Ultima VIII:Pagan - Origin RRP œ49.99
          (Animated RPG for PC, CD ROM or Floppy)

         Reviewed on floppy disk by Julian Gregory

The latest in the long running adventure series is the biggest
offering so far. It comes on 8 hi-density disks and expands to
about 35megs on the hard disk. But is it worth all the money? The
cheapest I have seen is œ20.00 from Special Reserve, but it
is not in their latest magazine.

Installation is not difficult and only calls for you to insert
the correct disk in the disk drive when it is asked for. However
there are only two sound cards catered for and if you don't
have one of these (like me) you miss out on all the sound
effects. Origin tell me that there are no plans to introduce
any other cards. This seems to be a shame to me.

The game starts as you are dropped (literally) onto a island
called Pagan where no one has ever heard of the Avatar.

Origin have gone back to a one person game, ie you do not have
your band of friends with you this time. It's strange this seems
odd at first, but you soon get used to it.

The first thing to say about the game is that the movements of
the avatar have been very much improved. He can and indeed needs
to run and jump and does so quite realistically on my 486-66. I
have not seen it running on anything slower.

@~I first tried it on a 386-16 and was surprised that he still
@~moved very well ... Sue

However the main criticism is that there are a number of places
where you have to jump to and from rocks or platforms, some of
which are moving. It can be quite difficult, even with practice
to get the timing just right. Some reviewers I have read have
panned the whole game because of this. But I didn't find too much
of a problem, particularly if you save after each successful
manoeuvre. Talking of saving, there is a nice touch in that if
you kill someone important to the quest or lose a necessary
object you will not be able to save later. That does help to
prevent too much frustration in having to go back to an earlier
position and wasting possibly many hours work.

The object of the game is obviously to find the way back to your
own land. In order to be able to succeed you need to defeat the
Elemental Titans of Earth, Water, Air and Fire. In order to do
this you need to find 5 pieces of blackrock, so familiar from
earlier Ultimas. However the task is of course not that simple
and many subplots will need to be solved before you complete the
game.

As in most of the more modern Ultimas the plot is fairly linear
in that certain actions will have to take place before set
phrases appear during conversations. This has been a criticism of
other Ultimas and I would guess that Origin have attempted to
get round the problem this time by allowing the player to tackle
each Titan in any order.

This has only been a short review to give you a taste of the
game. If you can stop yourself getting too frustrated with the
jumping the game will keep you involved and interested for
several months. I know it did me.















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