Ultima III: Exodus

Ultima III: Exodus is one of the works that defined the computer RPG genre in the early 1980s, and the Atari 800 version was among the best-received ports of all thanks to its smooth use of the 8-bit Atari's graphical capabilities. The player assembles a four-member party of adventurers, choosing from several races and classes, travels through the open world of Sosaria with its cities, islands, and accessible moongates, fights in turn-based battles on a separate screen, and gradually uncovers the plot of the creature Exodus, which threatens the entire land. Compared to previous entries, the third installment placed greater emphasis on party play, diverse character classes and races, and a more elaborate magic system split into priest and mage spells, complemented by a fleet of ships and airships for traveling and a system for buying equipment from specialized merchants in individual towns.

Technically, the game benefited on the Atari from its color palette and hardware background scrolling, so traveling across the world map and moving through dungeons felt smoother than on competing 8-bit systems, where scrolling was often choppy. The sound was modest, as was typical for the genre at the time, but the atmosphere was rounded out by detailed text descriptions, random encounters, and the feel of a genuinely vast, interconnected world full of secrets. For many players it was their first encounter with the concept of a persistent game world, where decisions, exploration, and character building had a real impact on progress, and where dangers could be encountered entirely outside the main storyline.

Contemporary reviews ranked Ultima III among the very best of the genre, and the game had a major influence on later CRPG development, including its own sequels and competing series such as Wizardry and Bard's Tale, which adopted many elements of party-based combat and world structure from it. Today it feels more like an archaeological artifact, demanding patience, manual mapping, an absence of modern hand-holding, and the uncompromising difficulty of its final dungeons, but as a historical milestone and evidence of what the genre's roots looked like, it still deserves the attention of every RPG fan.

Why play: For RPG fans willing to arm themselves with patience, manual mapping, and the uncompromising difficulty of the final dungeons — as a milestone that influenced Wizardry and Bard's Tale, it deserves respect.