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‘Upon your world, five seasons have passed since your triumphant homecoming from Britannia. You have traded the Avatar’s life of peril and adventure for the lonely serenity of a world at peace. But television supermen cannot take the place of friends who died at your side!’...
After ‘Ultima VI – The False Prophet’ was released on PC in 1990, one year later a very bad conversion on the C64 follows. Finally the game was ported to the Amiga in early 1992. This version was much better than its counterpart on the 8-bit machine – however, it can’t keep up with the quality of the PC original...
‘My Home is my Castle’...
When you’ve finally installed the program on floppy disks or hard drive, the adventure starts...
You play the part of an ‘Avatar’ – a kind of religious person. At the beginning of the game, he sits bored in front of his TV and wishes himself back to the glorious days in the medieval parallel world of Britannia. Suddenly a storm rises and a flash of lightning strikes the backyard of the house. Immediately you run to the striking point, where you find a small black ‘moonstone’. That opens a red glowing portal – without fear you enter it...
After this nice intro, the main menu appears – at first the creation of a new character is necessary (‘Create a Character’). After selecting this option, you’ve to type in a name - furthermore you must choose a sex. Then, different portraits (in modern times called ‘Avatars’ - a coincidence?) appear. You select your favourite one and the ‘real’ character creation starts...
By the way, you can transfer a character from ‘Ultima IV’ or ‘Ultima V’ to this game (‘Transfer a Character’), too...
‘Welcome, O Seeker!’...
Next you spot a gypsy wagon at the edge of a forest. After you’ve entered it, the gypsy begins asking questions. Because these questions are of ethical nature, you can’t answer them ‘right’ or ‘wrong’...
Now another intro sequence follows, in which you make the acquaintance of the gargoyles – winged nightmares, naturally domiciled in the underworld of Britannia. They have begun to seize the holy shrines of virtue – no one knows why...
During that very first encounter with the enemy, your three friends Dupre, Shamino and Iolo appear. After you and your companions escaped through a newborn ‘moongate’, the whole party is teleported to Castle Britannia...
Immediately a battle starts in the throne room of the castle, because three of the gargoyles were able to follow you...
Point and Click...
Similar to the PC version, the whole program is controlled via icons. There are ten different actions: ‘Attack’, ‘Magic’, ‘Talk’, ‘Look’, ‘Pick up’, ‘Drop’, ‘Move’, ‘Use’, ‘Rest’ and ‘Begin/Break off Combat’...
An example: to attack one of the enemies, you’ve to click on the ‘Attack’ icon. Now you’ve to move a crosshair towards the respective foe – then press the mouse button again and the attack starts...
Whereas the main character is controlled by yourself, the party members are controlled by the CPU. But you’re able to change their battle characteristics anytime (‘Front’, ‘Rear’, ‘Flank’, ‘Berserk’, Retreat’ or ‘Assault’). Also you can take over the fully control of each comrade-in-arms by selecting ‘Command’...
After the gargoyles are defeated, you should talk to Lord British – ruler of the country. During the conversations, all important topics were marked red – when you type these specific words into the text window, your interlocutor will tell you all he knows about it. By typing ‘Bye’, the chit-chat ends...
‘Abracadabra’...
The magic system of ‘The False Prophet’ is similar to the role-playing game ‘Legend’: to cast a spell, several ingredients are needed. Without them, you can’t use the respective magic. Some of the reagents are available at magic shops – others can be found in the wilderness or at special places...
A Question of Performance...
A great storyline, very good user guidance and a great atmosphere – ‘Ultima VI’ has it all. Till today it’s one of the best games of its genre...
The great question is whether it can keep up with the PC original - well, that isn’t so easy to say...
First of all, the in-game graphics aren’t as good as in the VGA version. Of course it’s not possible to port them to the Amiga 1:1. But sadly, Origin – and the development team Abersoft respectively – hasn’t used the 32 colour mode of this machine. Simply the EGA graphics were converted to that computer – nevertheless the graphics are nice to watch...
On the other hand, the background music is far better than on the PC. The compositions are the same, but the used ‘instruments’ sounds absolutely great. One of the best role-playing game soundtracks, for sure...
As mentioned before, you’re able to play the game from floppy disk (four disks) or from hard drive – second one is the most comfortable way to play ‘The False Prophet’. Here, there aren’t any loading times and naturally disk changes are nonexistent...
If you’ve also a turbo board (or an Amiga 1200), ‘Ultima VI’ displays its full potential...
On standard Amigas (at least 1 MB) without hard drive, a lot of the great atmosphere will be lost. Even if you’ve two external drives, you have to change the disks permanently...
As you can see, only with the right performance this program is really enjoyable - but then you will have an experience you’ll never forget...
That's a Bit Thick...
Finally a few words to the package contents: the ‘Compendium’ – a book in which all important topics of the game are recorded – is identical to its pendant of the PC original and the C64 version. But the once great cloth map of the Kingdom of Britannia was replaced by a frugal paper map. Also the original black ‘moonstone’, which changes its colour under specific lighting conditions, was replaced by a cheap piece of plastic – thank you, Origin...
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Like I said before, the development team Abersoft had just ported the EGA graphics of the game to the Amiga. That’s disappointing – nevertheless the several objects (plants, paintings, tables, candles, weapons) were very detailed drawn. Also the portraits of the diverse interlocutors are nice to watch – the same applies to the intro sequences. Sadly the scrolling jerks permanently – even on the Amiga 1200...
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Unlike to the PC original, there are no sound-fx. Never mind! Because of the great background music (Matt Furniss at his best), you won’t miss them at all...
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The user guidance of the program is ideal – the whole game is completely controlled by mouse. Only during the conversations, you have to make use of the keyboard. Playing the program from floppy disk is no fun - there are too many disk changes. Playing it from hard drive (and perhaps with turbo board), things look far better...
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| With the right performance ‘Ultima VI – The False Prophet’ is highly recommended to all role-playing gamers and particularly to fans of the saga... |
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