Ultima Online: Age of Shadows

by Electronic Arts

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000089G5U
• Item Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: February 11, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (91 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,590 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Manufacturer's Description

Ultima Online: Age of Shadows is the game's most aggressive expansion pack to date. Explore the new huge landmass, Malas, and find a place to call your own. Then use the custom house-design tool to create your dream abode. Find adventure in the largest dungeon in all of Ultima Online as you confront gruesome new monsters and subdue them with powerful spells you have never cast before. Your Ultima Online character can now become as individual and unique as his or her real-life counterpart. Get ready for a new level of customization and personalization. Lead the life you were born to live!

Ultima Online is a multiplayer online game you play via the Internet. A stable Internet connection is required to play. Electronic Arts charges a small monthly fee for this game, separate from your Internet service provider access charges. You must provide a valid credit card to register and play.

Product Description

A new land beckons... build your legacy!Product InformationThe immersive nature of Ultima Online's world continues to expand through the introduction of the House Design Tool. This tool accessible to anyone who owns a house within the game will allow players to build new houses from scratch or modify existing ones with compelling new structures spatial elements and textures.  In addition to building homes players will have two new professions to master: a Paladin and a Necromancer. The chivalrous Paladin is a courageous warrior fortified with awesome new powers and the cunning Necromancer is wielder of the darkest magic and forbidden secrets. As players role-play either of these two opposing forces they will discover a large new landmass to conquer and to settle. As players explore this new area within the game they will be able to utilize an enhanced magic system featuring new spells and powerful items. Additionally new combat techniques and weapons add more depth and challenge to the fighting experience and will be useful when facing the dozens of new monsters roaming the dark realm.Product FeaturesAll new combat system with over a dozen new special moves.Create thousands of new magic item combinations.Master the dark powers of Necromancy and summon undead monsters to your aid in battle.Join the holy quest of the Paladin to conquer the undead.Each game includes a full install for both 2D and 3D systems30 Days Free Play Included Windows RequirementsWindows 98 2000 XP MePentium II 350 MHz processor32 MB of RAM925 MB Hard Drive space2 MB Graphics CardDirect 3D AcceleratorDirectX 8.1 compatible Sound CardDirectX version 8.14X CD-ROM / DVD-ROM drive28.8 Kbps InternetKeyboardMouse 

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good? Bad? Here is the real deal, January 2, 2004

By 

A Michael (USA, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ultima Online: Age of Shadows (CD-ROM)

Ultima Online is a unique game. I have played many Online games, including DAOC, Everquest, Ragnarok Online, Diablo 1&2, Star Wars Galaxies, and many more. So I think it is fair to say Im experienced with online gaming. In Ultima you can do so many thing, there are dozens of skills, and an endless ammount of playing styles. You can be a hunter, a fighter, a merchant, a thief, a bard, a smith, a carpenter, a tailor, an animal tamer. there is SO much you can do in UO.The thing that really sets it apart from the rest of the games out there, is that it has the best social system of any game. You can join a guild, you can join an army, or you can join a mall (a large player owned house of merchants). I have been playing UO for almost 3 years now and I have made great life long friends because of it. Most of the other online games out there, you fight a rabbit-level up, then you go and fight stronger rabbits- level up, then you go fight super rabbits-level up, you dont have much freedom. We know UO is a unique game, now lets get down to the ratings.

Combat 3/5 ( Its fun at first but after a while the automantic combat gets kinda lame)

Sound 2/5 ( the town music is ok, but it gets so anoying after a month or two, you will end up muting it)

Graphics 2D 3/5 ( Its nothing to jump over, but for 2d graphics it is clean and smooth)

Graphics 3D 2/5 ( the 3D graphics have been dubbed 2 and a half D, your char, and monsters are sort of 3D but the background is 100% 2D so its not like you can zoom around)

Gameplay 5/5 ( It has the best gameplay I have ever seen, your first few months will be building your char(s), next 3-4 months will be collecting items, maybe buying or building a house, and finishing your char(s) skills, after that its mainly hanging out with the friends you have made, running vendors, running guilds, fighting other players, doing whatever tickles your fancy. Like I said I have been playing this game for near 3 years, If you can get past the outdated graphics, and are a social type of person you will Love this game). HOWEVER, If you only like to Pvp(player vs player) and need good graphics you will Barf when playing this game, it is all about your style.

