I try heading back through the serpent gate and sure enough one of the other doors opens up and I find myself in a new area

There are enough people around wearing cowls that this has to be monk island. Most of them won’t speak to me but there are a few who do. One problem here is that the monks all follow a routine based on the tolling of bells on the isle and keep moving around – add to this that they all look exactly the same and trying to talk to the right one becomes a case of trial and error.

I ask about Gwenno but shes already left to go to the northlands – she certainly gets about. This is feeling like the thankless task of chasing Elizabeth and Abraham around in U7.

One of the monks tells me how to collect mandrake roots from the swamp to the north whent he tides are right. This has to be the reason I’m here as the teacher in moonshade wanted me to collect some mandrake before he would give me a spellbook. The tides aren’t right at the moment to collect it however.

I don’t find a huge amount to do on Monk Isle but it doesn’t take long for the tides to change so I go to search the swamps. I find a ruined house who’s key is in a tree stump outside. I follow it through a series of locked doors only to emerge back at the serpent gate I came in on which was a bit of a waste of time.

The mandrake was just lying around the edge of the swamp so I go back and collect some. I have a look around the monks library on the way back which is full of old prophecies + this poem by Minax. The lens in the middle helps me translate them all for a time. Most of the prophecies are about my current quest but are all a bit vague with stuff like my friends becoming my enemies. I’ll no doubt find out what they mean later.

I go back to Moonshade through the gate and hand over the mandrake. I have to go through a series of tiresome copy protection questions before he hands it over. I’d be thinking it was a while since the first lot. A spellbook has been a long time coming in this game and should help no end especially with my reagents ring.

There doesn’t seem to be all that much to do in town at this point. There is still the matter of Mosh telling who claims that the green enchantress is her sister and is only beautiful because she stole a magic comb from Fawn. I tell Mosh I believe her claims which she seems to take as a cue for me to offer her food. When I go to the pub to buy some, I’m told she’s partial to the fish so I buy a portion of this. This puzzle strikes me as a bit unfair as I had to actually attempt to buy the fish before I got the clue.

It appears that beggars can be choosers after all and I hand over the fish.

In return Mosh gives me a magic harp which I can play to stop the giant rats from attacking me in the catacombs. These must be the ones that will get me back to the main island. She doesn’t tell me where the entrance is but I’m not really looking yet anyway.

This still hasn’t gotten me any closer to finding the magic comb so I take it into my hands to pry around Columna’s house and see if I can find anything. This involves a bit of theft of keys and the like. In the basement, along with a nasty buzzsaw trap, I find a scroll which implies she is definitely guilty + a key to something or other.

There is a button on the back wall of the house that lets me into the guardian. In a well hidden spot round the back is a chest with the comb which I grab.

Columna’s lost her looks to some extent although shes looking better than Mosh still. I go back to tell Mosh and there aren’t even any new conversation options which is a bit annoying.

There still has to be more I need to do here. I do notice that Frigidazzi has finally shown up. When I ask her about spells she invites me back after midnight.

She asks me to send my companions away but is far more interested in me than selling me magic.

When the subtle approach fails she tries the dance of passion.

I give in to the inevitable at this point but the MageLord choses this worst possible of moments to pay a visit.

She may only be his mistress and not wife but hes angry enough to put me on trial. The trial is about as fair as Dupre’s was.

I’m quickly found guilty and sent to the freedom mountains. I knew I’d have to go there sooner or later.

On the plus side by the law of the land if I escape I’m free to go.

Most of my possessions are removed and I’m teleported straight into a cell in the dungeon. An automaton introduces me to the place.

I’m trapped in this cell for now but the automaton does eventualy decide to wander out of his locked area and I take the chance to raid his room for stuff including the key out. Once out, I’m enter a maze of sorts and work my way through to find a secret passage out. I disturb a mage lord carrying out some sort of ritual involving a dead woman on an altar but he teleports out before I can stop him.

I run into the mage/thief who someone in Moonshade told me about. He claims to have been unjustly imprisoned but is blatantly a thief so it probably wasn’t that unjust.

He want’s to join up with me and tells me that there are two switches that must be thrown at the same time somewhere in the dungeon. If this is true then I’ll definitely need him. I’m also led to think of the prophecy on monk isle that said I would have to join with a thief and braggart during my quest and this guy pretty much fits the bill.

We work our way through the dungeon and at long last I find my black sword.

He wants me to release him and claims I will need to do so to leave this place but I’m not about to do that.

I run into the mage again and this time he transforms someone into a dragon skeleton and scarpers again.

My companion was telling the truth I a come to an area with the twin levers.

The next area has a raised drawbridge I can’t lower and a teleport surrounded by bodies. One of the bodies has a telekinesis scroll which I transcribe to my spell book.

