by It’s been an awfully long time since there was a new entry in the Ultima series, and even longer since the venerable RPG franchise was on an Apple platform. Its reappearance on iOS – as a free-to-play game, no less – might seem like a low-key comeback for a property that once helped pioneer computer role-playing games, but underneath its casual-looking exterior lurks a fun (if simple) dungeon-crawling MMO.
When beginning a new game, you’ll be able to pick a fighter or mage, a decision that mainly comes down to whether you’d prefer to attack from a distance or just get up close with a sword and whale on things. The complexities of character creation really begin and end there; there aren’t any different weapon types or skill trees to worry about. There’s just combat, story, and a big, semi-open map filled with towns and dungeons that you can visit and revisit so long as you’re at high-enough level to survive them.
Ultima Forever takes a lot of gameplay cues from Diablo, with straightforward fighting – tap on foes once to continually attack them until they’re dead, or tap a special-ability icon and then tap on an enemy to unleash it — and plenty of loot to collect. Most of that loot comes in the form of new weapons and armor pieces, although you’ll also find cards that can enhance your abilities when equipped at the start of a dungeon. There isn’t any way to sell or share your old stuff, however, meaning you’ll have to just discard it to free up room for new stuff — something guaranteed to torment veteran dungeon-crawlers.
That decision makes a sort of sense when you consider how the game’s freemium model ties into loot collection. The game’s currency comes in the shape of bronze, silver, and gold keys, handfuls of which can be used to unlock the chests scattered throughout dungeons; the better the keys you use, the better the loot you’re likely to get. Bronze keys are everywhere, but silver and gold are considerably more difficult to earn — and when you consider that silver keys are also used to repair your fragile weapons and armor, and that gold keys can be used to instantly buy a healing potion, dropping a few bucks becomes an increasingly tempting prospect. Consider that being able to sell off loot might interfere with that model, and you can see why including it may not have been a high priority.
Still, spending money isn’t a necessity, and partying up with groups of other players (who can usually be found milling around towns and dungeon entrances) can save wear-and-tear on your equipment. And while we had a pretty easy time going solo, joining up with other adventurers can make jaunts through monster territory faster and more fun. This is especially true whenever you need to grind; at some points, the quests you’re given direct you to places that are simply closed off until you reach a certain level, forcing you to replay earlier dungeons to level up.
Having other players around comes at a cost, however: regardless of whether or not you want to play solo, Ultima Forever won’t work without a steady online connection. This likely won’t be a huge inconvenience for most players, but it may also be the cause of the game’s stuttering and dropped-audio issues — which, thankfully, have improved considerably in the weeks since release, following a steady stream of patches.
The bottom line. Ultima Forever’s stripped-down approach to dungeon-delving might alienate more hardcore fans, but the satisfyingly simple battles and the amount of content on offer make it worth a trip to Britannia.
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