Down to AOS its self, it gives you a whole new land, about 50% the size of the normal land, a large new dungeon, a few new monsters, some new weapons&armor graphics, and of course the 2 new classes, Palidan and Necromancer, Chivalry(palidan) is one of the best skills in the game now, it near doubles any combat type char's fighting potential, Necomancy isnt all that great of a skill but its great for roleplaying. so if your already a big fan of UO or a begininer it is worth investing into AOS

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Online Critics favor Hack & Slash games, September 20, 2003

By 

Matt J Taylor (Hobart, IN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ultima Online: Age of Shadows (CD-ROM)

I avoided this game for years simply because I heard a lot of bad reviews about it. Online Critics gave poor ratings. Many players complained about the player killing and the lag. My cousin always raved about this game, but I never tried it because it was $10.00 a month to play. Now that many games now charge a monthly fee to play I decided to try it. I feel like I was lied to. This game is one of the best games I have ever played, I can't understand how this game recieved such bad reviews. The depth in this game is unmatched. Many games copied Ultima Onlines skills and concept. Ultima Online is very underated. I can't believe games like Everquest and Diablo II get better ratings from online critics. What are these critics thinking! Everquest and Diablo II have great graphics, but the gameplay is very boring in those games and lacks very much depth. I use a dialup connection and the lag was not all that bad. On weekends and during busy hours the lag is bad, but overall it is not that bad. Lag in Diablo II was much worse I thought. The siege perilous shard and the Great Lakes shard were the funnest to play I thought. The siege perilous is the best shard to play on if you like PvP. Gameplay is close on that shard to what Ultima Online origonally was. I had a lot of fun on siege. The theif profession is very fun to play on that shard. No other game out can match the PvP experience Siege Perilous offers in my opinion. If you like crowds and like to see busy cities the Great Lakes server is the best server to play on I think. Britiana really feels like a city. During primetime there must be about a hundred players all hurdled around the bank trading. I thought before Diablo II had a great trading system, now I relize Ultima Online's is by far superior. The economy in this game I think is unmatched. Even though this game has less people playing than Everquest, I encountered a lot more people during gameplay than any other online game. The crafting is unmatched. People say DaoC is superior, I tried DaoC I think its overated. DaoC seemed too adventure oriented. The large problem with player killing has been fixed. Players that don't like pk's, can play on the Trammel Facet that is PvM oriented rather than PvP. The Mage I think is funner to play on Ultima Online verses many other games. Combat has a lot more to it in Ultima Online. Mage's chant spell words before they cast a spell and they have to use regents for each spell. Not all spells use the same regents. Cities really feel like cities in UO. They just seem to blend in more with the outside world, Everquest's cities feel like they are seperated from the rest of the world. I remeber one Online Critic gave Diablo II a 9/10 and Ultima Online a 6/10. I still puzzle over why this was. Diablo I & II player killing was just as bad. The mounts in this game are unmatched. Players can ride a wide assortment of animals. Ranging from deer - to dragons!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly Addictive, Immersive, Absorbing MMORPG, March 17, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Ultima Online: Age of Shadows (CD-ROM)

Of course Ultima Online (UO) is nothing new to the world of online gaming. In fact, it is probably one of the most succesful MMORPGs (ie, online role playing games with a persistent, massive universe and a large number of other players) in commercial terms. That may seem surprising initially because when compared with some of its competitors like Sony's Everquest or Mythic's Dark Age of Camelot, UO suffers from older generation graphics and visually is not as appealing as these other titles. With this latest edition, the graphics have been somewhat improved, with a 3d version available that essentially makes your character 3d in a 2d world, but even with that UO's graphics lag behind the competition, and graphics are often the first -- and sometimes the only -- thing that a prospective gamer looks at when evaluating a game.

Well, UO is the quintessential case of the danger of judging a book by its cover. Notwithstanding its graphical limitations, UO is quite simply the deepest, most complex, immersive, varied and thoroughly addictive experience that the MMORPG genre has to offer. Unlike many games where you have 6-8 character classes to choose from, perhaps a few more if you are lucky, in UO you have no classes per se, only skills that can be used to develop into professions based on skill levels ... and the list of possible professions you can end up with is long -- 25 plus, including not just the typical warrior and mage professions but a number of interesting ones like merchant, miner, blacksmith, tailor and the like. Your character advances not so much by experience points but by enhancing skills through using them over the course of time. There are so many to choose from, the possibilities for customising your game experience are nearly limitless.

The game is thoroughly engaging, the goals are challenging, advancement is steady but challenging as well and rather time consuming, but the results are very, very satisfying. The world is very social, the players like to communicate with each other, and it is a huge world environment as well. The game world is divided into facets, with the largest environment being divided between the Felucca facet and the Trammel facet, the difference being principally that the former, known as "Fel", allows for player killing, while the latter allows this only under limited circumstances.

The learning curve is steep for UO, but that is part of the fun. The message boards and guides at stratics.com are very helpful in learning the game, and there are numerous approved add-on programs that help make the game experience flow more smoothly. But in the end it is the clever design, the outstanding variety, the combination of challenge and satisfaction that make UO almost unique among MMORPGs, and clearly head and shoulders above others in terms of gameplay and player satisfaction.