I cast the spell and lower the drawbridge to reach the next section.

This gets me through to a very strange area with a load of levers and some very strange rooms. I guess the whole dungeon is supposed to be a sort of trial by fire so this is just a magical test of sorts.

Each lever opens a different door and I seem to have to use things from one room in another. To start off I wake a woman who wants me to lead her to her nightmare. When I walk into a room with a dead horse they are consumed in a fireball. I find a key + carrots on her body. There is a room with a dead rabbit, when I drop the carrots in here it transforms into a woman who gives me flowers.

I give these flowers to a mouning man who then fixes a broken lever in the main room before turning into a skeleton.

A few more lever pulls and I make my way out of this area and end up in a literally endless corridor in a dungeon. There is a secret passage to the east which is a bit tricky to find but I do so in the end.

Another automaton offers to sell me potions, then decides to attack me.

This isn’t my final obstacle as there is still the small matter of the lord to deal with. The demon wants me to release him and it appears I have no choice.

The demon is pretty happy about being released after all this time.

He calls me a fool for releasing him but is surprisingly true to his word and the lord is obliterated. I’ve still got the sword and I can still wield it but I’ve no idea how much damage it does now. Technically I shouldn’t be able to wield it without the demon to make it lighter. It may still be as useful in combat as ever for all I know.

I teleport back into Moonshade and all my posessions are in the chest by the teleport. I also find a couple of serpent teeth that I either don’t remember collecting or weren’t there before. My companion leaves for now but I get the impression I could ask him to rejoin if I wanted. I’ve now got a choice between my axe from Silver Seed or the black sword. There is no way to tell how much damage any of these things do so I take the safe option of the axe and I’ll give my sword to one of my companions when I find them again.

I take a guess at them being in the nearest pub and sure enough I find Dupre in there waiting for me. The rest of them have scattered around but Dupre knows roughly where to look. I’ll gather them together and then maybe see where these new teeth will take me. I should also talk to anyone in town to see if I can learn anything new on the way also.

I’ve achieved a bit in Moonshade and been in the area for quite some time now but I still don’t feel that I’ve done whatever is required before I head back. The size of this game is truly unbelievable for a few floppy disks, not just for how long its taking to play through but the fact that I’m always doing something new or exploring a new area. The trigger based nature of the gameplay is becoming more apparent than it was earlier. Its something I’m used to in games but Serpent Isle feels like less of a virtual world than Ultima 7 because of it. The stronger story is making up for this and I can see the merits of both approaches. I would say that some of the Ultima-ness of the game has been lost but this game is effectively a spin-off and not led by Richard Garriot so I would expect that. Despite that, this game is definitely going to be one of my favorite Ultimas. It potentially could even top the list but I won’t be able to say for sure until I’ve seen how the story develops.

One of the people in Moonshade mentions that Pothos bears an uncanny resemblance to Erstam which turns out to be the trigger for him to confess that he is infact his son next time I talk to him.

He now gives me the blood moss quest which I’ve already done.

I hand it over and in return he gives me a set of instructions to get to Erstams island which involve heading for some docks at the north end of the island, ringing a bell, and riding a giant turtle.

I’m about to do just that but as soon as I step outside Shamino is teleported away.

The Lord of Moonshade is one of the few people up at this time of night. He asks me who I think  might have kidnapped Shamino and I get the option of Batlin or the mage who was hurling fireballs at me during the banquet. She seems the most likely so I accuse her (even though I don’t have any evidence) and he tells me to go and search her house.

When I enter her house, her automatons take immediate offense and I’m forced to fight them. I don’t find much in here, there is a locked chest with a key + a couple of scrolls showing that the lord and her used to be lovers but he broke it off. I’m expecting to find a secret passage or something but I admit defeat and head back to the lord.

He seems quite keen to admit the affair and tells me that he had a love-palace built in the middle of the lake for her some time back and tells me to search there next. He also gives me permission to use his barge.

In the palace, I catch her in the act of trying to torture the information out of Shamino.

Just like everyone else who I’ve caught out in this game she immediately attacks me. She puts up more resistance than most, conjuring up a few gremlins but shes no match for the 3 of us.

She curses me with her dying breath but nothing seems to come of it so I grab the key off her body and release Shamino.

After this distraction, I head out to try to get to Erstams island again. I end up going the wrong way to start with and end up exploring the area north of Moonshade. There are a lot of strange little buildings including this odd contraption that seems to be missing a part but I’ve no idea what that is or what it would do anyway.

It turns out I needed to follow the East coast to reach the docks. I follow the instructions and an island sized turtle swims up.

It drops us off at another dock. I know I must be in the right place by the wriggling limbs lying around.

