Release Date: 2000-04-30
Developer/Publisher: Electronic Arts/ Electronic Arts
Genres: Role-Playing
Platforms: PC Games,PS2,XBOX,XBOX 360,GAMECUBE,PSP,DS,GAMEBOY,N-Gage,MOBILE,WII,PS3
Faced with fierce competition from the latest 3D online role-playing games EverQuest and Asheron's Call, Ultima Online has recently undergone a significant overhaul and has been republished under the name Ultima Online: Renaissance. In doing so, Ultima Online has finally reached the state it really should have been in when it was first released nearly three years ago. If you've played Ultima Online before, you'll find that many of the original game's problems have since been corrected and that the game's overall design is far better than it used to be. On the other hand, if you've never played Ultima Online and have instead gotten into EverQuest or Asheron's Call, then you'll likely find the look and style of Ultima Online: Renaissance to be dated and unappealing by comparison, since it's still essentially a three-year-old game. At any rate, Ultima Online: Renaissance is worth a try whether or not you've played it before, given its low $20 price tag.
The most important new feature in Ultima Online: Renaissance is the addition of a second, parallel version of the gameworld. The game now offers a light and dark version of Britannia and its accompanying lost lands. The light half, Trammel, is the good Lord British's realm, in which you cannot harm other players unless you are taking part in a guild or faction war. You cannot wantonly kill one another and cannot steal from or cast harmful spells on one another either. The dark half of the gameworld, called Felucca, is a fetid place ruled by the evil sorceress Minax. Where Trammel has flowers and lush green trees, Felucca has tombstones, bloodstains, and dead trees. More importantly, Felucca maintains the original game's full player-versus-player society, where player killing is possible and is still rather common. Best of all, you can hop back and forth between these two mirror-image worlds through the use of special moonstones found on the many monsters inhabiting both worlds. Former Ultima Online players should note that Felucca is the original gameworld, so that's where all of the many houses, castles, and other player-established scenery can still be found. Housing will also be available on Trammel, but as of this review, the housing placement had not yet been activated.
Faced with fierce competition from the latest 3D online role-playing games EverQuest and Asheron's Call, Ultima Online has recently undergone a significant overhaul and has been republished under the name Ultima Online: Renaissance. In doing so, Ultima Online has finally reached the state it really should have been in when it was first released nearly three years ago. If you've played Ultima Online before, you'll find that many of the original game's problems have since been corrected and that the game's overall design is far better than it used to be. On the other hand, if you've never played Ultima Online and have instead gotten into EverQuest or Asheron's Call, then you'll likely find the look and style of Ultima Online: Renaissance to be dated and unappealing by comparison, since it's still essentially a three-year-old game. At any rate, Ultima Online: Renaissance is worth a try whether or not you've played it before, given its low $20 price tag.
The most important new feature in Ultima Online: Renaissance is the addition of a second, parallel version of the gameworld. The game now offers a light and dark version of Britannia and its accompanying lost lands. The light half, Trammel, is the good Lord British's realm, in which you cannot harm other players unless you are taking part in a guild or faction war. You cannot wantonly kill one another and cannot steal from or cast harmful spells on one another either. The dark half of the gameworld, called Felucca, is a fetid place ruled by the evil sorceress Minax. Where Trammel has flowers and lush green trees, Felucca has tombstones, bloodstains, and dead trees. More importantly, Felucca maintains the original game's full player-versus-player society, where player killing is possible and is still rather common. Best of all, you can hop back and forth between these two mirror-image worlds through the use of special moonstones found on the many monsters inhabiting both worlds. Former Ultima Online players should note that Felucca is the original gameworld, so that's where all of the many houses, castles, and other player-established scenery can still be found. Housing will also be available on Trammel, but as of this review, the housing placement had not yet been activated.
