• Platform: IBM PC Compatible
• Release Date: 1983
• Similar Games: Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness (IBM PC Compatible), Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress (IBM PC Compatible), Knights of Legend (IBM PC Compatible), The Magic Candle (IBM PC Compatible), Akalabeth (IBM PC Compatible)

Game Description

Origin Systems struck CRPG gold in the early 1980s with the success of Ultima I, followed by Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress, which, in turn, garnered enough interest for yet another sequel. In the previous games, the main character travels through space and time and kills the mad wizard Mondain and then his protégé Minax respectively.

After all that time travel, perhaps your character deserves a rest -- no such luck, however, as no sooner does Minax get defeated than trouble begins plaguing the land of Sosaria once again. The first clue to the Sosarian trouble is revealed through the game's manual. It explains how a ship recently came into port in a local city, completely barren of any life with absolutely no signs of struggle on board and the single word "Exodus" written across the deck in blood. Needless to say, something is rotten in the kingdom of Sosaria.

Ultima III: Exodus is different from its predecessors as there seems to be no pressing need to travel back in time. In fact, time travel is not a significant option in the game as the technology level stays soundly in the medieval era. Unlike previous Ultima games, you are not alone in your quest. You can create a total of 20 characters and carry up to four of them into the world of Sosaria at the same time. And, you'll need them since the solitary beasts that once roamed the land have been replaced by rampaging hordes of creatures at every turn.

All the monsters, as well as the towns and castles in Sosaria, are presented in a top-down CGA view. The dungeons, as in the previous efforts, are monochromatic first-person wire frame affairs, though some specific encounters in the dungeon are more graphically advanced than in the preceding games. While several versions of the game contain music (e.g., the Commodore 64 and Atari 800XL), this version does not utilize the PC speaker for music but only for sound effects.

Action in Ultima III: Exodus focuses heavily on the medieval atmosphere but some technological elements still appear in crucial quests, particularly the ongoing quest to determine exactly who or what Exodus is. During the adventure, besides the usual aid from Lord British, the party encounters a mysterious entity known as the Time Lord who presumably has taken notice of all the activity throughout time in the previous games and decides to get personally involved.

The fate of Sosaria in Ultima III: Exodus is in your hands since, while Mondain and Minax seemed content with merely ruling the world with an iron hand, Exodus seems intent on destruction. With the aid of the Time Lord and the blessings of Lord British, take your group of adventurers and run to ground the strange malady that has befallen this troubled land. ~ Drew Hunt, All Game Guide

Roots & Influences

This is the third game in the Ultima series by Richard Garriott (aka Lord British). His first game, Akalabeth, was the catalyst for the series. ~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide

Review: Enjoyment

This is definitely a solid and enjoyable bit of hack-and-slash and even contains a fair amount of storyline for people who enjoy that aspect. It can be a bit tedious at times but overall is quite good. ~ Drew Hunt, All Game Guide

Production Credits

Writing: Margaret Ellen Weigers, Roe R. Adams

Illustrations: Dennis R. Loubet, Helen M. Garriott

Editing: Richard A. Garriott, Robert Garriott, Marcy Garriott, Owen Garriott, Helen Garriott

Playtesting: Roe R. Adams, Ken Arnold, Chuck Bueche, Richard Garriott, Winfoeld Kang, James Van Artsdalen, Mike Ward, Margaret Weigers ~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide

Review: Overall

With this release, it seems obvious Origin Systems realized that Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress strayed too far from the successful formula established in Akalabeth and Ultima I. Ultima III: Exodus returns to its medieval roots with nary a mention of planet Earth and contains a very limited amount of bizarre futuristic circumstances. There is no time or space travel and, until you really get into the game, no indication of any modern technological elements. The world of Sosaria is thoroughly entrenched in a dark age.

The main title screen contains a gameplay demo above the menu selections and gives you the obvious choices to either create new characters or play with pre-determined ones. The character creation system in Ultima III: Exodus is a greatly expanded version of the one found in its predecessor which was, in turn, an improved version from Ultima I. In this case, the list of races and classes include not only the standbys, like dwarves, elves, fighters and wizards, but also numerous other ideas borrowed from other sources.

