In what may be one of the most uplifting dreams come true, BioWare has just unveiled their upcoming RPG: Ultima Forever: Quest For The Avatar. Details are scant at the moment, but the developer is promising a cross-platform experience delivered to players through EA’s Play4Free label.
Exactly which platforms will be available for experiencing Ultima Forever is currently unknown, but the colorful, animated aesthetic teased by the game’s official site could hint at anything from a mobile version to downloadable for consoles. Big questions will no doubt be asked quickly by the most devoted Ultima fans, so BioWare must know that they’ve got an uphill battle on their hands if they truly wish to do justice to the original series.
With “Lady British” now calling on players around the world to unite – or play solo – to reclaim Britannia and become the Avatar, BioWare isn’t referring to Ultima Forever as a new version of the classic RPG, but “the first great Western RPG…lovingly restored.” With BioWare’s history in storytelling and at-times controversial approach to role-playing these days, it’s anyone’s guess what the game will actually look like. Or which internal design philosophy it will be following.
The Fighter and the Mage are the two available classes, differentiated by unique strengths and strategies that any RPG player would expect. Hopefully details on other classes – if there are any – and just how deep a gameplay experience Ultima Forever will be coming soon, but some concept art and a world map have been posted online.
Any announcement of a new game bearing the Ultima name will be met with heavy skepticism, as past projects attempting to do the same have, generally, turned out to be more a disappoint than a reboot. That being said, BioWare putting their weight behind a free-to-play version of the original game whose name seems to imply they’re in it for the long haul is a good thing. Sure, EA and BioWare may not have earned more positive word-of-mouth than negative lately, but the studio has claimed to have learned from their mistakes.
Those who are more curious than dismissive can sign up for the Beta at the site now, but anyone interested in the classic RPG and the future of the free-to-play games genre will want to pay attention to how this proposition is received.
When Ultima Forever is discussed in greater detail, we’ll keep you updated.
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Source: UltimaForever (via Kotaku)
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Granted, I’ve never played it–or heard of it–but it with only two playable classes this looks leagues behind Elder Scrolls and WoW. And the character sketches look cartooney at that. Maybe Ultima’s audience is much younger than me, I wouldn’t know.
These are the 2 announced classes !
Soon more to follow
Look up the Spoony Expirement, then watch his Ultima Retrospective videos if you want the short versions of them. You can find the games on GOG.com.
Kinda like how Age of Empires online only had two civilizations at launch. It’s a free-to-play thing, I guess.
To give you an idea the Ultima series was basically the forerunner to everything Bethesda did with Elder Scrolls. The original Ultima games were awesome for their time.
Ultima 7 The Black Gate, 7.5 Serpent Aisle, Ultima 8 Pagan & the Ultima Underworld 1 & 2 were 3d RPG’s out in the 80s. They were awesome games.
Similar to Oblivion & Skyrim, in Ultima I would explore the world for weeks without even doing a single quest. I played for over a month still exploring the world without even touching the main storyline.
I doubt this will be anything like the old games however. From what I understand the original company went bankrupt.
Actually Origin’s demise can be traced back, as so many things can, to EA being a dick.
I had some fun with Lord of Ultima, and I’ll probably have some fun with this game too, but I hope they get back to making real Ultima games sooner or later. Actually I’m kind of surprised they haven’t already done that — rebooting the Ultima Underworld franchise would probably be a good way to get a piece of that Elder Scrolls pie.