Customer Reviews

Ultima Online 9th Anniversary Collection

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I left Ultima online when UO 3D was starting and didnt like it. I since have returned and love all the changes they have done to it. After a 5 year avsence it has been hard learning things over again but I have fallen back in love with the game.

Ultima Online is a fun interactive role playing game where you get to live the life of your character. You improve your skills, learn a trade, sell your wares, join a guild, and build a house. It's a great game to share as a family, with friends, or make new friends from all over the world. 2D is way better than 3D! CAUTION: THIS GAME IS ADDICTIVE

Ultima Online - the true first MMO of it's kind that spawned Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot, and World of Warcraft. Ultima Online was a MMO of the purest form. This was before cool downs, damage caps, and many other restricting elements that we players face today in game. In short it was AWESOME!!!

Opening review = 5 Stars across the board!
Current review = -100 stars! Boo - just let it die in peace already!!



**PvP Overview - Early years**
Gaming today has changed greatly since the original release of Ultima Online. Mostly catering to slower and sensitive players. Ultima Online you were able to use as many pots as you had in your back pack. You were able to bandage without a cooldown and without being interrupted by damage. One man could be a unstoppable force to other players that were unfamiliar with the games dynamics. But all in all it was fair. Fair and balanced in it's purest form, because any player could achieve this at will. Of course the ultimate penalty in Ultima Online was death. All of your goods on your corpse are open to be freely looted by any passer-by. It was a lesson well learned - which sharpened your skills. It was a true challenge of reflex and wit. The adrenaline rush was both intoxicating and addictive. What happened to games like this? This was online gaming at it's peak. Everything since has been a far cry from the pure untamed heights of excitement you could reach with UO. I remember camping Minoc Mines with my Archer Template Drake The Evil with the hide ability, shooting any unsuspecting crafter that came my way. I remember fondly living it up as a villain in Buccaneers Den with my pals as my Fencer/Kryss Template Drake. But it all came to a screeching halt.

**PvP Overview the death of Ultima Online**
When Ultima Online opened their doors to the Orient and Euro countries it opened up a huge bag of bad on all of us Ultima Online gamers. With the Orient gamers came several game exploiting and crashing hacks. With the Euro players came "gank squad" pvp. That and the additional features of the expansion Ultima Online: The Second Age. Which implemented a more gear dependent aspect of the game. These were the sparks for disaster. The game quickly spiraled down hill. With the gear dependent additive veteran players became even better and for a time we were able to cope with the gank squads and exploiters. Even with the addition of this new feature known as a "cool down". We were still able to hang on but it seems that we may have killed just one to many Devs. UO released faction PvP in order to slow or irradiate all solo pvp. A few months after this was implemented it was game over. Ultima Onlines shard populations had a initial massive drop followed by a slow bleed that would finish it off.

**A lesson to be learned?**
For games such as World of Warcraft, DAoC, Warhammer Online, and even Aion. Do not turn your backs on your solo pvpers - They are your most loyal of all customers. We're all adrenaline addicts and you supply the drug at a inexpensive monthly rate! ;)


**PvE Overview**
Ultima Online literally set the bar for MOB/AI Tech. Which gamers playing in World of Warcraft and Warhammer Online enjoy today. It was not a easy task for Ultima Online - they had several bumps in the road. Especially with the exploiters that came with the overseas releases. Overall it was great. You were able to visit several dungeons such as deceit and hate. Battle undead skeletons and lichs. Battle giant ogres and daemons! Your imagination quickly was sucked into the land of Ultima Online and it was like you were there. Another feature that if you have read my other reviews on other websites or on this one - you would know I am a huge fan off. Housing - I love it!!! Nothing like wiping out the local townsfolk solo and coming back to the old keep to kick your feet up. One of my favorite aspects of Ultima online that came with pvp was the ability to cut up corpses. I know it's a little morbid but the bounty system was great to say the least. If you walked into my Keep you would quickly notice my collection of player heads plastered all over the wall. Hah! But enough of that. You were able to keep yourself well stocked on bandages, potions, mounts with alts all in the comfort of your own home. You were also able to collect rare items, armor, weapons and happily display them. As well as craft furniture to decorate your home and even hire a vendor outside to sell your goods(which is another aspect of gaming I go crazy for). But in the end - even with housing/ships/treasure hunting(which I loved them all) - due to the PvP changes I had to hang up my kryss above my Keep door and forever leave the land of UO in search for greener pastures. Which I would not find until the release of Dark Age of Camelot three years later as a Infiltrator.

