Ultima 5 Lazarus - anyone played it?

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Hi Everyone,

I am looking for a good CRPG to play.
I loved the BGs series, but even modded, you end up knowing it too well, you know?
I've tried both Morrowind and Oblivion, but I found they were too much action (too dependant on player reflexes vs strategy, especially in fights) and not RPG enough. Don't get me wrong, I had a great time playing Morrowing and Oblivion, but I felt they got very repetitive and a bit bland after a while, mainly due to the lack of truly engaging PNCs or dialogue options.

So I was looking for an "old-school" RPG, the kind you were dreaming in the 1980's we would be playing today.

So this is where Ultima 5 Lazarus comes in. I fell on this game review by chance, and man, I was bluffed. This game seems INSANE in terms of NPC depth, design, dialogue, etc... Basically the fact this is a game made by people who truly love RPGs and did this in their free time just so other could enjoy it totally baffled me. I said to myself :"This must be one helluva game, free from commercial considerations or marketing driven pressurs, a game for true RPG lovers".

So before I go and download this and spend hours on end with it, I wanted a honest straightforward feedback from anyone having tested this game out.

Thanks much!

 

The game is great. It pretty much sticks to the original game, from the 80s. With a few changes, of course. Most of the changes are improvements. The ultima games are very much like the BG games, really. You get NPC\s to join you etc. There are around 12 joinable ones, in Lazarus, if I remember correctly, scattered about the map. Gampley is great, allthough very hard in the early stages. Some bugs here and there, but not too many. I recomend it bigtime. I`d give it an 8 out of 10 rating.

As a side-note: The remake of Ultima VI is out soon too. It uses the same engine as U5 lazarus.

 

I played it earlier this year and can honestly say it's the best game I've played in the past 2 or 3 years. The overall structure and plot of Ultima 5 are intact but the game adds a huge amount of detail to everything. There are more NPCs, the NPCs that were already there have a lot more to say, there are more quests and NPCs now recognise that you've completed them (something of a problem with the original U5). Walking around Britannia is a great experience, thanks to the huge number of little things scattered around. The only major difference with the original is in the dungeons (necessary due to the move to 3D), but some of the new dungeons are extremely well designed with some good puzzles. The entire world is in one piece, something that adds tremendously to suspension of disbelief, especially considering how well designed the world is. It took me just over 50 hours to finish the game (I did all the side quests I could find and took my time walking around the world), and I was sad to see it end.

The game has very few flaws, the worst being the bugs. There are a number of them and hitting one usually involves quitting the game and restarting, not the most elegant solution. The other problem is that, even though Lazarus itself is free, you need to purchase the Lazarus Runtime Environment, which is a terrible game in itself (though after comparing it to Lazarus I'm even more amazed at what the team managed to pull off). Be advised that Lazarus is much more hardware-intensive than Dungeon Siege; my PC ran DS at full settings without a hitch but I had to turn things down for Lazarus and still experienced slowdowns and crashes. Save very often and use multiple save positions. Oh yeah, the game has no journal so you have to keep track of quests and notes by yourself. Just like with Ultima 5

There's a large number of mods floating around. Some are "ease of use", some fix bugs and some add extra content. One even extends the party limit from 6 to 8. It felt a bit like cheating but the NPCs are so well developed it was a pleasure to have more of them.

Bottom line: one of the best CRPGs of the last few years and definitely not to be missed.

 

Don't toy with me!
U6 is one of my favorite games of all time. I used to replay it just to visit the people and place. I'm going to have to check it out.

Is there a U4 remake that is worth playing?

 

If you've played U V Lazarus, you need to see this: Lazarus Unbound -
Six-Score-And-Ten Oblations To A Malefic Avatar

It's basically a "bad" walkthrough for U5 (+ other games, including a few Ultimas), so I wouldn't recommend it unless you've played it properly first, but it is entertaining

 

http://www.u6project.com/ here is the link for the ultima 6 remake. Looks promising. Very much like Ultima Lazarus. Too we don`t get new games, that are just as good as the old-school crpgs. The only one that was on par with them, is the BG games. And Planescape.

 

The Ultima 6 remake seems to be a long way off (I'd say at the very least 6 months, possibly over a year, by looking at the work they've already done and how long it's taken them). It is shaping up to be every bit as good as Lazarus though, so I'm personally very excited about it.

Magpie, I did read that evil walkthrough just after finishing my "proper" run of Lazarus. It's hilariously funny

 

That looks fantastic. I will be playing both the U5 and U6 remakes. Thanks for the heads up.

 

I hope they make a similar version of Ultima IV, as well. And maybe some ultima underworld 2 remake, of sorts.

 

There have been several remakes of the Ultima Underworld series, all of them aborted rather early on. There are 2 remakes of Ultima 4 as NWN mods, but neither of them is great unfortunately. The best version of U4 around is xu4 with the graphics upgrade.

 

I tried the Ultima 4 mods for nwn, and they wern`t good at all. It was Ultima in name only.

 

So I'm playing this now. Fantastic remake. Really excellent. It's great to be playing Ultima again.

Thanks to all for making me aware of this gem!

 

The ultima 6 remake will be out next year I think. Aslo; some blokes are making a brand new ultima 9. That one is being made as a mod to morrowind.

 

Wow. Can you imagine if Ultima 9 was done right?

 

By the looks of things, it will be done right. This time.