GamePlay
Ultima IX will finish the Avatar triology in a new different kind of game. Putting toghether great grpahics, incridible real 3d worlds, amazing cut scenes, hundreds of npc, real phisycs, extesnsive and ilimitated world to explore, Ultima IX promess to be one of the greates games of this year, but shall it be a great Ultima?
Time had passed since the first Ultima and the escape for the Pagan World. The Ultima
Series had always write a line andpushed new limits to the RPG-Interactive-Adventure
Gmaes.
Ultima IV gave us a new story far away from the same rescue the princess or save the land
plot.
Ultim V shocked us with it dark and extensive storyline.
Ultima VII bright a new ide of what interaction was-
Ultima VIII show a new generation of high graphics-sound games.
What will be the position of Ultima IX? Will it be a harcore rpg? Shall it be A Tomb-Raider Ultima? We still don't knmow, as the game had not been finished yet, but we can try to match a few points...
First we where told abaout the existeance of organzied bags so each thing should be automaticly organized.(No more searching the bag for that red key!!!). Different bags for different thing as magic stuff (reagents and scrolls), weapons and armor, etc.
But at E3, Origin talk about a almost stupid-secure inventory. Is the Auto-Bags this new easy inventory system, or will get almost no inventory?
PaperDoll inventory shall return, in the inventory and in the game. (You can see the character wearing his equipment).
A hide-show compass windows should appear in the screen, to not get yourself lost.
And a very welcome feature will be the fully configurable keyboard, allowing macros and key hints, for the most of the actions (Inventory, Spellbook, Specific Spell, etc)
Little has been said about the gameplay, but general ideas have been revealed.
First will have a full interactive world, like the one we had in Ultima VII. Everything
can be used and mixed with other objects. You can move, rotate thing to accomplish your
goals, break down doors, smash windows, and block doors with furniture.
There also shall be different way for transport: horses, magic, ships and even dragons. I wonder if its going to be back the Flying Carpet...
The Avatar will be able to fly (probably with a fly spell), but it altitude shall be
limited (after all it is not a fly simulator).
The ability to swim also shall be introduced, but limited to the shores
The party feture had been replaced in a beginning to the feature of being able to play ohter charecters like Lord British. But that seems to had been canceled. We should get company in the game but not as a party, more like show me the way to get somewhere...
As the Party Members feature had been cancel, read what we missed:
Party members shall be more useful. For example, Shamino who is a ranger often helps you find your way through places. There is one mention part of the game, where it is really critical to go through a maze. Shamino know the way out, but he was not in a proper mental state when he previously went through it. So you have an interesting time getting through this maze with his help, because his help is somewhat dubious.
In the game there shall be like 40 characters (probably more as this information should very outdated) in the main plot line, critical to get through the game. There are another hundred or so side-plots conversations with fully developed personalities characters. "They actually have something to say besides Name, Job, Bye". Finally that there shall be a lot of guards and beggards types of characters that would fill the world.
All game should be spread around 12 or the 15 cities, Dungeons and other kinds of environments.
Magic shall in part return to the known spellbook-reagent system, with the addition of
rituals (like in Pagan).
For rituals, the spellbook will indicate the steps to accomplish (light candles, stab a
knife, yell "hi ha hoe" and stuff like that), and most of them shall be the
difficult and non-action spells, like resurrection.
The Combat system had been hidden, but it would be a mix of strategic with arcade. It
had been olso said some sort of preference to be selected.
Pausing the combat should be possible, to let the player change weapons and select a
spell.
Int the lastest demos we have seen a very Arcade Avatar like in Ultima VII and VIII, in
other words, real time fighting.
A 3rd person moveable camera should manage the view system, allowing to
see every spot near the Avatar. No more things should be hidden for ever by walls.
The feature to a first person look is in the works, but not seems to be the priority view.