The ultima world was HUGE for a game that came on 1/2 of a 360k disk. (early 80's) A cloth map, spellbooks with textured covers, each printed on heavyweight paper. The packaging for this game was unlike any other that I'd seen at the time. The days and nights I spent playing it is a great gaming memory for me and I wouldn't change a thing! I would highly recommend it even today, as it is. It takes a lot of time to build up your money and hit points. I found it to be utterly absorbing, and I'd spend hours and hours at it! Once my character party finally had everything it needed in order to go up against Exodus, I remember delaying doing so for quite a while, just so that the game wouldn't be over!! You'd better have a lot of time on your hands as it is a pretty long game. Some of the game play and controls (Commands and Spell casting) seemed a little cumbersome but, then again, there was a lot of things you could do in this game, compared to the relative simplicity of other RPGs that were around. It seemed like a very complex and 'more adult' game to me at the time. Of course, this was perfectly suited to the game storyline and everything (and I'm not complaining!) I just hadn't seen anything that looked like it before, graphically. Maybe it was just the contrast on our TV set but the whole land of Sosaria seemed extremely 'dark' and foreboding to me (and not just the dungeons and Ambrosia, either!). I loved the separate battlefield screens and fighting all those different, very scary-looking monsters with the cool names! I loved the story line and the huge number of Spells available to use, and the fact that you were in charge of a 4-character team which you could change up every time you went back in to play. In fact, in my little world, I seemed to be the only one who liked RPGs - everyone else was into the 'shoot-em-ups'! And this was the best of the role-playing genre that I'd seen back then (circa 1990 and it came out in 1987). I'm pretty sure I stumbled upon the Ultima: Exodus NES game cartridge by accident as nobody else I knew at the time was playing it. Back in 1983, had I been old enough to appreciate it, it would have been truly outstanding. If you are an Ultima fan and can see past the technology, this game is still worth playing even these days. This adds a frame limiter, midi music (previously missing on the PC), EGA graphics and also a very useful restore hot-key (this required a restart otherwise). It was fun to play through 25 years after it came out. The gameplay is far more balanced and varied than the previous games and it doesn't feel like a load of elements thrown together ad hoc. This game is a real classic - the beginnings of everything that Ultima developed into can be seen here. Ships are far too rare, in this game considering you need one to show up before you can finish the game. The clerics heal spells seemed a bit underpowered at the start of the game but are even worse later on. The light spell lasts about 8 turns before you are in the dark again and with wind blowing out your torches all the time, you need a serious supply before tackling any dungeons. Some of the spells are not as useful as they should be.

The game also adds line of sight so you can't see around corners, and viewing distance is limited in forests. These tend to be hints you need to complete the game, and it adds another gameplay element where you have to search through the towns to get all these clues. The characters in the towns still only offer one line of conversation but there are far more characters that have something worthwhile to say. This is far more interesting than the mindless attacking from the earlier games. You control a party of four adventurers and combat takes place on its own screen, where you can move your characters around, attack or cast spells in turns. The game also has a musical soundtrack (with the upgrade patch) which although basic helps the atmosphere no end. The modern technology has gone and the game takes place in a true fantasy environment.

It has a lot of the standard elements that were in the later games such as moon-gates, an underworld and familiar towns like Yew. This is the first game in the series that really feels like a Ultima.

Ultima iii exodus platforms