Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire

Game: Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire
Developer: Origin Systems
Platform: PC
Release Year: 1990
Stephen's Rating: 4/10

Basic Plot

The Savage Empire is a spin-off game that fits into the Ultima series after the events of Ultima VI: The False Prophet. The player takes on the role of the Avatar, who due to using a cracked moonstone, finds himself in the Valley of Eoden.

The Valley of Eoden is a feral world in which dinosaurs roam and tribes of savage humans battle each other. The tribes of humans have been transported from various periods of human history. The valley is on planet Earth in a place which cannot normally be accessed.

The story revolves around a race of intectoid beings called the Myrmidex who threaten the entire valley. The Avatar's quest is to get the thirteen tribes to join forces against the Myrmidex to save the world. In order to convince the tribes he finds himself having to prove himself in various ways.

Gameplay

The game uses the Ultima VI: The False Prophet game engine, so if you've played that you'll know what to expect. This is also the same game engine used in World of Ultima: Martian Dreams.

It is primarily a role playing adventure game with aspects of character development, a party of companions, dialogue and quests, and combat, very similar to other Ultima games.

Positives

Detailed game world, decent story.

Negatives

For me, the game engine was unplayable because it was too old. I found it disorientating, although I wanted to play the game a lot. Furthermore, whereas in Ultima VI: False Prophet I had some history with the game world which made it *almost* playable (I had a sense of where I was in the game world at any time), this world was completely foreign and I felt lost the entire time.

I think at the time this was developed it was a great game, but once you've experienced Ultima VII: Black Gate it's hard to go back to an older game engine.

Memorable Moments

There were three companions in the game which although are theoretically different characters match up with the Avatar's companions in Britannia. Triolo matches Iolo, Shamuru matches Shamino, and Dokray matches Dupre.

There is currently a re-make of this game being developed for the Ultima 7 emulator Exult. I would be very interested in re-playing this game in the superior Ultima 7 engine.