An exciting inflection point for the Ultima series, one where the series' burgeoning interest in world-building and world-simulation collides with improved technology to create the most immersive take on Britannia yet. Everything feels more vivid thanks to mind-blowing 256-color VGA graphics! All of Britannia is now seamless - the overworld and towns no longer happen on different maps! Every NPC has their own character portrait, schedule and personality, and the keyword-and-text-parser based conversation system is meatier and more fun to navigate than ever!
Ultima VI also has an unprecedented-for-1990 potential for absolute tomfoolery within its gameplay systems. Wanna lock an NPC in their home while they're asleep and stop them from going to work? You can! Wanna make guards pass out by casting a sleep field next to them and shoving them into it? Go for it!
Combined with Ultima's usual open-endedness (as always you can tackle your vague objectives and traverse Britannia in just about any order you'd like) and you have an all-time classic sandbox RPG. You can still see its influence snaking out through everything from open world games to the immersive sim genre to the flexible gameplay systems of Larian's RPGs
Reviewed on Feb 22, 2024