Ultima VII: The Black Gate is the seventh installment of the Ultima series of role-playing video games, released in April 1992. In it, the player returns as The Avatar, a would-be paragon of moral virtue who faces down many dangers and deceptions in order to cleanse the medieval fantasy world of Britannia of assorted plots and schemes, monster infestations, and the undermining of crown authority.
The Black Gate was critically acclaimed and commercially successful, being widely lauded as a high point in the series and is also regarded as one of the best video games ever created. In an interview with GameSpot, Richard Garriott stated that Ultima VII "was the most masterfully executed of the Ultima series". He has also often stated that the game was, along with Ultima IV, his own favorite installment overall.
Gameplay
Game system
Ultima VII introduced major changes in the Ultima series. The most serious alteration is that as far as the player is concerned, the world is no longer tile and grid-based; tiles are still used internally (in a largely improved way where the tiles themselves are smaller and frequently grouped), but they no longer affect character and monster movement or the item placement the same way. The maps are also more visibly multi-layered, and objects and things can be stacked on top of each other. This can also affect movement, and be part of puzzles; some places are inaccessible unless the player stacks items to form stairs. A striking visual change is that the gameworld now takes up the entire screen in its original DOS environment, while previous Ultimas used a substantial portion of the screen for text, dialogue, buttons, icons, and the like.
The game is the first in the series that is entirely mouse-driven, with optional keyboard hotkeys for some common actions. This is in contrast to earlier entries that are entirely keyboard-driven, and to Ultima VI, which supplements keyboard commands with on-screen command icons.
Another major change from earlier entries is that the game is completely real-time, and only pauses when the inventory, the menu, or a dialogue is open, significantly affecting combat. meets Iolo. Iolo tells him that two centuries have passed since he left. The whole town is shocked due to a ritualistic murder that occurred the preceding night - the body of the blacksmith Christopher was found in the stable. Finnigan, Mayor of Trinsic, asks the Avatar to investigate the incident.
In Trinsic, the Avatar gets to meet several members of a new religious organization called the Fellowship. Eventually, in Britain, he meets Batlin, one of the founders of the Fellowship. He also meets Lord British, who urges the Avatar to join the Fellowship, which, according to him, has done a lot of good things. It also turns out most of the mages of the realm have gone completely insane without any good explanation, and their magic doesn't work as it should.
Most of the game is composed of the Avatar's investigation of the Fellowship and the Trinsic murders. During the game, the Avatar finds more and more clues that implicate the Fellowship in shady dealings; more murders appear on the way, and the Avatar himself goes undercover by entering the Fellowship. His quest takes him to most of the cities and towns of Britannia, including Minoc, a destroyed Skara Brae run by a lich, Yew, Moonglow and Buccaneer's Den.
The Avatar eventually learns of an astronomical alignment of importance that is supposed to happen very soon, and about the three evil Generators that the Guardian has created, which have been causing most of the problems of the land. After destroying them, he and his companions follow several leads to the Isle of Avatar, where members of the Fellowship are waiting. The Fellowship has fashioned a black moongate out of blackrock on this island to allow the Guardian to enter Britannia when the astronomical alignment happens.
The Avatar confronts the Fellowship members and defeats them. As the astronomical alignment begins and the Guardian starts to loom behind the moongate, the Avatar destroys the gate just in time, preventing the Guardian from entering Britannia. As the moongates had been rendered useless by the destruction of one of the generators, the Avatar has to remain in Britannia, with no means to return to Earth.
Development
Ultima VII was the first game where Richard Garriott did any sort of planning ahead for future games in the series, laying out a preplanned trilogy which would conclude with Ultima IX.
Elements of Ultima VII were inspired by game developer Origin Systems' conflicts with competitor (and later owner) Electronic Arts. Origin Systems' corporate slogan was "We Create Worlds", while the main antagonist of the storythe Guardianis presented as a "Destroyer of Worlds". The three evil "Generators" created by the Guardian in the game take the physical shapes of the contemporary Electronic Arts logo: a cube, a sphere, and a tetrahedron. Elizabeth and Abraham, two apparently benevolent characters who later turn out to be murderers, have the initials "E" and "A". Electronic Arts would acquire Origin later that same year, on September 25, 1992.
The religious cult the Fellowship is inspired by Scientology. Richard Garriott also said it was inspired by the action role-playing game Times of Lore and the first-person role-playing game Dungeon Master. Ultima VII cost to develop.
The game credits have been made to look as movie-like as possible, with all of the standard disclaimers and elements found in movie end credits. The credits, notoriously, also include the mention that a soundtrack CD is available from Origin, while it actually wasn't released until 1993 (as Origin Soundtrack Series volume 2); in reference to this mistake, the credits of Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle say, "Soundtrack CD NOT available from Origin, so don't ask!"
The Black Gate uses a custom DOS extender called "Voodoo" which puts the CPU in an unreal mode and is incompatible with other DOS extenders following the DPMI standard.