Let’s Reboot… Ultima!

After a brief intro where they cover both the free-to-play Ultima Forever and Richard Garriott’s “meaningful multiplayer” spiritual sequel Shroud of the Avatar, PC Gamer argues in their latest “Let’s Reboot!” feature that the Ultima series needs a new single-player entry. The writer follows up with a rather detailed proposal that stems from his belief that, all things considered, the Avatar didn’t do all that great with his Britannia adventures.

Here’s a snip:

For a couple of reasons, we’re going to call this one (Trial Of The Avatar) though it takes place during one of his or her many absences from Britannia. The exact timing doesn’t really matter, given that canonically Britannia was blown up at the end of the series anyway. (Consider that carefully swept under the rug.) As with Ultima Forever, and to acknowledge that Lord British is Richard Garriott’s alter-ego rather than simply character, we’re also putting him on a bus. Something came up elsewhere, he’s disappeared, but everyone is sure that one day he will return. In his place, Britannia is ruled by a reformed Great Council eight regents, one from each of Britannia’s major cities.

The actual game is based on a few key concepts doing good for its own sake, the fallibility of heroes, and the consequences of heroism. As the Avatar, you get a certain implied moral authority. But you’re not the Avatar this time. You’re just a regular Britannian either gender, of course growing up in the Humility focused town of New Magincia. For character creation, we see slices of that vignettes of your upbringing where you faced situations others would walk away from, and not always in your favour. At fourteen for instance, you might intervene in a mugging in a city’s alley and get a choice of intervening and buying the victim time to escape, earning yourself a thrashing, or launching an attack that leads to a few days in the cells after the victim runs and the town guard arrests everyone left.

Does that deter you? No. Because that’s what the Avatar would have done.

Of course, deciding you have what it takes to be a hero isn’t exactly humble, is it?