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Ultima Online: The Second Age

Reviewed by Misty Matonis

Sharpen your swords, brush up on your magic skills and prepare for the fight of your life.

A deep distant tremor is felt throughout the land. Dungeon crawlers and townsfolk alike pause for a second to ponder this strange and unusual occurrence. An earthquake? Bah! Not in Britannia. Right?

Slowly Lord British, ruler of Britannia, rises from his throne. Brushing the dust off of his crown, a concerned realization crosses his face. The rumors are true! Without hesitation he gathers the citizens together and reveals the source of the earthquake. The Followers of Armageddon, an evil cult whose only goal is to destroy Lord British and free Britannia from his tyranny, have cast a violent spell. Deep fissures appeared where none were before. An expedition, of brave lords they were, set forth to explore them. What did they discover? The Second Age.

Ultima Online: The Second Age (formerly UO: Gold) is the upgrade to the ever-popular online role-playing game Ultima Online. If you're unfamiliar with the world of Ultima, then here's a brief look at its history. At the end of the very first Ultima game, the evil wizard Mondain was defeated when his Gem of Immortality, within which the lands of Britannia were trapped, was shattered. From this, a series of independent, parallel worlds known as shards (servers) were created and Ultima Online was born. Each shard is a mirror image of the original Britannia, and yet, each is different. For within each shard exist different players, each of whom give the shards their unique identities.

Playing UO is like playing Dungeons & Dragons minus dice and dungeon master. There are towns to visit, dungeons to explore, and more monsters than you can shake a sword at. And although this is a PC game, you really need to take the time to develop your character skills and stats if you really want to be successful in the game (read: survive). There are a variety of skills and professions to choose from: you can play a master chef wielding a mighty sword or an alchemist mage delving into the most dangerous of dungeons with nothing more than a few reagents in your backpack. And it's important that you develop your skills of choice before you enter the lost land that is T2A. For hidden beneath the canopy of trees, behind massive boulders, past the sand dunes are some of the meanest, toughest monsters ever seen.

T2A is more like an add-on to Ultima Online than an upgrade. There are new in-game features sorely lacking in Ultima Online and much better graphics. But at the same time T2A is itself an entire world filled with new towns, new monsters and new, more challenging dungeons that can make even the bravest, most skilled adventurer quake in his platemail leggings.

The graphics in T2A greatly improve the feel of the game. Where Ultima Online is filled with forests and the occasional plateau or large mountain ranges, T2A is covered with rolling grasslands, thick swamps and forests, and towering cliffs. But as aesthetically pleasing as it is to the eye, I have to wonder if the art department was a little too slap happy when they were creating the terrain. Movement, more often then not, is hindered by unseen underbrush or ridges, making travel by land very, very frustrating. But, at the same time, the terrain was specifically designed with player-built structures in mind. Large open spaces surrounded by thin strips of dense forest are perfect for player-run cities and legions of road-side vendors hawking their wares to weary travelers.

But why speak of better homes and gardens when I know what you truly seek: violent clashes with the new monsters. The spawn in T2A is amazing. Never, not even in the deepest of dungeons or the wildest of forests have I seen spawn so immense. We're talking monster, monster, spawn--all-the-gold-you-can-carry spawn.

T2A is filled with some nasties; particularly Ophidians, giant lizard-cum-snake creatures, and Terathans, spindly giant spider-like creatures. Both have quite a bite, and cool sound effects to boot. I'm getting a kick out of watching the Ophidians attack the Terathian fort--perhaps the only creatures within the game that are openly warring with each other. And boy, are they tough. The last thing you want is to find yourself sandwiched between an Ophidian Knight Errant (1,000 hps!) and a Terathan Matriarch, whose powerful spells would fry the fat out of butter. There are Cyclopes and Titans, ice elementals, lava lizards and yes, even giant frogs. There are even variations of monsters that can be found in the "old world" that pack even more of a punch than their counterparts. Stone harpies and mummies are just two examples out of many you can look forward to. On land, on sea, underground...they are there and they have your number.

The new in-game features are welcomed additions to the game. I like two in particular: the Big Window and the in-game chat.

Before T2A, players were forced to cram their little screens with a ton of different icons for easy access to their backpacks and favorite spells. This severely reduced your viewing area. The Big Window feature has all but eliminated this problem. Now you can adjust your window to the size you feel most comfortable playing with and place your most useful icons in the resulting black space.

The feature I really like is the in-game chat. With it, you can chat with fellow guildmates and other players regardless of their location in the shard, participate in Origin-sponsored chats, or even call for help when you need to. The window is resizable, and includes an optional password feature when you create your own room. If you're familiar with IRC, then you'll have no trouble learning the chat functions. And, because it's in-game, you're pretty much secured from third-party access.

A promising feature is the translation server. It's purpose is to automatically translate different languages to your language of preference. Unfortunately, I've yet the opportunity to test it as it was only recently enabled.

One feature I can do without are those pop-up help windows. They're pretty useful if you're a newbie, informing you about the uses of various objects. But, within five minutes you know how to open a door or use a potion, and their spontaneous appearances are more annoying than useful.

Here I am waxing poetic about how great T2A is but don't get me wrong. It isn't all wine and roses. As with all online games, internet problems affect game play. Of course, the faster your hardware and net connection, the better you play...if there's no lag. Lag is quite common, and chances are you're going to experience a few lag deaths during the course of your play. And if you can't find some kind soul willing to resurrect you, then put on your ghostly hiking boots 'cos it's a long way to town.

Of course, there are server downtimes. Not including scheduled backups (11am CST daily), some of the servers are taken offline at various times. Often "time warps" occur, and when that happens you may wind up losing up to three hours of blood, sweat and tears. And let's not forget patch day. Kudos to the dev team for constantly fixing bugs and cheats and for adding new features to the game. But a big thumbs down for how buggy these fixes can be. Expect not only downed servers and time warps, but the arrival of new bugs.

If you're the kind of person who likes goal-oriented games or are used to running around Quake-style blowing up everyone in sight then this game definitely isn't for you. I guess you can consider Ultima Online to be an open-ended game, almost as if you are playing a virtual life. Players set their own goals. If you want to kill everyone in sight, then go ahead. If you'd rather spend your time spelunking for iron ore, or chopping wood, or searching for lost treasure, or going on a quest, well, then that's what you'll do. Allowing players the option to determine their roles is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, you have a lot of freedom to do what you want. On the other hand, you may get bored after a while and will have to come up with more creative things to do in order to keep yourself interested in the game.

So, then why play the game? I don't have an answer. But I can tell you that there are tens of thousands of players across the globe who are totally fascinated by Ultima Online. Support groups from Tucson to Timbuktu are springing up. People just can't stop playing. I certainly can't. And you probably won't be able to, either.

Tips:

• Create in-game macros for AllNames, your most useful skills and spells, and last object used. A split second can mean the difference between life and death.
• Make sure your magic resist and hiding skills are high before you battle some of the new monsters. Their powerful spells and strength can best you easily. Never be too embarrassed to run and hide during crunch situations.
• Keep a few recall scrolls and runes handy. These can quickly and easily transport you to a safe area or town.
• The healing skill is not only useful, but cheaper and quicker than using magic. With it you can not only heal yourself and friends, but resurrect others if your skill is high enough.

Originally published on HappyPuppy 11/19/99