Erstam lives here with his hunchback assistant. He is less mad than I was possibly expecting and is attempting to find the secret of immortality. To discover the secrets of life and death, he has decided to go the opposite way and attempt to create life, Frankenstein style. These experiments are dangerous, especially to his assistants who’s limbs are the ones that decorate the house.

He tells me that our missing dagger is around here somewhere and I find it behind the steps.

He also identifies the blue egg I’m carrying and tells me to look through his telescope. When I do so I see our missing sword in the middle of a load of ice. It must be in the north of the main island which I will need to cross the swamp to get to.

Erstams current assistant is not the best at keeping secrets and tells me that his master knows all about teleportation and uses some sort of jawbone to do it.

Erstam won’t tell me more unless I help him out first. He wants a Phoenix egg from a northern island. I agree to fetch it and he teleports me there.

I emerge into a small cave with some sort of tropical garden outside.

Just inside a further cave is a dead bird lying in the middle of some lava. I pull the inviting looking lever on the wall and the flames spread in from the north.

The bird sets alight and the phoenix is reborn. I was expecting a big dungeon crawl here but there was hardly anything to do in the end. The phoenix is also from Britannia and came through the gates and is attempting to restore balance in its own way.

Just to the south past a cyclops I find a teleporter which takes me back to Erstams. He now wants me to build him a creature from the body parts + egg which I throw into his contraption in the middle of the lab.

As soon as I do this the creature springs to life. True to his word Erstam hands over a key to allow me to get his magic serpents jawbone. He doesn’t tell me how to use it but I notice there are slots for the two teeth I have to fit into (and room for many more).

His monster wants to join us in the quest and I can’t see a reason why not despite a few of my companions objecting so I accept.

I now need to figure out how to use the jawbone. I try using the conviently placed serpents gate and sure enough this teleports me to a new area. This is basically a teleport hub similar to that in Savage Empire as far as I can tell. There are a lot of possible exits with doors barring the way, but a couple of doors open for me so I assume which teeth I own controls which ones open. I take the first exit I find and teleport back to Moonshade.

I’m not certain what to do next but there must be more I need to do before heading back to the main island. Since I have 2 serpents teeth I’m thinking I may have an alternative exit from the serpents gate (although this may just take me back to Erstam). I’ll try that first and failing that talk to everyone in town again and see if I haven’t missed something.

I’ve still got a few loose ends to sort out in Monitor so I start on these fist. I’m pretty sure Luther has my sheild so I head for the training grounds to take him up on his earlier challenge. I lose my nice weapon when I enter the arena and its quite tricky to win the fight without decent equipment but I beat him in the end. While I’m here I take the chance to train my stats up a bit – this is quite expensive though and I soon run out of money.

The healer who’s daughter was kidnapped wants me to look in her crystal ball. This shows a strange scene where her daughter is attacked but she is either possessed or not what she seems as she fights back with a barrage of magic herself. I promise to try to bring her back and the healer gives me her training sword. I’m supposed to find some sort of Serpent Isle style bloodhound creature to follow her trail but I have no idea where to look. I’ll have to attempt to pick this quest up later.

I finally get around to freeing Iolo who’s been needlessly languishing in the prison cells all the time I was off fetching the silver seed. He is of course still level 2 whereas the rest of my party in up to level 6-7. I really should have taken him with me but I’m sure I can build his experience up pretty quickly.

I’ve run out of things to do in Monitor so I head out to explore. Between Fawn and Monitor is a large pub called the sleeping bull. This place is really a small village with quite a few houses on the outside and a lot of characters to talk to. The pubs bard tells us a tale that sounds very familiar to Shamino about one of the castles to the north. He also tells us about the castle of the white dragon. This is where I can guess that the Serpent Isle is actually the lands of danger and despair I guess although I did know that much heading into the game. I’m looking forward to finding out more about this storyline. Most of the people in the pub were travelling to Moonshade but are trapped here now as their captain has been arrested by the pikemen. I’ll have to attempt to get him released later.

The lady who owns the pub has my swamp boots which I swap for some slippers. From her and some of the pubs other patrons I learn a long history about the pub where its founder Silvernade disappeared one day. The same thing has now happened to her husband about the time Batlin was passing through. She tells me that she heard a scuffle in the basement so I head down to look for secret doors.

Sure enough there is a secret door in a suspicious looking gap between barrels. This leads me to a lever which opens the even more obvious metal door at the bottom of the cellar. How people have found this such a mystery is beyond me.

I find a treasure map to Silvernades horde which I’m going to have to look into at some point. I don’t find any sign of the missing husband though. There is a big area with loads of levers but I don’t know what they do.

Around now, I remember that I’m still supposed to be looking for traitors in Monitor. I do what everyone suggests and go ask Krayg – he’s obviously not guilty but he suggests I check out a black monilith in the woods to the north where the goblins meet up.

