Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle

Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle is a direct sequel to Ultima VII: The Black Gate and uses the same game engine and free-roaming open-world movement system, including the real day-night cycle and item physics that Black Gate players had only just gotten used to. This time the player travels to the distant realm of Serpent Isle, summoned there by an old friend, Iolo, to help solve the mystery of the vanished sage Batlin and the growing influence of three corrupted serpent temples that have divided the local population into hostile camps. Instead of the sunny and fairly clear-cut Britannia, the player is met with a darker, morally ambiguous world, where the line between good and evil is often blurred and one's own faction is not much better than the enemy's. The landscape of Serpent Isle is also far harsher and more inhospitable than fertile Britannia - the player travels through frozen plains, dead swamps, and underground cave systems, where a trap or a treacherous ally lurks at every step.

The game expands on its predecessor's mechanics with a weather system that affects gameplay and visibility, a more elaborate combat system with more tactical party positioning, and a much greater emphasis on moral choices that change the course of the story and the endings of individual quests. The graphics and technical execution are noticeably improved compared to Black Gate, but the game also runs on an engine that was already becoming outdated at the time, placing it in an odd transitional position between generations of RPGs of that era - technically older, more ambitious in content. It tells a cohesive, darker story with its own ending and its own cast of supporting characters, so despite its technical kinship with the previous installment, it stands as an independent work with its own canon and an atmosphere closer to moral drama than heroic fairy tale. Characters from Black Gate also appear here in new roles, and their fates often come to a tragic close, giving the story a weight the previous installment did not offer.

Why play: Serpent Isle will appeal to players who want to experience the pinnacle of classic Ultima storytelling with a darker atmosphere and more morally complicated decisions than in previous installments of the series, and who don't mind period DOS graphics along the way.