Races like hobbits and "fuzzys" combine with classes of larks and alchemists. Each race and class contains bonuses to their respective statistics (strength, dexterity, intelligence and wisdom) as well as maximum point limits. All in all, a good deal more effort went into this system than in the previous games.

After character creation is complete (you make a party of up to four), the adventure kicks off with the group plopping down near Lord British's castle. If you choose to speak with the king, he offers surprisingly little aid aside from telling you to seek more experience. So, you do by wandering the countryside, slaughtering monsters, and exploring wireframe dungeons from a first-person perspective. Once you perform enough destruction, you return to Lord British and he rewards you with more hit points and, if applicable, the ability to cast better spells. As you play, the monsters that appear in the wilderness increase in difficulty, presumably to match your newly found powers.

The game's primary quest is to unravel the mystery of Exodus. Is it a force, a being, a person, a big bag of coins? Whatever it is, you know at the very least that it annihilated the entire crew of one ship and is probably behind the rampaging monster gangs crossing the kingdom of Sosaria. Toward this end, your adventurers must delve deep into the dungeons of the land and seek out a legendary entity called the Time Lord. Without his omniscient insight into the enigmatic Exodus, your quest will be futile.

While your party wages this symphony of destruction, the graphics do their best to keep up. As with the previous titles in the series, Ultima III: Exodus utilizes CGA graphics. This time, though, things are slightly better looking and there seem to be far more sprites of creatures, objects and terrain. Lord British's castle in particular looks very regal and interesting. The dungeons are still presented through first-person wireframe graphics but are a bit improved in appearance and use some limited color in certain, important areas.

On various platforms, this epic quest is generally accompanied by a delightfully composed musical score with different songs for just about every occasion -- from visiting town to exploring a dungeon or sailing the seas. Unfortunately, the PC version tragically omits this wonderful aspect. In its place, the few paltry PC speaker sound effects seem completely lacking.

The depth of gameplay is greater than that found in Ultima I or Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress for a variety of reasons. Character advancement takes considerably longer, as the days of one character killing one enemy at a time have given way to four characters, each with more options than in previous games, fighting up to 16 monsters at one time. As a result, the game has an epic feel to it unlike the beat-it-in-a-day-or-two atmosphere of the last two in the series.

Only a few elements really hamper the game's enjoyment factor. Because of the increased depth of play, the difficulty factor also goes up. If you play through the game for a while with one party and then start over with a new one, you quickly discover that the game does no level-related difficulty scaling and your new party rapidly encounters creatures it cannot possibly hope to defeat. In addition, the relative similarity of the dungeons can become tedious after a while, though there are a few quite interesting entities thrown in occasionally to break the tedium.

The eventual realization of Exodus's identity is, in and of itself, a quite interesting end to the game, to say nothing of having to actually deal with it once you do learn its identity. In the process, the game delivers a large amount of solid hack-and-slash action, a decent amount of intrigue as to just what is going on in Sosaria and a satisfying sequel to a long-running series of CRPGs. ~ Drew Hunt, All Game Guide

Review: Graphics

There are many more sprites in this game than in previous efforts and the animation is enjoyable. ~ Drew Hunt, All Game Guide

Review: Sound

The sound effects are barely any improvement over the previous games, though there are at least considerably more of them with sound effects provided for most aspects of combat. ~ Drew Hunt, All Game Guide

Review: Replay Value

The game should be just as much fun a second or third time through but because the game doesn't adjust to the level of your party, it can make trying to play with any group but your initial characters (if experienced) a nightmare. Thus, the creation of up to 20 characters can be non-productive. ~ Drew Hunt, All Game Guide

Review: Documentation

Ultima III: Exodus delivers the goods in traditional Origin style. Not only is there a separate bound manual for the wizard and cleric spells but there is also the standard cloth map in addition to a wonderfully illustrated game manual. ~ Drew Hunt, All Game Guide