They just don't make them like they used to.

I'll make this short and sweet. Ultima VII is my favorite PC game of all time for several reasons. I will outline them here since that's the point of a review.

Plot. Ultima VII has what I consider to be one of the most fascinating and perfectly executed plots in gaming history. The way everything falls together as you near the end of the game provides one of the greatest "Ooooh yeah" experiences out there. The plot is nothing to scoff at either--it draws you in; it's fairly long and takes a considerable amount of time to soak in and work through--and that makes it all the better! You'll sit down with this game and spend a ton of time on it.

Graphics. Ultima VII had to deal with hardware limitations that today's would-be game designers would laugh hysterically at. And yet, it still manages to be visually impressive. The world is colorful and vibrant, from the lush green jungles near Serpent's Hold to the grey stone streets of Britain. From the dusty tan Vesper desert to the ominous and muddy Fellowship tunnels.

Attention to Detail. So few games are as detailed and polished as this one is. When night falls, the setting sun tints the screen red, then gets pitch black as the moon comes up. Sunrise brings another rosy glow until full illumination resumes. Today it doesn't seem like much, but back in the day it was a "wow" experience. NPCs follow schedules and do things instead of stand still... for goodness sake, NPCs will turn lights on if it's too dark and they close the windows when it rains (which reminds me, the game has a very dynamic WEATHER SYSTEM!) I have NEVER seen another game with brilliant (albeit small) features like that!

And it was open ended. Hear me now: people are talking about how revolutionarily open-ended Morrowind is, where you can go anywhere and find any number of sidequests? Sit down and play Ultima VII for a while. Origin had it done ten years ago.

..This section could go on forever. U7 has so many fantastic "little details." that it's insane. Shadows of clouds that pass overhead. Animated ocean waves. Characters shouting hillariously memorable taunts during combat. A levelling system that allows for character diversification. Context sensitive music. Almost everything can be interacted with--you can poke with a fork, take eggs laid by a chicken, bake bread with the right ingredients, build a staircase by stacking crates. A list like that seems so normal today--but remember this game was made over ten years ago on computers that chugged with barely double digit CPU speeds.

It's really impossible to convey how much I love this game, but it really is a prime example of how graphics and sound may become dated, but truly brilliant gameplay will allow a game to endure forever. It's also a great sampling of the gaming golden era in the early 90's. Fantastic games have always been far and few between, but those that came out in this era (DOOM, Ultima VII, TIE Fighter, just to name a few from the PC theatre) still stick in my mind as the greatest games of all time.

Omaha out.