**Customer Service Overview**
The Customer Service of Ultima Online was mixed. I dealt with good GM's/Devs and bad GM's/Devs. It was really just luck of the draw of who you got and with the anything goes mentality of the game in it's youth there was actually very rare situation where you needed one. All customers remember their bad experiences more than the good. I guess it's just human nature. One of my bad experiences with a GM - I was killed due to a bug. My character was flaming red which many of you know it's bad news when you die. It means countless hours of using macros just so you can spend up all the game time required for you to be resurrected again. This was one of the earliest penalties for PvP'ers. What had happened is I had gotten stuck in a door in Deceit. I opened and closed that door like mad but I was stuck good. Even tried to teleport and gate out of it with the effect of both spells failing. Sure enough here comes a group of players and they attack. Because I am stuck in the door I was unable to turn around or run in range of them so they were able to pick me off effortlessly. I am sure they all enjoyed the bounty on my head that would have made Bill Gates blush at the sight of it. So I petition a GM and he pretty much just tells me tough crackers. GM's did have the ability to resurrect players under certain circumstances which this definitely fit one of those situations. This is when I clued in on the Anti-PK mindset of Ultima Online. He left me to macro 119 hours but that's not the end of it! Oh, no - Drake got to have his day! ;) After my "dept to society" had been fulfilled I called upon this GM again. I asked for him by name in the appeal - to my satisfaction he appeared in front of me! He stated "Oh, glad to see that you have returned to the land of the living...." I promptly responded "Yes, and no thanks to you!" Which at this time I went into combat mode and two shot him. He quickly resurrected and I killed him again. By his third death, another GM appeared and promptly teleported me to a prison cell in Britain Castle. Which I had to remain for seven days but it was well worth it. Shortly after they implemented safe guards for GM's so that they could not be attacked.

**Current Customer Service Overview**

Since the days of old Ultima Online has not changed hands to EA. Which I am not a fan of. I recently reopened my Ultima Online account as well as a Dark Age of Camelot account to overall rate EA customer service for other review sites. The rating is pretty basic, it's just typical problems that common players would run into and with Ultima Online I got the same results from DAoC which was no surprise. Little to no help with common everyday issues. Loot recovery, stuck characters, naming policies, etc. As with DAoC I received several emails from representatives that clearly did not understand the English Language. When I finally got in touch with a US based rep the answer was always either "I do not have the power to correct your issue. We do apologize for the inconvenience" or I received a flat out "no". What ever happened to the days when reps went out of their way for the customer? I know it can be rough to say the least to handle so many appeals a day but in the end - They're the people paying your salary. EA has forgotten that on every level and have received a flat out "F" in customer service in every possible field. The only current online game that gives quality customer service is World Of Warcraft. But I am not a 100% fan of the game right now. It's becoming a little to "user friendly" but customer service they have down pat!

**Ultima Online today**
Instead of being the bar setter that it once was - UO now tries to mimic other popular games that are currently top market, sadly tries at that. Which is a sad reflection of once was. They just need to let the game go the way of the dodo and let us old timers remember it for what it was. While deep down we all secretly hope that we will see it's like as it was released return to us again.

UO, a good game. It is what it is. Though do I miss when they removed some of the old ways? Yes. The game hasn't changed much really. Other than now you have to get scrolls to go higher in some advancements.
You still can visit the old places as before. They've moved around the monsters in where you used to train taming. But the game is what you make it to be.

I have played this game, off & on, for the past 3 years. I've always been interested in fantasy & this is the perfect type of game for me. It's so much fun creating & customizing characters. It's frustrating, at first, because your character doesn't have the skills to do much & you're not strong enough to wear the cool armor or you don't have the gold to buy the cool clothes. The process of builing up skills is pretty tedious & boring but once you're there, the world opens up.
I have mostly played on free shards where things are a little more customizable. I have enjoyed building my own houses, collecting pets, & embarking on many quests. You can meet people from all over the world. This game can be soo much fun & soo incredibly frustrating, at times. I haven't played it for a while & I miss it but, right now, I really don't want to start from scratch, AGAIN.

This game is a very good mmorpg and one of the first. The 3d client has been patched out in anticipation of UO: Kingdom Reborn. The 2d client works great on Linux using default wine settings. There are now a huge number of quests in game and also with New Haven that came out recently its easier to raise your skills when you begin. Overall it's very fun to play and there is still a big community behind it.

This is one of the best overall online roll playing games. It offers play for every type of player from pvp to pvm to crafter. There are caves, dungeons, lost lands and so much more to explore. Lots of quests to challenge your skill and knowledge. A great community, join us for lots of fun.

I've been playing UO for 3 consecutive years now. Yeah Ultima has had it's bad months but I've stuck through them and the game is really coming along. Can't wait for the new 3d graphics!

I was highly pleased at the shipping time, and the box and game were in good condition. I had no problems with the upgrade either!

Ultima Online's 9th Anniversary Collection tells players one fact right up front: Ultima Online (UO) is the longest running Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game there is.

UO in general offers several types of characters to choose from and dozens of skills that make each character template something unique. Players can choose to build themselves anything from a classic warrior to a stealth ninja, a wizard or a dark necromancer, or even just build a tailor to create unique pieces of armor to sell and trade with players from all around the world! Build and customize your home with classic building templates or unique building shapes of your own design! Craft clothing and armor to buy/trade/sell with other players! Join a guild for fun and social adventure to fight against powerful monsters, major quests, or even against other player-run guilds.

The 9th Anniversary collection offers players all seven expansion packs (including the never-released-on-CD/DVD "Mondain's Legacy" which introduced a new playable race: Elves!), new housing sets of crystals and shadow items, as well as new servants to help you in the home or announce your arrival to fellow players.

Ultima Online has a vast community of players around the world and there are ongoing plots leading up to the highly anticipated 10th anniversary in 2007. There are unique events run as well with an opportunity for players to collect highly sought after special items, clothes, and weapons.