Lord of Ultima

Lord of Ultima has been officially out for a couple of weeks now and I’ve been finding myself rather addicted to it. I’m a victim of city building games usually. I love to design tiny empires, build them up and make them my own. Inevitably someone else will come and destroy them and cause me to lose interest. Thus far that hasn’t occurred so I’m still overly excited about the product! Unlike previous city building games Ultima does offer some protections for the “grow without ruining someone’s fun” crowd! We can still be attacked and looted but in no way can our cities be destroyed. That gives this game a huge leg up in my book.

The Good

I’m obviously a big fan of the optional PvP flag. As long as I don’t build a castle I can’t be destroyed, only raided. Resources can be earned again. Destroying buildings starts to set you back until you find yourself in an unplayable situation. Due to this fact you can actually be fairly successful without conquering other players. That leaves the option of a merchant city-state on the table and I delight in it!

Ultima also offers one of the more graphically pleasing games in this genre. You are looking at more than just graph paper and simple icons. Banners wave, smoke twists and you actually decide where you want to place your buildings instead of just “adding” them to the city. Placement is important since buildings can give bonuses to other buildings. That is a fairly innovative feature for this sort of game and I like it. There are a lot of options strategically for how you want to build!

Players are also given the option to raid dungeons without turning on their PvP flag. This is also something that a lot of these games lack. You either attack other players or die. Ultima isn’t that way. I happily raid dungeons daily and make a few resources from it. There are also raid bosses roaming the land that you can attack too and I can’t wait to attack one. EA seems to have gone to great lengths to ensure everyone can play this and enjoy it without being ganked.

The Bad

This isn’t a huge issue at all but it bears mentioning. The game is called Lord of Ultima for one reason: to make a connection to a great product line and give credibility. Beyond the most trivial connection via naming there is nothing Ultima about this. It doesn’t have the feel or play style associated with the previous titles. That is okay of course but just don’t come in and expect a true “Ultima” experience like Ultima Online or any of the single player titles.

A weakness of many games in this genre is that you will have a hard time “playing” a lot. This type of title is more about making actions and watching. For the fans of these kind of games that isn’t a big deal. For our instant gratification culture it can be maddening. Due to the nature of how resources are gained and buildings are built the game is best checked in on hourly once you get past your initial rush. That is both good and bad of course but I do wish there were some more active elements. Even battling is just pointing at a place, saying “send troops,” and waiting for an account of what happened after the fact. Obviously I knew that going in but for players unfamiliar with this genre they might be frustrated.

Ultima also offers a cash shop to “enhance” your game experience. The items range from game changers to a little help and everything is fairly affordable. As an example, for roughly $6.00 you can not be attacked for 14 days. There isn’t really gouging going on but don’t expect to “win” without spending money. This is most certainly a situation where real world cash can trump skill. Obviously EA has to make some money on this but I wish the cash shop could be more fluffy in nature and less game altering.

Ferrelized

From the armchair perspective I think the game would benefit by finding at least one active element for players to enjoy. It could be something as simple as a little mini-game that increases your production as you play it or as complex as an avatar that can wander the world and tour other cities without giving up militarily vital details.

I’d also like to see a market place or auction house for the game so players can more easily buy and sell their excess products. The trade system now requires a lot of effort and the use of external message systems unless you want to just sell in the general channel. That alone makes it harder to be a merchant.

There are a lot more positive factors in Lord of Ultima than negative one when it comes to my play style. I don’t care if I win or not. I just enough building a little empire and managing it. The game allows me to do that with only minor annoyances from other players. Considering it is free I highly recommend you check it out. I’m on server three! Look me up but don’t touch!