Ultima Online

 PC
User Score
8.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 65 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 54 out of 65
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 65
  3. Negative: 8 out of 65

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  1. SamW.
    Aug 10, 2007
    10
    This game is incredibly addictive, and the new release, Kingdoms Reborn, has great graphics for an MMORPG, as well as nice additional features that hadn't previously existed. There are nice quests throughout the game that you can choose, following various storylines, but you are also free to choose your own path as an animal tamer, a mage, a warrior, a blacksmith, carpenter, tailor, This game is incredibly addictive, and the new release, Kingdoms Reborn, has great graphics for an MMORPG, as well as nice additional features that hadn't previously existed. There are nice quests throughout the game that you can choose, following various storylines, but you are also free to choose your own path as an animal tamer, a mage, a warrior, a blacksmith, carpenter, tailor, or even a ninja. You can decide, and nothing is permanent. The leveling system is great, too, becuase there are no level ups. You simply slowly gain skill the more you use a certain skill. Fighting will slowly improve your swordsmanship (or other weapon choice), tactics, anatomy, and, if you have a shield, parrying skills, while also raising your strength and dexterity. A bit complicated at first, but once you are comfortable with the game, there is no end to how many lands you can explore, and all the fun you cna have.… Expand
  2. Sumarius
    Oct 23, 2013
    9
    This is my all time favorite MMORPG. UO is very addictive, even with it's dated graphics. I've come across no other game which gives you the amount of items to collect and things to do. I've been playing since 2000 and don't plan on closing my account anytime soon.

    Just to name a few features, there is custom housing, player run towns, guilds, player vendors, boats, quests and lots    This is my all time favorite MMORPG. UO is very addictive, even with it's dated graphics. I've come across no other game which gives you the amount of items to collect and things to do. I've been playing since 2000 and don't plan on closing my account anytime soon.

    Just to name a few features, there is custom housing, player run towns, guilds, player vendors, boats, quests and lots of places to explore and things to do. UO holds a place in my heart that no other game will be able to replace!    … Expand
  3. LickedySplit
    Dec 28, 2021
    0
    A Shadow of what it used to be. Steer Clear of this Mess!
    Populated by racist homophobes and development does nothing to stop this.
    Economy so broken no new/returning player has a chance to succeed. Housing system broken by scripters/cheaters and development does nothing to stop this. Game run by incompetent imbecilic developers who's answer to any issue you bring up is "We have tried    A Shadow of what it used to be. Steer Clear of this Mess!
    Populated by racist homophobes and development does nothing to stop this.
    Economy so broken no new/returning player has a chance to succeed.
    Housing system broken by scripters/cheaters and development does nothing to stop this.
    Game run by incompetent imbecilic developers who's answer to any issue you bring up is "We have tried everything already" which basically means "We don't care, go away".

    Everything far to overpriced, new/returning players will have to use the numerous RMT websites to get anywhere.
    Impossible to get house as Scripters/Cheaters have taken over a market in this and you will have to purchase this through Paypal.

    if I could give this game less than 0 I would.

    Could've been a great all time game that lasted through the ages but the developers have decided to give up on it and it has become a steaming pile of garbage.    … Expand
  4. Gratson
    Oct 14, 2011
    10
    THE greatest MMO of all time (before they messed it up). The amount of fun times I had on Chesapeak and Catskills servers ... it was just amazing. I spent many sleepless nights playing this game. It had no item leveling, raiding and lacked most features of modern MMOs, but the guild vs guild atmosphere was unique, I've never seen it in any other MMO since then. The player politics andTHE greatest MMO of all time (before they messed it up). The amount of fun times I had on Chesapeak and Catskills servers ... it was just amazing. I spent many sleepless nights playing this game. It had no item leveling, raiding and lacked most features of modern MMOs, but the guild vs guild atmosphere was unique, I've never seen it in any other MMO since then. The player politics and community is what made it the best MMO experience I've had, and I've played most of the big MMOs on the market.… Expand
  5. Shiwator
    Jul 17, 2012
    10
    A true sandbox mmorpg that still has official and tons of free shards with various rule sets around. Be a crafter hunt monsters and treasures. Ultima online is famous for it's timing based pvp system. The graphics are of course a bit dated but even today it's hard to beat Ultima online when it comes to gameplay.
  6. nightshark
    Oct 25, 2012
    0
    It seems this game has generally favourable reviews, and I would guess the reason is that the only people still reviewing it are people who have been playing it the most part of 15 years and still enjoy it. 13-15 years ago, I would've given this game a 10/10, ironically this was also when the game suffered from more bugs and lag that you can imagine.

