Ultima V: Lazarus

Hail, traveler. Within these walls ye shall find many stories of our great land, Britannia, and how after the fall of the Triad of Evil, she came to know a prosperous time filled with enlightenment and the flourishing of the eight sacred Virtues.

What is Lazarus?
Ultima V: Lazarus is an ambitious from-the-ground-up remake of the gaming classic, Ultima V built using the Dungeon Siege engine. After being in the works for several years it was finished in late 2005. During development, resources were pooled with the Ultima 6 Project in order to develop content that both projects could use in the Project Britannia. Nonetheless, both projects are very different in their art style and the way they are created.

French and German versions of the game followed. The latest, mostly bug-fixed version is 1.2.

Lazarus tries to build on the original Ultima V and enhance it it numerous ways. The world of Britannia is now completely 3d, the NPCs have been elevated in their schedules and conversations on the level of Ultima VII, NPC portraits were added and the general plot is now much deeper, adding many shades of grey. However, some features also had to be removed because of engine limitations, like Whirlpools, the Magic Carpet, digging up Moonstones and usable skiffs among other things.

System requirements
The following machine specifications are the *minimum* required to run the PC version of Ultima V Lazarus (the Mac version requires more system resources):


 * 300 mHZ Intel Pentium processor or equivalent i86 chip
 * 128 MB RAM (256+ reccomended)
 * 550MB free Hard Disk Drive space
 * Direct X 8.0-compatible Video Card
 * Dungeon Siege or Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna
 * Dungeon Siege II is not compatible with Ultima V: Lazarus

 Please Note: The original Ultima V is NOT required to play Ultima V Lazarus

Installation instructions
For version 1.2.


 * 1) You will first need to install Dungeon Siege or Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna. Dungeon Siege II will NOT work, as Lazarus is designed for the original Dungeon Siege engine.
 * 2) If you installed Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna you can skip this and the following step. Otherwise you will need to update Dungeon Siege to the latest version. You can obtain the 1.1 patch from Microsoft's website here: . Make sure you get the right patch for your localized area.
 * 3) Run the patch to update Dungeon Siege to version 1.1.
 * 4) Try running Dungeon Siege, to make sure it works by itself. Knowing this will help with troubleshooting later on, if necessary.
 * 5) If you have a previous version of Lazarus installed, you MUST remove it entirely from your hard drive! Delete any old savegames (located in your My Documents folder under Windows), completely uninstall Lazarus, and also manually delete the Lazarus install folder (C:\Lazarus, by default) before attempting to install or play 1.20.
 * 6) Install Lazarus using the installer.
 * 7) In your Start Menu, under 'Programs', there is now a folder called 'Lazarus'. Inside there are three items of interest. One is the Cloth Map, one is the Manual, and one is U5:Lazarus which will launch the game. You can also launch the game from the desktop icon (if you installed one).
 * 8) Be sure that you have your Dungeon Siege or Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna disc in the drive. You will need this to play Lazarus.
 * 9) From the main menu, be sure to click options then make sure you are on the Video tab. Change your Screen Resolution to 1024x768. You will run into problems during gameplay if you do not do this. Click OK.
 * 10) From the Main Menu, choose Start New Game, and reenter the world of Britannia!

Features and Differences
There are numerous additions and differences to the original Ultima V, apart from the graphical and audial upgrade. These include:


 * Addition of character portraits in the style of Ultima VII Part Two for all of the characters.


 * Dialogue system in the style of Ultima VII, meaning the Avatar can only ask things he is supposed to know about, thus preventing numerous plot shortcuts.


 * Enhancement of dialogue and plot to the level of Ultima VII. The refinement of the plot creates more shades of grey and shows in very vivid detail how living under a dictatorship of moral and religious fundamentalism is like. Along with these enhancements, many more quests become available.


 * The Resistance and Oppression now have much enhanced roles in the plot, with both having interesting quests and backgrounds.


 * Addition of an evil path, where the Avatar can help the Shadowlords to win by trapping Lord British in his prison forever, thus dooming Britannia to eternal darkness.


 * Horseriding, usable skiffs, whirlpools, moonstone digging, and the magic carpet are removed because of technical limitations - the engine simply couldn't do it.


 * Removal of ship-to-ship battles because of technical limitations.


 * Additional secret places and mini-dungeons.