‘Strange winds’ can blow out your torches, though, so you have to be careful when exploring. Healing is possible with magic spells by walking around (HP gradually recovers with every step), or by visiting a healer.Įxploring dungeons is similar to previous Ultima games, with the view switching to a first-person perspective, and you need torches or light spells to see where you’re going. You can resurrect dead party members, but it costs a whopping 500 gold pieces, so is mostly out of your reach during the early part of the game. If a character’s Hit Points (HP) drop to zero then they’ll die, which you need to avoid wherever possible. You can’t run from combat either, so if you’re faced with an overwhelming attack then you have no choice but to deal with it. The number of enemies you have to fight in each battle is random and some enemies are tougher than others. Combat is turn-based, but with time limits, and takes place on a separate battle screen when you encounter enemies in the overworld. It’ll take a while, and hundreds of battles, before you get a ship, though. Once you’re (finally) into the game the aim is survival, gaining experience and levels, and acquiring a sailing ship. So it’s worth getting right, or you may end up re-starting after painting yourself into a corner. If you create an unbalanced party then it can cause you problems later on down the line. These restrictions mean that the setup process can be problematic for new players, so it’s probably best done with a guide to explain how to create a balanced party. The game allows you to choose between eleven different character classes (Cleric, Druid, Wizard, Alchemist, Illusionist, Thief, Ranger, Lark, Paladin, Barbarian, and Fighter), each of which have their own strengths and weaknesses, and can only equip certain kinds of weapons and armour. In the character creation menu you can create up to twenty different characters and store them in a roster, from which you choose your four party members. In Ultima III you’re controlling a party of four characters and must set them up and equip them all individually, which can be a finicky and time-consuming process for first-timers. That’s the version I’m showing here, plus I’ve also shown a few screenshots of the original CGA version at the end of this set, just for comparison. Thankfully – like there is for Ultima II – an enhancement patch exists, by The Exodus Project, that is well worth setting up if you want better graphics, music, new features and bug-fixes. The original MS-DOS version of Ultima III: Exodus was first published by Origin Systems in 1985 and features four-colour CGA graphics.
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