    UO was one of a kind but opted to    It seems this game has generally favourable reviews, and I would guess the reason is that the only people still reviewing it are people who have been playing it the most part of 15 years and still enjoy it. 13-15 years ago, I would've given this game a 10/10, ironically this was also when the game suffered from more bugs and lag that you can imagine.

    UO was one of a kind but opted to become a clone of more modern, graphically superior, grind-type MMOs. Give the players "content" to complete, with very large rewards, rather than making it a complete sandbox that people lived and breathed in. Where true friendships were formed and for every friend you had, there were another 5 people scheming your demise.    … Expand
  7. Rocker
    Aug 14, 2011
    10
    Still fun after XX amount of years. Sandbox environment leaves to a lot more creativity / fun compared to other more modern MMORPGs. The quality gameplay most definitely makes up for any "outdated" graphics comparisons.
  8. LordSolor
    Oct 25, 2011
    9
    I played this game on and off for years since it came out in 1997. It is one I simply always find myself drawn back into. While almost EVERYTHING about the game has changed since it's release, the core of UO remains the freedom of play, not seen in instanced games like WOW.
  9. KielW
    Jul 15, 2016
    10
    I've been playing Ultima Online since Feb of 2000, and while it's undergone many, many changes over the years, at its core UO is a great game. There's an amazing amount of depth to everything from gear to animal taming to magic. It can be a little overwhelming for new players, but except for the highest end content it's pretty accessible to a casual player.
  10. AnonymousMC
    Jul 22, 2008
    10
    Simply the best MMORPG ever to be created. That is a fact. UO sent a benchmark for all of them, even WoW. It had the best community, economy and the intensity of guild fights and Order/Chaos battles was matched by no other online game. Period. Even starting off was so much fun. Most people created a warrior and went to the graveyards to train up and collect small ammounts of gold fromSimply the best MMORPG ever to be created. That is a fact. UO sent a benchmark for all of them, even WoW. It had the best community, economy and the intensity of guild fights and Order/Chaos battles was matched by no other online game. Period. Even starting off was so much fun. Most people created a warrior and went to the graveyards to train up and collect small ammounts of gold from zombies, skeletons etc to get started. Some even opted for a blacksmith to actually provide stuff for the community. It was risky business everytime one set foot out of town, dungeons (for hunting various monsters) became a place of uncertainty as a murderer player could pop up at any minute. This is all gone now as EA have ruined the amazing work that was put into it during Beta and up to 1999 as Trammel was eventually added and the awful ninja, samurai scheme with all the special moves eventually destroyed the classic, dark medieval feel. It's all about free servers though like Defiance, UO Divinity and the like. Don't miss out on this game but make sure if you are going to join, join a free server and not EA's as it is not fun at all in it's current state!… Expand
  11. AnonymousMC
    Jul 3, 2009
    10
    best game ever made, and that's no exaggeration... its been 12 years and counting and people are still addicted; although the original game has since been terrorized with a bunch of unpopular decisions (limiting pvp, etc), the third party servers are still insanely popular... the only game where there is a real estate market
  12. AnonymousMC
    Nov 15, 2007
    8
    laawl great graphics u say ?? bullshit the graphics suck so bad ... still its the gameplay that gets u addicted to ultima online .... really great but still the graphics are so out of date .... btw if u think about starting to play dont play on the official servers cuz theres freeshards aswell ... try WWW.DEFIANCEUO.COM !!! BEST FREESHARD THERE IS AT THE MOMENT
  13. explorerbay
    Jul 22, 2020
    9
    The best mmorpg ever made until this day. The custom shards and lores and the skills mechanics were fantastic.
  14. Medic7345
    Apr 15, 2022
    7
    Hours played: about 1,000 hours

