Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress

This game had me stuck for a really long time.  It's not that it's difficult, it's not.  It's just that it's not a very good game.  The first Ultima was kind of fun and quirky and was interesting enough to keep me involved, but this one didn't have the same magic.

Plot-wise, Ultima II picks up where the first one left off.  You've defeated the evil wizard, Mondain, but his disciple, Minax has emerged to revenge his death.  And that's it... not much of a plot.

The game is almost exactly the same as the first Ultima.  Same graphics, same controls, etc.  It's located on Earth this time instead of Sosaria and takes place over 5 eras of history.  You start on medieval Earth and, through time-gates, make your way around Pangea, 1990AD, which is closest to "modern times", the Aftermath, which is a post-apocalyptic world and the Time of Legends, which is supposed to be the origin of time, or something like that.

The place is England, the year is 787...

In addition to the different time eras, you are also able to travel to the other planets of the solar system this time around.  Each planet is habitable and can be landed on and some of them even contain dungeons to explore.  Oddly, every time period and every planet contain the same exact set of enemies; So, in medieval England, Pangea, post-apocalyptic U.S. and Jupiter you will face Orcs, Thieves, Wizards and demons.

Space!

Sounds good so far, right?  Well, let's get on with the bad.  I'll start from the beginning.  You can choose your class from 4 options, however, since you can only use spells in dungeons and you don't actually need to go to a dungeon for anything at all, you may as well just pick one of the two melee fighters.  Wizards and Clerics are pretty useless.  Next, unlike the first game, there are no quests and, therefore, no reason to explore any of the dungeons or towers.  There are a couple of cities that you need to go to, to level up your skills and to get the rocket ship, but beyond that, there's no reason to visit any of the other cities.  You eventually get to space, but the only planet you need to visit is Planet X making the other planets irrelevant.

My useless Cleric.

In addition, the best way of leveling is to get yourself a boat.  Once you have that, you can shell enemies from the sea.  The ship has weaponry better than most land items and keeps enemies from ganging up on you since they cannot get to you at sea.  Essentially, I fought land enemies until I got the requisite item then procured myself a ship.  With the ship, I farmed enemies until I had enough money to buy the best weapons and armor and upgrade my health to several thousand points.  Then I went to the city with the rocket ship, launched to Planet X, got the item there and returned to face Minax.

Farming the baddies...

Overall, it was a very easy game and easily exploited.  I suppose you could try to play the game without exploits, but the game all but discourages you from doing so.  Going to dungeons and exploring further than necessary will only diminish your health and gold, leaving you weaker than before you entered.  You get no special items or quests from exploring them so there is, literally, no reason to do so.

Well, she's dead... so there's that.

So, non-existant plot, non-existant quests, half the classes available are useless and most the cities, planets and dungeons are irrelevant.  Did I miss anything?  I finally beat the game and it seems like it took forever to do it.  Hopefully, the next Ultima will be better.

A poor game... play it if you must, but avoid it otherwise.