Every once in a while, some publisher will put together a blurb saying "The Greatest Game of the Year!" or some such nonsense... and then you realize it's the C-64 version of "The A-Team" (those of you who own this POC have my deepest sympathies).
Ultima IV is not only the Game of the Year, but is my personal Game of the Decade. It starts unusually for an adventure game: you are outside of a carnival and are looking for your path.
You meet a fortune teller in a smoky wagon and she proceeds to ask you questions. Here's the rub: the questions are really, really good and the answers actually make a difference to the game you play. In fact, that's a big part of the attraction of Ultima IV: replay ability. From the beginning, you determine what class you will be... but not by arbitrarily picking it from a list. Instead, your very answers determine who you are in this game.
In and of itself, this is a groundbreaking integration into Role Playing Games (RPGs), much less for a game released in the '80s.
And now let’s speak on to the actual game. You are an "avatar" in this game, and your
quest is... well, that's exactly the point. It's unclear what exactly your quest is when you start the game. Pieces of what you need to do, and what you need to focus upon to advance, come in ways both strange and delightful. There's more than enough of the standard "hack slash here's some gold" model... but with a twist. You cannot just kill indiscriminately without affecting the world around you. For the first time in games, guards remember your transgressions. Attacking neutral (i.e. non-evil) creatures will impede your progress. If it seems weird or not fun, then trust me: it is. There are just tons of spoilers that will take away from just how good and enjoyable this game is.
If you have played Ultima 1 through 3, then 4 is a nice continuation of that series. If you haven't, then the good news is that 1-3 are NOT required in order to enjoy this game. In fact, that's another impressive element: if you've played the prequels, you have some additional depth that adds to the game-play, but you can play as a new participant in the world of Britannia without the frustration experienced in other games when you jump into the middle of a series.
Ultima 4 is a fantastic timeless, Hall-of-Fame worthy game. It's deep! It's different! It's engaging!
