Ultima 8:Pagan - Origin RRP œ44.99
             (RPG for PC, floppy or CD-ROM)
   CD-ROM to Hard disk version, played on a 486 DX2 66Mhz.

               Review by Alex van Kaam

This is only a first impression of the game, to make a real review
would take me at least a month or so playing the game.

After hearing from Sue that she heard that this was a great game,
and I saw it in the shop I decided to buy it.

Coming home I immediately installed it, first the game itself and
then the speech pack that was also on the CD, in total it took
about 35 MB and 10 minutes, after this I typed 'U8' to run the
game and I got a message that there still was some unpacking to do
and that it would take about another 10 minutes.

So 10 minutes later I was watching the impressive intro......

The Guardian's red hand drops you on the island of Pagan, a place
in which, as you soon find out, the Guardian is some kind of
hero....

You are rescued from drowning by a fisherman and then the
adventure begins.

You soon encounter a wooden pier on which you watch an execution
and there is nothing you can do.

The only thing left to do is to go north into the city of
Tenebrae, here you encounter lots of people, see the Great Palace
to the north, the rich and merchants to the east side and the poor
to the west.

After a lot of wandering around and getting some items and coins
you sooner or later come to the Great Library, here you meet
someone who tells you that to the north beyond the palace there
lives a man called Mythran, and he knows some magic.

Since this is the only lead you have, and you need magic to go
back to Brittania, you decide to find Mythran.

The first thing I have to say about Ultima 8 is that this is how
all the Ultima games had to be, the display of the world is not
just a small window to the left of your screen, it is the full
screen, the Avatar (you) is big, like the figure in Gods or in
Heimdall, the world is no longer flat but 3D, like Heimdall, you
can walk behind things (if you walk behind walls you can't see the
Avatar).

As for the movement, left mouse button is your eyes and hands, if
you are near an object you can pick it up or just move it, if you
are far away you can just look (identify) it.  The right mouse
button is your movement, if you move the mouse arrow close to the
Avatar it gets small, further away and it gets bigger, near the
edge of the screen and it is at full size.  If you then push the
right button the Avatar starts to move, a small arrow and he moves
very carefully, a medium arrow and he walks normally, a large
arrow and he will run.

Pushing both buttons makes the Avatar jump, while standing still
he will try to climb on a ledge, while walking or running he will
jump over something.

At first this is all a bit complicated but after a while (as with
most games) it becomes second nature.

The sound, well..... the movement sound is great, if you walk on
stone you hear it, if you walk on grass or wood you also hear it,
all perfect, but the voice of the Guardian is a bit well, not very
clear, at least to me, I don't have English as my fist language so
I have to translate it while hearing it, this is no problem if it
is clear but when not ... it is.

Combat - as with most of these 3D look like games combat is very
hard, you have to double click on an enemy to strike or single
click to defend, this all sounds simple but it sure isn't in the
beginning.

Animation - this is very very nice, on a 486 DX2 running at 66Mhz,
it is almost smooth, but for those who have a slower machine you
have two options, frame skipping which skips every other animation
frame and speed limiting, I tried this but I didn't see any
difference.

Conversation - as in all Ultima games you can talk to every person
you meet, if you ask a question, he answers and this gives you
some more options to ask him some more questions and so on...

All in all, this promises to be a LARGE game, and a HARD game and
for those of you who like a good challenge this must be a must, a
fast PC is also a must.

The only thing that could be improved in the game is an auto
mapping feature since it is very hard to find something in the
city of Tenebrae and in the rest of the world, and the voices that
are used could have been recorded on the CD to make them sound
better, there is only about 130 Mb used on the CD.

If there are any French or German readers, you can also install
the game with these languages, this is why there is 130 MB on the
CD and only 35-40 MB on your hard disk.

If you watch the complete credits list you get a 7th option in the
diary and this is called Quotse, this is fun to read.













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