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"Like Ultima II, Ultima III is a bad game, but slightly better"

Like I said in a different Ultima review, the series starts off slow with the first three games being mediocre or just plain bad. Ultima III is only slightly better than the previous game, and it added a few new things.

Gameplay - 3/10

While is has a few extras, Ultima III is boring like Ultima II was.

Like the previous two games, Ultima III runs in turns. Meaning each and every command you make counts as one turn.
There are many things that make Ultima III better than the previous game. The most important being that there are actually other things to do aside from HP, food, and stats building.

Like both previous games, you can get different vehicles to get around faster.

New additions to Ultima:

Ultima III marks the very first appearance of the two moons, Trammel and Felucca, and referring to those for the moongates that teleport you to another point. The moongates appear at certain phases of the moons and only at certain spots.

Ultima III is the first game in the series in which you have a party of four instead of only a single character. There is also over twice as many classes that your fighters can be compared to Ultima II.

Control - 10/10

Controls are simple, like the previous two games you only need to remember a few basic keys/commands.

Story - 4/10

The story of Ultima III picks up where Ultima II left off.

After the defeat of the evil Mondain and Minax, there has been twenty years of peace. Omens of a coming evil are seen now. One day, an island rose up in a fury of molten lava in the middle of the ocean. People are unable to go near the island because of the unbearable heat.

Then, evil creatures began to appear, just like in the times of Minax and Mondain. Rumors spread that the end of the world is at hand. Lord British sent his most trusted advisor to find the facts about these rumors. After weeks passed, the advisor returned a shattered man and just kept repeating ''From the depth of Hell... He comes for vengeance.''

Directly from the manual:
''One possible clue as to the identity of thy nemesis has been discovered. A derelict merchant ship was recently towed into port. No crewmen were aboard, alive or dead. Everyone has vanished, as if plucked by some evil force off the boat. The only thing found was a word written in blood on the deck: E X O D U S.''

Audio - 1/10

Like Ultima II, Ultima III has no music, and has only blips and bleeps for sound.

Video - 1/10

Ultima III has almost identical graphics to Ultima II. They are just ugly tiles. NetHack and Ultima I are both prettier to look at. Most things are in cruddy colors or simply black and white.

Replayability - 2/10

There isn't anything to make you want to play again. It's difficult to keep interested enough to play through once let alone more than once.

To buy or to rent? - Don't bother with this game. Like Ultima II, it's a total waste of time.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 01/09/01, Updated 10/30/02