The pioneer of the massively-multiplayer online role-playing game genre is about to turn 10 and instead of growing old and haggard Ultima Online has gone in for some serious cosmetic surgery. A new expansion titled Kingdom Reborn is free for download and a 14 day trial is available for new people and those who left the online world of Ultima behind long ago.
Ahh Ultima Online. I have both fond and horrifying memories of the first few days that game came out. A friend and I spent six hours looking for something...ANYTHING...to fight. We happened upon a deer and leapt on it all swords and gnashing teeth. It killed us both. UO may not have been the most graceful way to introduce the world to the "graphical MUD" - what later became the MMO - but it was the first to venture into that territory and make it a success. The launch was ripe with crippling lag and a dearth of enemies and it wasn't long before the roads between towns were filled with murderous player-killers looking to rob you of your hard-earned belongings just for the fun of it.
Ten years and seven expansions later some are still playing UO and those loyal few are in for a treat. From the screenshot comparisons below it looks like the game has been revamped in a big way and with a new 14 day trial I might just give this thing a run. The graphics may not blow you away compared to new games but compared to the old engine it's pretty sweet. Check out the screenshots for yourself by clicking the previews below.
Here's a trailer EA put together for the game's relaunch.
Here's a snippet of the press release from EA:
With Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn, the legendary kingdom has been redrawn, reengineered and rebuilt for the next decade of players seeking an epic, fantasy MMO experience. The revamped new player content welcomes those who have never adventured through the celebrated lands of Ultima Online. Additionally, enhanced visuals and brand-new user interface present the game in a whole new light to veteran players.
"As the tenth anniversary of Ultima Online's launch approaches, Kingdom Reborn introduces an entirely new experience while preserving the spirit of the classic MMO," said Mark Jacobs, VP and General Manager of EA Mythic. "Kingdom Reborn represents EA's ongoing commitment to MMOs and Ultima Online's dedicated and loyal community, some of whom have been playing the game since its launch almost ten years ago."
Finally here's where you can download the free expansion and the 14 day trial.
Comments (7)
I played this game shortly after the first expansion called "The Second Age" and totally loved it. I played for quite some time, almost 6 years and all I can say is, EA destroyed it.
When Origin was at the helm they had an attitude of, don't whine to us, learn to play. When EA took control and the Origin team left, they started catering to noobie players and each expansion made it progressively worse. The state of the gameplay should have been addressed at the same time as the graphics. I wonder how many people will try this game and after 10 minutes will hate it.
The new MMO's are pretty much the same while UO was not only the original but was unique in that you don't level, you gain skill. And gaining skill was easy at first and more difficult as the skill got higher, much like leveling but your char gets stronger progressivly instead of getting a boost at each level. EA wasted no time in ruining this. When they changed the item properties in the game to increase skill and to break the 100 max per skill overall skill cap 700, they changed the importance of skill, making it less and less important. PVP is totally ruined unless you have 100's of millions of gold and then you have to find soemone to kill. No point to PVP and very few even bother to. They destroyed many of the professions in the game that made it unique as well. They only thing unique now is the housing and with the way they limited it to 1 house per account instead of 1 per shard/server, this can be a pain if you want to play on multiple servers.
IMO, when they changed the way the items were classified, they essentially ruined the game. All that is left is the hardcore and addicted players. Less than 120k accounts and considering how many people have multiple accounts, I wonder how many players that equates to. EA has tried over the years to make the game more and more like the others and the unquiness is all but gone.
I would love to quit World of Warcraft and return to UO, but the gameplay is too horrible, and a little eye candy wont change that.
If they ever make a "Classic" shard (server) that dates back to around the "Second Age" I would go back in a heartbeat. But EA has stated they have no interest in doing that. They think they have improved the game. However, many people playing on free servers are veterans that can't stand the "new" UO. (I have tried a few and talked to alot of people)
I will remember UO fondly, but can't see ever playing EAUO.
Posted by Jeff | August 29, 2007 8:01 PM
Posted on August 29, 2007 20:01
As cool as this is, it's even better to play the ORIGINAL game, being hosted by a private server. The best news? It's free to play! Join here>> http://onlineultima.com/wp/
Posted by silverfrog | August 29, 2007 8:17 PM
Posted on August 29, 2007 20:17
or here!
http://www.darkagerp.com/
Posted by b | August 29, 2007 8:52 PM
Posted on August 29, 2007 20:52
Or you could go to the best free old school ultima-online shard around! Join here>>http://www.neverside.org/
Posted by Neverside Staff | August 29, 2007 8:52 PM
Posted on August 29, 2007 20:52
sounds a lot like what vivendi did to tribes after disbanding the dynamix team. pretty sad, since tribes3 would be a VERY profitable cross-platform release now (if dynamix was in charge).
another example of a big company killing a great franchise.
Posted by wardialer | August 29, 2007 8:57 PM
Posted on August 29, 2007 20:57
The old graphics look better.
Posted by Belladonna UDL | August 29, 2007 10:06 PM
Posted on August 29, 2007 22:06
Wardialer, from what I see here, they plan to milk it for all its worth. I truely wonder how many players they would have return if they did make a T2A shard. If I were EA I'd do a massive poll on all the major gaming sites and see what interest they get. How hard could it be to use the old code on a newer server and let it run.
Problem is they keep doing polls of the current playerbase, which is made up of farmers and addicts. The farmers don't want it because you couldn't farm back then, you had to play or be killed. The addicts don't want it because the ones left are the ones that complained about the no-con PVP and such.
Every free server I have tried that was T2A was Ok, cept for the people running it always put their own twist on it and that usually managed to kill it for me. I would love a true T2A server that no one has modified to their own tastes or to the whining of the players. Origin's policy seemed harsh at times, but it maintained the challenge of the game.
Anyone know of any like that?
Are the ones in the above posts like that?
Posted by Jeff | August 29, 2007 10:51 PM
Posted on August 29, 2007 22:51