Ultima VII Part 2: Serpent Isle

Ultima VII: The Black Gate
Studio	Origin Systems
Publisher	Origin Systems
Senior Developer	Bill Armintrout
composer	Dana Karl Glover
Erstveröffent- lichung	March 25, 1993
platform	DOS
Game engine	Ultima VII engine
genre	role playing game
Game mode	Single player

Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle was conducted as part of the canon of Ultima - RPG published series on March 25 1993rd This actually eighth part of the series was never really seen as an independent part of the Ultima series because, unlike the other games in the series, it does not use a new, separate game engine, but has the same basis as the previous part Ultima VII: The Black Gate . Accordingly, according to general opinion, Ultima VII: The Black Gate is referred to as the seventh part and Ultima VIII: Pagan as the eighth part of the Ultima series. Serpent Isle, on the other hand , is still referred to as "Ultima VII Part Two" (German Ultima 7, Part 2).

The action begins 18 months after the end of the events of Ultima VII Part One: The Black Gate . The avatar follows Batlin , his opponent from the first part, to a country that gave the game its name: "Serpent Isle" (Eng. "Snake Island").

This makes it the first game in the Ultima canon to be played entirely outside of Britannia. In addition, the course of the game is much more linear than was the case with the previous parts of the Ultima series, in which most tasks could be solved in almost any order. On the other hand, this restriction in the players' freedom of choice enabled a much more detailed and well-formulated storyline. In addition, there are only a few optional secondary tasks, as all the tasks to be solved gradually fit into the very complex main storyline.

In contrast to earlier parts of the series, the Avatar's companions in Serpent Isle take no offense at non-virtuous behavior such as theft or murder. Such behavior is only sanctioned if the acts can be observed by other non-player characters . Since the world of the 'Snake Island' does not follow the virtues lived in Britannia, it also happens that, for example, guards want to be bribed in order to turn a blind eye to wrongdoings. Bribery was last possible in Ultima III as part of the Ultima trip .

A strategy guide for the game has also been released. It is titled Balancing the Scales (Eng. 'Keeping the scales in balance')

action

18 months after the destruction of the black gate and the end of Ultima VII: The Black gate (and six months after the Guardian . (Dt "guards") has attempted the avatar and the entire lock Britannia in a shell of Black Rock dt ( to put "Blackrock") caught in. Ultima Underworld II: labyrinth of Worlds is told) it is stated that the Guardian his right hand Batlin commissioned Iolo's wife Gwenno to track who had risen up, the snake island to visit. Lord British sends the Avatar and three of his companions (Paladin Sir Dupre, Ranger Shamino, and Bard Iolo) to Snake Island to pursue and capture Batlin. The journey by ship leads the group into an arctic passage and through two huge pillars, on which snakes wind up. As they pass the pillars, the ship and its crew are teleported to Serpent Isle .

At the beginning of the game, the ship is stranded on the coast of Snake Island because of a magical storm. Shortly thereafter, in another magical storm, most of the group's equipment disappears. Many objects seem to be exchanged at random: After the storm, the avatar holds a fur hat in his hands instead of the magic helmet. In the further course it turns out that the exchanged objects have changed places with their counterparts. So z. For example, a penguin egg in the group can find the way to look for the exchanged item in a penguin colony in the north.

From the beginning, two overlapping main tasks determine the course of the game: The recovery of the magical equipment, which is largely required to be able to solve the puzzles and secondary tasks; and exploring Snake Island to discover its history and the origins of the magical storms and understand what Batlin is looking for there. In the course of the game, the group visits the ruins of the cities of the lost culture of the Ophidians, witnesses the extermination of the peaceful Gwani and learns that Iolo's wife Gwenno was killed (although she can later be brought back to life). You can also visit the destroyed castle of Lord Shamino and get to know the tragic background of the death of his fiancée.

The course of action can be roughly divided into three parts:

Chasing Batlin

As the adventurers pursue Batlin (and Gwenno), they learn that the worsening magical storms are signs that this world is falling apart. As the apocalypse approaches, the swap of a Snake Island lighthouse and Britannian coin shows that the catastrophe will not be confined to this world. It seems possible that alongside Snake Island and Britannia, the entire universe is threatened with extinction.

The avatar finds out that Batlin is trying, on behalf of the Guardian , to make himself subservient to three ophidian demigods, the so-called scourges (Eng. "Banes"). In this attempt, however, they escape Batlin's grasp, kill him and then take possession of the bodies of the three companions of the Avatar who wanted to stop Batlin. So possessed, they devastate the three cities of the island and slay most of the inhabitants.

The fight against the scourges of chaos

Now the Avatar must try to find a way to find the three scourges (anarchy, lust and madness) in order to free his companions from their influence. Meanwhile, Gwenno can be brought back to life.

The restoration of balance

After defeating the scourges and freeing his companions, the avatar must use his acquired knowledge of the ophidian culture to raise himself to the Hierophant of Balance ( Eng . "Hierophant of Balance"). Only in this way can he restore the Chaos Serpent, which was destroyed by a war between the forces of chaos and order , and thus ensure the balance of the forces of order and chaos in the whole world. As it turns out, this requires the sacrifice of a living soul. The Avatar offers himself up, but Dupre, eaten up by guilt for the massacre he committed during his time of possession, insists on sacrificing himself and comes before the Avatar.

In the final sequence the avatar is teleported into the ether, where he steps in front of the snakes, which thank him and confirm that the balance has been restored. Then suddenly the giant claw of the Guardian appears, seizes the avatar and carries him away to another world: Ultima VIII: Pagan . The story continues there.

reception

The German magazine PC Player gave the game an overall rating of 87%.

A month later, the German magazine Power Play gave it an overall rating of 85%.

Language versions

After translations into different languages ​​were made for The Black Gate , the second part of Serpent Isle was only published in English and Spanish. The extension The Silver Seed (dt. "The silver seed ") was published exclusively in English. Only the documentation and the booklet Beyond the Serpent Pillars (Eng. "Beyond the Snake Columns") were translated internationally and added to the (English) original game.

Community support

After the end of the official technical support for Ultima VII Part 2 - Serpent Isle and the departure of Richard Garriott from Origin, no corrections to the game or porting for modern operating systems and platforms were 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 the execution of U7 (Black Gate and Serpent Isle) 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 version, there are translations and other things created by the fan community. a. in Italian, French. and Russian A Spanish project allows you to play the expansion The Silver Seed also in a Spanish translation. 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 also exist for Ultima VII: The Black Gate and Ultima VI: The False Prophet .

A German translation of this classic role-playing game does not exist to this day. The fan community had long been considering making one. This translation has obviously been in progress since 2017 and is now nearing completion.

Web links

• Ultima VII: Part Two on the pages of the Ultima Code

Individual evidence

1. ↑ MobyGames: Ultima VII: Part Two - Serpent Isle , [1] , Retrieved December 18, 2009.
2. ↑ Test report Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle . May 1993. Retrieved August 21, 2015.
3. ↑ Test report Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle . June 1993. Retrieved August 21, 2015.
4. ^ ^{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. "
5. ↑ 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 "
6. ↑ Italian language patch for Ultima VII Part 2 - Serpent Isle
7. ↑ French language patch for Ultima VII Part 2 - Serpent Isle
8. ↑ Russian language patch for Ultima VII Part 2 - Serpent Isle
9. ↑ Spanish language patch for Ultima VII Part 2 - Serpent Isle
10. ↑ Ultima VII Part 2 - Snake Island & The Silver Seed: German teaser video
11. ↑ Ultima 7 Snake Island - The current status of the translation