Ultima VII: The Black Gate came out in 1992 from Origin Systems, and it still shows up on top PC gaming lists more than three decades later. Developers point to it as a major influence. Todd Howard of Bethesda, who worked on Fallout 3, and Swen Vincke of Larian Studios, maker of Baldur’s Gate 3, both name it as a big influence on their own work.
A World Without Breaks Between Places
The game let players move from town to the world outside to dungeon and back again without a single break screen interrupting the flow. It stood as a technical achievement for its time.
The technical work sat alongside a story built around characters and themes that still stay with players long after they finish it.
How The Story Opens
Ultima games usually open with the Avatar meeting Lord British, who hands out a task, whether that is overcoming Exodus or becoming the Avatar. Black Gate opens another way. A red being called the Guardian scorns the Avatar before the Avatar is sent to the city of Trinsic.
Two hundred years have passed since the Avatar’s last visit. Someone has been killed in a brutal quartering. A Gargoyle close by has also been killed for no clear reason, and blood is everywhere. The people of the town are left in surprise, wondering what happened to Britannia.
Garriott On The Guardian
Ultima creator Richard Garriott, known to players as Lord British, said each game since Ultima IV has dealt with an issue he saw in the actual world at the time. Ultima IV was about the inner fight to build a self of virtue, he said. Ultima V looked at the danger of rigid belief, religious zeal carried too far, and the use of virtue as a means of force by a controlling state. Ultima VI looked at prejudice against others, fear of outsiders, and the personal nature of reality.
With Ultima VII, Garriott said he wanted to bring back a truly evil force, but one unlike most game villains who simply wait in the final level. He wanted the Guardian to earn the player’s anger by working against the Avatar from the start. Garriott said the Guardian’s followers and their beliefs needed to seem appealing on the surface, while hiding a false purpose beneath it. He said he had a number of actual modern groups in mind while building that belief system, and added that every Ultima game speaks to current events in some way.
The James Bond Influence
The game mixes genres in a way that can make the fantasy setting feel like something else. At times it plays more like a mystery than a quest, since the player can look into the killing in Trinsic, question people, and try to learn what happened. Or the player can pass it by entirely and roam Britannia instead.
Lead writer Raymond Benson explained how that approach came together. Before joining Origin, Benson spent more than a decade in New York working in theatre, directing shows, composing music, and writing, including “The James Bond Bedside Companion” and a supplement for Victory Games’ James Bond 007 Role-Playing Game called “You Only Live Twice II—Back of Beyond.” He also wrote for the computer games Stephen King’s The Mist, A View to a Kill, and Goldfinger.
Benson later moved back to Austin, Texas, where he and his wife had gone to school. “My wife and I had lived in Austin in the 70s when we were both attending the University of Texas at Austin and loved the town,” he said. He described taking a course in court reporting that he did not care for, though he was good at it, before seeing a newspaper ad for writers at a computer game company that turned out to be Origin Systems. He applied and got the job.
Benson first edited lines for Martian Dreams, a spinoff in the Worlds of Ultima series, before Garriott named him Head Writer for Ultima VII. Benson was already a member of Mystery Writers of America and was put up for an Edgar Award for The James Bond Bedside Companion. He said Garriott already had the game’s plain idea worked out: a being called the Guardian wants to rule Britannia, so he builds a group called the Fellowship to bring together the pieces that will let him enter the world, and it falls to the Avatar to stop him.
Benson said he set out to write a Hitchcock/James Bond-style mystery that starts with a single killing and turns out to be the surface of a far larger scheme. He wrote the main story and characters, then led a team that built out the towns of Britannia, each with its own smaller story feeding into the larger one.
What Changed In Britannia
- A drought turned the city of Paws into a poor region struggling for the plainest needs.
- Neighboring Britannia, home of Lord British, saw good fortune push local prices higher.
- The Fellowship, the group built around the Guardian, moved into the space the Avatar’s long absence had left behind.
The contrast between Paws and Britannia carries a quiet accusation through every town the Avatar visits.
Names, Dates And Titles
- Ultima VII: The Black Gate came out in 1992 from Origin Systems.
- Lead writer: Raymond Benson.
- Creator and director: Richard Garriott, known to players as Lord British.
The killing that opens Ultima VII, along with the death of an innocent Gargoyle, turns out to be only the surface of a far larger scheme against Britannia itself.
Source: kotaku.com
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