    I picked up the game in 2021 and have been a regular since then. I decided to join the official server and ended up with Napa Valley. I never did well in UO when I was younger. As an older player, I now have successfully maxed out my skills. My experience on Napa Valley was good, but there was hardly anyone playing anymore on that server. So, it was more    Hours played: about 1,000 hours

    I picked up the game in 2021 and have been a regular since then. I decided to join the official server and ended up with Napa Valley. I never did well in UO when I was younger. As an older player, I now have successfully maxed out my skills. My experience on Napa Valley was good, but there was hardly anyone playing anymore on that server. So, it was more of a 7/10 experience for me. I chose Napa Valley because it seemed to have the best ping for me.

    In 2022, I moved my character to Lake Superior's more populated server. Again, it seems the population is low even in this new server. Of course, I am comparing it to the game in 2003 on the free server of The Alter Realm, where there was constant PVP by Brit bridge. Brit bank was loaded with characters at all times of the day. In my opinion, currently, it feels as if the game has died or is dying. Maybe it is still bringing in money for EA, but it has lost the UO experience. When a free server makes the pay servers look unpopulated, you know something is wrong with the game. So, this year my opinion of the game continues to drop. Is there only one populated server like I found on the free servers (Atlantic, maybe)? This depopulation of the game, which is only as good as its players, makes me rate it a 5/10 - currently. It is okay to play, but the excitement is gone when you find Brit streets empty on Lake Superior. There should be more activity on a server like that. It is reasonable for this game to end. It does not offer the experiences it used to due to an overly aged player population that keeps gathering more and more things to stuff their Luna houses with. What drew me to the game was the other players, not overly decorated houses with all the rares. There are not enough people playing to bring in the novelty UO once did.

    So, average the scores:
    7/10 in 2021. and 5/10 in 2022.

    That makes this game a 6/10 for me. I have mixed feelings about it, but I tend to lean on the positive side of this game. I would suggest it to someone, but the magic I used to feel for the game has faded with time. That is not bad; it is typical for a game to fade in popularity as time moves on. The only thing that keeps this game afloat is money to EA and players' nostalgia from past experiences in the 2000s.

    UPDATE: April 15th, 2022 6/10 => 8/10
    I consider UO: Mugen and UO: Siege Perilous to be their own games. You have to start all over again to play them and cannot transfer a character out of the servers.

    I only played the classic client. After playing the enhanced client (really an update as many things graphics the same) for about 6 hours, I can say that playing the enhanced client bumped up my score in UO. 6/10 => 8/10. As Ultima Online is the first MMORPG, Mugen and Siege Perilous are dead servers. They only matter if you have decorated your house over the years on the servers. So, Mugen and Siege Perilous are more a Multiplayer Role Playing Game; it is in no sense massive. On Mugen I only was able to see two people at Luna Bank around peak hours. At Siege Perilous, I could not see anyone at all-around peak hours! Napa Valley is practically dead, though some players have hung on there - certainly not massive multiplayer. The ONLY shard I could find with a community one could equate to massive is the Atlantic Shard. I could find about 70 players around Luna bank and Brit bank at peak hours. It appears to be thriving (and the only server thriving at the time). It will certainly need more players in the future and a younger crowd to stay competitive against World of Warcraft and other software. I find Atlantic being the only MMO server in Ultima Online. Thus really, the only game worth playing is on Atlantic.

