Ultima III: Exodus

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Ultima III: Exodus
Developer(s)	Richard Garriott
Publisher(s)	Origin Systems
Designer(s)	Richard Garriott
Engine	Ultima III engine
Platform(s)	Amiga, Apple II, Atari 800, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, FM-7, Macintosh, MSX, NES
Release date(s)	August 23, 1983
Genre(s)	RPG
Mode(s)	Single Player
Media	Floppy disk / Cartridge

Ultima III: Exodus is the third game in the Ultima series. Exodus is also the name of the game's principal antagonist. Released in 1983,^[1] it was the first Ultima game published by Origin Systems.

Gameplay

A battle with pirates. (NES version shown)

Exploring the countryside near Lord British's castle. A town is nearby, along with various enemies. (NES version)

Exodus features revolutionary graphics for its time, being the first computer RPG to display animated characters. Also, Exodus differs from previous games in that players now direct the actions of a party of several characters rather than just one. Players now battle groups of enemies on a separate battle screen, where the player has to understand fairly complex weapons and magic systems and employ rudimentary tactics in order to overcome each opponent, as opposed to the system in the previous two games, in which the player is simply depicted as trading blows with one opponent on the main map until either is defeated.

While previous Ultima games let the player explore wire-frame first-person dungeons in Ultima I (where they were randomly generated and largely indistinguishable from one another) and Ultima II (where they served no real purpose), Exodus' dungeons are solid-3D in appearance, integrated into the game's plot, and remain the same across multiple plays (therefore introducing the element of encouraging players to actually create their own maps for dungeons).

In many other ways Exodus is more focused than the earlier parts; futuristic references are largely (though not completely) gone; and while the total area of maps in Ultima III is much smaller than in Ultima II, the large swathes filled only with useless landscape without any interesting features are gone. By denying the player the ability to see what's behind mountain peaks, forests, and walls, the maps can now contain many small surprises such as hidden treasure, secret paths and out-of-the-way informants. The look of the game is no longer based on certain characteristics of the Apple II hardware; it is rather a carefully designed screen layout.

Plot

After Ultima II was set on Earth, the story of Exodus centers on a quest back in Sosaria, the world of Ultima I. The player's mission is to destroy the final remnant of the evil Mondain and Minax. The game is named for its chief villain, Exodus, a demonic creation of Minax and Mondain that the series later describes as neither human nor machine.

At the beginning of the game, Exodus is terrorizing the land of Sosaria from his stronghold on the Isle of Fire (known as Fire Island in Ultima Online). The player character is summoned by Lord British to defeat Exodus and embarks on a quest that takes him to the lost land of Ambrosia, to the depths of the dungeons of Sosaria to receive powerful magical branding marks and to find the mysterious Time Lord, and finally to the Isle of Fire itself to confront Exodus in his lair.

The game ends immediately upon Exodus' defeat; but unlike many games in the genre, Exodus cannot simply be killed in battle by a strong party of adventurers, but only through clever puzzle-solving and by paying attention to the many clues given throughout the game. At the end of the game, players were instructed to "REPORT THY VICTORY!" to Origin. Those who did so received a certificate of completion autographed by Richard Garriott. This was continued for later games in the series.

Although this is the last game in the series to take place in Old Sosaria, places in the game such as Ambrosia and the Isle of Fire make cameo appearances in later games, namely Ultima VII.

Reception

Exodus is credited as a game that laid the foundation for the computer role-playing game genre, influencing games such as Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy.^[2] It was voted into Computer Gaming World magazine Hall of Fame by its readers^[3], and over 120,000 copies were sold.^[3] It also won the "Adventure Game of the Year" prize in Computer Gaming World's 1985 reader poll, about which the editors wrote "Although Ultima III has been out well over a year, we feel that it is still the best game of its kind."^[4]

The demon figure that appeared on the front of the box caused fundamental religious extremists to protest. They made accusations that the game was corrupting the youth of America and encouraging Satan worshiping.^[5] This, along with other factors, led Richard Garriott to develop his next game (Ultima IV) based on the virtues the Ultima series is now famous for.^[6]

Other versions

Numerous ports of Ultima III appeared on many different systems. Below is a complete list of the various systems Ultima III: Exodus has appeared on along with some differences between them.

^†The publisher Starcraft has no relation to the popular PC game StarCraft and went out of business in 1996.

References

External links

• Ultima III: Exodus at MobyGames