must be visited or certain puzzles must be solved.

The virtues of Ultima , which played an essential role in the previous three parts of the game series, are of minor importance in this game. The avatar can steal and kill at will without making it impossible to exit the game. However, this does not mean that such deeds remain without effects: Either the companions of the avatar comment on such actions negatively and possibly even leave the community or the other inhabitants of the world react accordingly to such deeds by offending or even attacking the avatar. The fact that the Guardian also verbally mocks morally reprehensible acts of the avatar, which represents an overcoming of the fourth wall , is of particular importance .

development

Some elements of Ultima VII are characterized by conflicts between the manufacturer Origin Systems and the competitor (and later parent company ) Electronic Arts . The slogan at the time by Origin Systems was' We Create Worlds "while the (dt We create worlds.) Antagonist of the player - the Guardian - (dt. Destroyer of worlds) as" Destroyer of Worlds "is called. The three evil generators the Guardian creates to throw Britannia off balance appear in the form of a cube, a sphere and a pyramid; these three geometric shapes served as the Electronic Arts logo at the time. The first letters of the names of Elizabeth and Abraham , two apparently good-natured characters who turn out to be murderers as the game progresses, are another reference to Electronic Arts. The religious sect "Fellowship" is inspired by Scientology .

The game's credits have been designed as if they were the credits of a movie. It also included the announcement that the game's soundtrack was available on CD , which was not the case until 1993 (as Origin Soundtrack Series volume 2 )

reception

Computer Gaming World magazine praised the graphics, sound and realism of Ultima VII as "first class" in 1992, described the plot as "captivating" and particularly emphasized the mouse-based operation. The poor performance of the program on most of the computers common at the time was criticized ("I estimate that the slow speed of the game added about a week to my playing time", German: "I estimate that the slow speed of the game is about a week also contributed to the playing time "), the relatively large number of bugs and the confusing combat system.

The Black Gate was included in the list of the "50 best games of all time" by PC Gamer magazine in 1997 and ranked 10th in the 2011 poll-based list of the "100 best PC games of all time".

The German magazine Power Play gave the game an overall rating of 84%.

Extension Forge of Virtue

Forge of Virtue is an add-on for Ultima VII: The Black Gate that adds an additional sub-storyline to the game. The Avatar must pass a series of tests to prove himself worthy of the principles of "truth", "love" and "courage" and destroy the last remains of Exodus , the opponent of Ultima III .

If this extension is installed, an earthquake occurs at the beginning of the game. If the Avatar asks Lord British about it in the further course of the game, a ship called The Golden Ankh is made available to him and told to visit the Isle of Fire, a new island created by the earthquake . This island is already known from Ultima III and was then the location of Castle Exodus , the fortress of Exodus . The island sank into the sea after Ultima III and rose again in this expansion, which was the cause of the earthquake.

To complete these additional storyline of Avatar has the Darkcore (dt. Dark Core ) destroy that contains the last remnants of Exodus. To achieve this goal, the avatar must acquire the three talismans of the principles of truth , love and courage by passing three corresponding tests. Furthermore, the concave and convex lenses from Ultima VI are required to achieve this goal.

During the test, the principle courage is the player with a very powerful weapon, the Shade Blade (dt. Shadowblade ) rewarded. After passing the three tests, the avatar's values ​​for strength , intelligence and dexterity are set to the maximum value. As soon as the dark core has been destroyed by the avatar and he speaks to Lord British again, the avatar's strength is doubled again. The ship Golden Ankh also contains a lot of equipment that will be very useful as the game progresses.

Language versions

The Black Gate was the first game in the series, which was tentatively translated into different languages ​​and published. The game was available in a German ( Die Schwarze Pforte ), French ( La Porte Noire ) and Spanish ( El Portal Negro ) version. The add-on Forge of Virtue was only published in English.

Community support

Screenshot of the start screen of Ultima VII in the Germanized version

After the end of the official technical support for Ultima 7 and the departure of Richard Garriott from Origin, no corrections to the game or porting for modern operating systems and platforms were to be expected, the game community began to do the same itself. Exult is an open source software game engine - replica of the original Ultima VII engine, which allows U7 to run on new platforms. The Exult project, which has been active for many years, was also noticed by Richard Garriott and commented positively.

In addition to the official versions, there are translations created by the fan community, etc. a. in italian and russian. A Spanish project allows the Forge of Virtue expansion to be played in a Spanish translation as well. For this purpose, auxiliary programs were used that enable the decompiling, changing and recompiling of the dialog files used for the game. Such (unofficial) translations exist for Ultima VII Part 2: Serpent Isle and Ultima VI .

In line with the 25th anniversary of the release of Ultima VII , a language patch was released for the first time in August 2017, which makes the game in the current version, including the Forge of Virtue expansion, playable in German. Again, this is a translation created by a member of the gaming community. The German language patch for Ultima VII - Die Schwarze Pforte & Die Schmiede der Tugend follows the rules of the new German spelling.

Web links

• Ultima VII in Origin / EA's Ultima Web Archive (English)
• The Conquest of Origin Background information on the conflict between Origin Systems and Electronic Arts and the resulting acquisition. (English)
• Ultima VII in the Ultima Wiki (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Richard Garriott: Tabula Rasa: Questions and Answers . NCSoft. Retrieved November 5, 2006.
2. ^ Richard Garriott: Tabula Rasa Team Bios: Richard Garriott . NCSoft. Archived from the original on August 23, 2007. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 2, 2006. 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} MobyGames , [1] , accessed December 7, 2009.
4. ^ GameSpy , [2] , Retrieved December 7, 2009.
5. ^ The Escapist: Issue 14 , The Conquest of Origin , Retrieved July 19, 2007.
6. ↑ Prima's official strategy guide - Ultima Ascension page 271
7. ↑ Underworld Dragon: Audio . Collectible Ultima. Retrieved October 2, 2006.
8. ↑ Scorpia: Origin's "Ultima VII: The Black Gate" . In: PC Gamer , August 1992, pp. 106-110 and p. 85 of the September 1992 issue. Retrieved July 3, 2014. 
9. ^ The 50 Best Games Ever . In: PC Gamer (US) . May 1997.
10. ↑ The 100 best PC games of all time . February 16, 2013. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
11. ↑ Test report Ultima 7: The Black Gate . July 1992. Retrieved June 25, 2015.
12. ^ ^{A b} Howard Wen: Exult: The Open Age of Ultima . In: Linuxdevcenter . O'Reilly Publishing House . April 24, 2003. Retrieved January 19, 2016: “ Exult replaces Ultima VII's engine so that the game can be played on other operating systems and platforms. It also expands the graphics capabilities of the game and adds features not present under the original engine. (A legal copy of Ultima VII is required in order to use Exult.) Lord British (aka Richard Garriott) himself, the creator of the entire Ultima franchise, has given the Exult team his unofficial blessing. "
13. ↑ Re: [Exult-general Bravo!] . sourceforge.net . August 2, 2001. Retrieved on January 19, 2016: “ On Thursday August 02, 2001 3:51 pm, Richard Garriott wrote:> Just so that you know. > On a personal level I am very excited to see you doing this. > Its tough to see games fade out, when the computers or operating systems> required to play them go away.> - Richard Lord British Garriott "
14. ↑ Italian language patch for Ultima VII
15. ↑ Russian language patch for Ultima VII
16. ↑ German language patch for Ultima VII The Black Gate & Forge of Virtue