    In conclusion, I have looked at the best-pinged server in Hawaii, which is Lake Austin. It appears it, too, is barely hanging on. After roughly 1,000 hours of gameplay, I would never play the game again. Once I became fully skilled in UO (720 skill points in areas I wanted to be skilled at), I had no desire to play the game again. It is a good compass as to if the game belongs in the green or yellow here at Metacritic. A game in the green needs to be a game someone would play again. A mixed game is more where UO belongs, but I give a solid nod to it as a green-yellow mixed game, belonging at 7/10.    … Expand
  15. jsommer7345
    Oct 9, 2022
    6
    In conclusion, the attraction of online games is clear when looking at its social aspect. I think this attraction is healthy and I still prefer to play an online game versus a fixed in-person game. However, it is clearly unhealthy to compare your character with someone else’s or to look at how another person’s gameplay experience is different than my own. I try to focus on my own gameplay,In conclusion, the attraction of online games is clear when looking at its social aspect. I think this attraction is healthy and I still prefer to play an online game versus a fixed in-person game. However, it is clearly unhealthy to compare your character with someone else’s or to look at how another person’s gameplay experience is different than my own. I try to focus on my own gameplay, and I realize that there will be others better or more successful at the game than myself. Typically, this social power is unconscious with others in the game. Because the game is social and not a fixed game, it is clear to me that each player has a unique different experience than each other. As they say, we are comparing apples and oranges. While this social power had led to things like competitive gaming, I still think everyone has their own personal experience with any online game and to compare would be faulty every time – leading to addiction or loss in real life, such as my grades in school or my loss of sleep time. If people want to be competitive, I think the only way to really weigh who is better is to have an in-person multiplayer system, where the video competition uses the same system with separate controllers, like when I was a kid. Multiped, done face-to-face is the only accurate gauge or a true weighing of apples to apples. Online gaming does not do this, and it is misinterpreted to be as such. However, the attraction of online gaming is nice and fun to enjoy. Competitiveness still belongs to in-person play, in my opinion. I give Ultima Online an 8/10 because it was a pioneer in many ways and opened the world of online gaming to new heights, heights that many gaming companies now can take for granted. The social power can be both pleasant and painful in UO. However, if we learn to be cognizant of unconscious comparisons, the game can be very fun.

    UPDATE
    I now play UO avoiding all violence and drug use in the game. I give this game a 6/10 if I play like this. Firstly, UO has many significantly underpopulated servers, and I think this is misleading new players. There are hardly any players on these servers. Then, if you play on their populated server (Atlantic), it is overly crowded. It's sort of the wild west out there regarding server population. Most servers lack a dedicated player base, and I have spent a lot of my time on these, only to be disgusted by the number of players to buy from my vendors. I don't like Atlantic because it's hard even getting a spot or selling anything on there due to over-saturation. Maybe there is a server more in the middle player-wise, but I all the ones I checked was either bustling or struggling during peak hours. Also, I keep hearing about cheating in this game: Whether it is harvesting robots or other hacks leading to an influx of vendor sales. If Ultima Online has an online game, I need to not hear this gossip amongst players of cheats because I am investing a lot of my time and money into the game. It needs to be equitable for all players, and it appears that the game has too many cheaters.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
59

Mixed or average reviews - based on 6 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 6
  3. Negative: 2 out of 6
  1. PC Gamer
    55
    Ultima fanatics might stick with it, but most players will give up in frustration. [Jan 1998, p.262]
  2. Computer Games Magazine
    40
    This is one game that might become a classic, but it isn't one now, despite a New York Times story on the front page of the business section. A game that requires a credit card and Internet access before the player can get even a glimpse of what's going on had better be incredibly engrossing or at least immediately accessible. Ultima Online is neither. The "undoubted future of interactive entertainment"? God forbid. At best, it might eventually grow into a solid, mature game that delivers the goods, but for now, caveat emptor.
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  3. Adrenaline Vault
    80
    Yes it's expensive, and it has some serious problems that need immediate attention, but it can't be denied that Ultima Online is a unique, intriguing, thoroughly enjoyable gaming experience -- once you learn how to play, and accept it for what it is.
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