Ultima IV (HQ Remake) - Shrines (2024)

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Released just in time for the Christmas season of 1985 after 2 years of development, Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar sees the end of the combat-centric "Age of Darkness" as the series moves to embrace a more virtuous and story-driven gameplay style in the first installment of the "Age of Enlightenment" trilogy. Now in a time of peace, the newly minted land of Britannia (and despite 3/4 of the world disappearing the game takes place on a much larger map than ever before) allows the player to hone their zeal in the Eight Virtues instead of facing some terrible evil. They battle their inner demons to master the virtues, collect artifacts, and plumb the depths of the Stygian Abyss to find the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom in order to become the Avatar.

When you visit the gypsy fortune teller, her cards will lead you to a dominant virtue that will decide which class of (human only) character you will play. The player must collect the runes for each of the Shrines and gain enlightenment in each of the Eight Virtues. Mistakes can be made upon the path, causing you to lose your way and forcing you to redeem yourself. How you play will determine when you are ready for another Shrine.

This is the first time we get to see the world map in full. 16 times larger than Ultima III, this map will lay the foundation for the game world for future titles. This is the first game in the series to have NPC conversations based on keywords you type in, giving far greater depth to interactions than previous titles.

Perturbed by the witch hunt against RPGs at the time by fearful parents who didn't understand, Richard Garriott, aka Lord British himself, decided to make this game less about fighting and more about morality. There is no Big Bad, there are deep moral dilemmas (some are 10/10 gritty) where you may think you came out on top only to realize later that you did not. The idea was definitely to get you to think before you act.

The game was coded for Apple, and then ported to C64, Atari 8-bit Family, PC, Amiga, Sega Master System and NES. This remake is from the C64 version of the music, and in fact a few of those machines in the list above had no music at all, which was a shame.

Highly rated, the game went on to win Game of the Year in 1986, toppling competitor Wizardry's reign as the best RPG. It topped charts for many years as one of the best RPGs of all time and later was inducted in the Computer Gaming World Hall of Fame. Even today, the game holds up fairy well considering how far things have come since this game was released. I highly recommend it for a nice change of pace from the formulaic "fighting is the only way to improve" character development. Ultima IV is TRUE character development.

You can own and play this game FOR FREE here: https://www.gog.com/game/ultima_4

Original score by Ken Arnold ©1985
This version is Copyright ©2021 Pieces of 8-bit
Where Applicable, All Rights Reserved

Special thanks to Richard Garriott - you've changed so many lives.