Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny



Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny is the fifth game in the series, and the second installment of the "Age of Enlightenment" trilogy. It was published and released in 1988 by Origin for the Apple II, C64 and IBM-PC. Ports for the Amiga and Atari ST followed 1989 and 1990. The port for the NES was released in 1993.

The game is a extreme leap compared to Ultima IV and became dramatically more complex and detailed than its predecessor. The overworld of Britannia has grown to be much more detailed and the tiles aren't noticeable any more. Many new buildings have appeared, and a huge underworld doubles the world size. Britannia now has a day-night cycle, and its inhabitants all have their daily lives with schedules what to do at which time of the day. The coversations have become longer and deeper. The story is now very complex and has multiple layers to it. While the music hasn't changed in quality, from Ultima IV, the graphics have become much more colorful and detailed, this is especially noticable in the dungeons. In dwellings, cities and castles, many more details are added to make the world more alive. The number of items has increased also.

Like the other installments before, Ultima V sold very well in 1988, and the opinion was clear; there was only praise for a such complex and detailed game. It is considered the best of the series in the Pre-PC era.

Included with the game
The release of Ultima V included these things with the game:
 * The Book "Book of Lore".
 * A cloth map of Britannia.
 * A Codex Coin (same as in the intro).
 * The text "Lord British's Journal"

Differences between the ports
The 8-bit ports for the Apple II and C64 are quite different from each other. The Apple II port lacks many of the details and colors of the C64 port, but has full music. The C64 port has better graphics, but lacks the music, which only can be heard in the C128-variant of the port.

The 16-bit ports for the Amiga, Atari ST and IBM-PC have more subtle differences. Graphically, they all look the same (althrough Amiga and Atari ST always have a "Ultima V"-logo on the screen). But the PC-port lacks all music and mouse support. The Atari ST-port has full music, even through the tunes are different, and mouse support. The Amiga-port has mouse support, but only plays one song the entire time!

There were also several ports of Ultima V for Japanese console systems. They featured superior graphics and sound compared to the North American release.

The NES port of 1993 is the most curious. Graphically it tries to look like Ultima VI (since it was created after Ultima VI was already out), but there is very little music, the graphics are very low quality, and the game is extremely slow and almost unplayable. To this come the common limitations of consoles, a shortened story and technical shortcomings. This is almost universally considered the worst NES port of an Ultima.

The Story
Everything looks good in Britannia. The dungeons are sealed shut, the Virtues strong, and the people are quite well off. But the new Underworld is dangerous. And then it happens: Lord British is kidnapped on a expedition though this system of caves. Shortly after that, the Shadowlords appear, and twist the mind of Lord Blackthorn, the acting ruler in British's absence. A tyranny with draconic extremist "Virtues" follows - Britannia is in dire peril.

The player as the Avatar returns to Britannia, to find it in this condition, ruled by a ruthless tyranny and terrorized by the Shadowlords of darkness. Gathering his/her companions, the Avatar stars to look for clues on how to destroy the Shadowlords, while at the same time gathering the Crown Jewels of Lord British and undermining the Oppression, the helpers of Lord Blackthorn. With the help of the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom, the Avatar knows where Lord British is held. And after destroying the Shadowlords, he/she descends into dungeon Doom, where the lost King is found. With the Shadowlords gone and Lord British back, Blackthorn returns to normal, and decides to go into exile, to give Britannia and its people peace and to redeem himself.

Trivia

 * First Ultima with schedules and day-night cycles.
 * The main theme of the game deals clearly with fundamentalism and moral absolutism (Making Virtue into Law).
 * The last Ultima to use tile graphics, and also the last where the PC wasn't the platform for which the game was originally developed.
 * This game marks the first time the runic alphabet is extensively used, forcing the player to translate all the time to understand what is happening. (This is something that is unlikely today, as it would create an outcry)

Upgrades
While the graphics of Ultima V were already the best on the IBM-PC of the original release of the game, the PC port actually missed all the good music! An Upgrade Patch helps with this problem, and re-inserts all the music at its proper place, and in a quality far superior to the original ports with music.

Ultima V - Lazarus
Also, there is a remake of the game with the Dungeon Siege engine. See the Lazarus project for more information.

Neat Ultima V
There has also been an attempt to port Ultima V to windows. Neat Ultima V is a project similar to xu4 or the more ambitious Exult to create a new game engine utilizing the original data files. Unfortunately, development has been very slow.