Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle



Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle is the eighth installment of the main series and the twelfth in the entire series, counting the Worlds of Ultima, Ultima Underworld I and Ultima Underworld II. It was released and published by Origin for the IBM-PC in 1993. It is part of the "Age of Armageddon" saga.

Serpent Isle uses the same engine as Ultima VII, only more refined and with additions, therefore there isn't much difference in the technical aspects of the two games. The story and world however, are quite different. Compared to its predecessor, Serpent Isle is much more linear and is built around scripted scenes - the player can't explore the whole world right from the beginning. The story reflects this as well and is very different, being set away from Britannia for the fist time since Ultima III. Serpent Isle is different, but that doesn't mean that it is bad. The story is very complex and has many layers, forming a huge epic of love, hate, war, peace, balance and imbalance. Sadly, the game had some cuts in the story because of a deadline issued by Electronic Arts.

Serpent Isle sold quite well, and received much praise from both critics and the players.

Included with the game
The release of Serpent Isle included these things with the game:
 * The Book Beyond the Serpent Pillars.
 * A cloth map of Serpent Isle.

Differences between the ports
Serpent Isle was the first game exclusively produced for the PC, therefore no other official ports of the game exist.

The Story
Half a year after the events of Ultima Underworld II, a scroll is discovered where the Guardian sends Batlin to the Serpent Isle to catch up with Gwenno. There he would further outline plans to destroy Britannia. The Avatar, together with Iolo, Shamino and Dupre, follow Batlin through the Serpent Pillars to stop him.

The land in which they arrive is not very friendly. Settled by people who had something against the path of Virtue set by Lord British, the inhabitants were either corrupt, self-serving or shallow in their beliefs. Also, mysterious teleport storms are playing havoc on the land. Are these events connected with Batlin? Mastering many hardships, the Avatar finally catches up with Batlin in Spinebreaker, who in turn wants to betray the Guardian to become immensely powerful. This at the end costs him his life when the Guardian kills him. In an apocalyptic holocaust, the three Banes of Chaos, possessing the Companions, slaughter nearly all of the inhabitants of the Serpent Isle. In the end the Avatar has to stop the Imbalance from destroying many worlds, including Britannia, by reuniting the three magical serpents of Chaos, Order and Balance. Dupre sacrifices himself, so that this task can be done.

However, as soon as this is done and balance restored, the Guardian abducts the Avatar, to a place unknown...

Trivia

 * Richard Garriott had decided that no two Ultima installments should use the same engine. Since Serpent Isle did this, it was named "Ultima VII Part Two."
 * Originally, Both Ultima VII and Ultima VII Part Two were to have been one huge game, but time constraints and practical problems in the time of floppy disks prevented this plan, and the game had to be split in two parts. Remnants of this are still in the U7:BG. Gwenno tells in her letter that Lord British has the map to Serpent Isle, and the Avatar would have received it at the end of Black Gate.
 * The deadline set by Electronic Arts resulted in a number of unfinished things, and plot cuts. Most well known is that Cantra can't be cured of her madness (the text can't be activated but is in the usecode). More about this here: Plot Cuts in Serpent Isle.
 * Probably the last "classical" Ultima.
 * Originally there was a longer intro, but since it would have meant many more floppy disks, it was dropped and the current intro created. See Original Serpent Isle Intro.
 * Origin failed to archive the source for Serpent Isle and its add-in, The Silver Seed, and it was lost. This actually proved to be one of the biggest problems during the creation of Exult (see below), as everything could not be fully analyzed from the finished game.

The Silver Seed
The add-on disk, published by Origin in 1993. With it installed, a totally new quest becomes available, which can be played at any time in the game. The add-on is included with most new releases of Ultima VII Part Two.

The Xenkan Monks find a mysterious Amulet, the Amulet of Balance, which they give the Avatar. Using it on a Serpent Gate, the hero and the Companions travel to the past, into the time of the War of Imbalance. The Avatar has to find and plant the Silver Seed, to prevent the imbalance from destroying the world. Finding many fine artifacts on the way, like the Ring of Reagents and the Loriel's Gift, the Avatar succeeds in this task, thus saving the world from ultimate destruction.

Included with it is the "The Silver Seed Play Guide" pamphlet.

Upgrades
Ultima VII Part Two is so well developed in terms of graphics, sound, and gameplay, that upgrades aren't needed. However, it is almost totally impossible to run the game on modern computers.

Exult
Exult is an ambitious project to create an entirely new engine to play Ultima VII Part Two in Windows. The engine includes many improvements to the original game and is arguably the best way to play. The Exult Project.

Serpent Isle in French
While not technically an upgrade, Serpent Isle in French represents an ambitious fan project to translate the entirety of Ultima VII Part Two into another language. Serpent Isle in French

Ultima 7 in Windows
Ron Windeyer (aka Gaseous Dragon) has developed a utility to run the original Ultima VII natively under Windows 95/98/ME/2000/NT/XP. See his website for more information.

DOSBox
DOSbox is possibly the best way to run the game in its original form on modern computers. It is a virtual machine that can be used to run MS-DOS software in Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X (even on PowerPC).