The wood he’s sent me to look around in is quite large and it takes a little finding. As soon as I get there Iolo points out a bottle which is just as well because I would have just ignored it. I pick it up and Shamino suggests its a clue as no goblin would have left it here so it must belong to a human.

I walk around town showing the bottle to everyone. Lord Marsten is less than interested but it does seem suspicious that he wants me to throw it away.

The pub seems like a better place to take a beer bottle and sure enough I learn that the bottle belongs to Simon who runs the inn.

After a bit of cross examination, we get a confession out of Simon. It turns out that he’s actually a goblin who has been working as a spy for years. He immediately attacks but doesn’t stand a chance against 4 of us. This is becoming a habit with Monitor’s inhabitants and this is the third that we’ve butchered now.

Simon gets quite talkative in his final moments and blames the goblin king for betraying him. He even tells me how to find the goblin village by going through an entrance near a particular tree in the forest.

I had quite a bit of trouble finding the obelisk before which for very obvious. Finding a tree in the middle of a forest is going to be trickier. I find a house who’s occupants have all been killed, presumably by goblins.

The correct tree isn’t all that obvious even when I find it. I walk into it and find myself in a dungeon though so I know it must be the right place.

I follow the dungeon through and emerge out of a hillside next to the goblin village. I hack through a load of goblins to the center of the village and we take out the chief goblin. Considering that a whole town of fighters couldn’t cope with them this isn’t that hard a battle. There is a key on the body of the goblin king.

The key opens a locked door back in the dungeon which gets me into the goblins treasure horde. The missing helmet is in here.

There are also a couple of scrolls. The first implicates Lord Marsten himself as helping the goblins.

The next implicates Spektor – the chancellor.

I head back to Monitor with the scrolls and the helm and no one seems all that interested. The leader of the bears is the only person who wants to do anything about it and immediately has both of them arrested and put in jail.

I visit them both in the jail, they confess but don’t have much to say for themselves. That makes 5 people in this town so far that are traitors which is a fair percentage of the town. Spektor mentions some sort of secret weapon. Asking around town reveal some details about this + a key. I never did find any more out about this though – I expect that I needed to have a look around the town hall.

I’ve still not explored Fawn yet so I head there next. When I get into town Iolo finds a lute created by a magical storm. One of the townspeople requests a song at which point he sings a song about Gwenno.

Everyone in Fawn worships beauty which seems a pretty questionable religion. I learn from the temple priestess that all the positions of power are occupied by woman and the best a man can do is to be one of three Great Captains. Fawn is primarily a fishing town but like everywhere else the boats are not sailing due to the storms. A ship full of people from Britannia arrived some time back but they were all expelled from town and blamed for causing the magic storms. I think this is the ship Gwenno arrived on, it also carried a load of fellowship members who are now living to the east of Fawn. The priestess also has my armour and agrees to swap it if I find her at home.

The man running the provisions shop has our food although I’m not convinced I wouldn’t rather keep the money it was replaced by. He also recognises the ring which was the engagement ring of his daughter who lost her fiance during a storm.

While exploring the rest of the town, I’m attacked by a pirate who clearly knows who I am. I presume this is Batlins doing but I have no proof of who sent him.

I find the shopkeepers daughter and show her the ring. She doesn’t actually want it back but does give me my magic gloves in return. I’m getting my possessions back at quite a rate now but the ones I really want are my spellbook and my sword which are still nowhere to be seen.

I’m told that there is an oracle in the temple which regularly gives “revelations”. These revelations are held by the people as gospel truth but there are suspicions that something has been tampering with the oracle. I agree to look into this.

Before I get much further a guard comes up to be to tell me I’ve been given an appointment with the queen of Fawn thanks to Iolo’s singing.

She gives Iolo a diamond necklace to give to Gwenno.

She proposes a toast at which Dupre gets a little carried away and blurts out a toast to Lord British. This really wasn’t a good idea.

LB is as popular in Fawn as he was in Monitor and the queen has Dupre arrested immediately.

Dupres trial starts the next morning in the longest ingame cutscene so far.

Near much everyone in town is called up as a witness. The whole trial is a farce – all in all between their repeated attempts to kill me and their dubious moralities the inhabitants of Serpent Isle aren’t exactly endearing themselves to me. I suppose a community formed from people who rejected the virtues is likely to end up something like this but I preferred Britannia.

The trial is adjorned for the day after the prosecution finishes. Dupre appoints me in his defense but I don’t fancy my chances much judging by the way that practically everyone in town seems to want to present evidence against him. While exploring the rest of the city I’m approached again and told that Dupre is being held in a cell beneath the temple, given a key to get in and told to go there after dark.

I find Dupres cell although I can’t actually open it and rescue him.

Just beyond here I catch the leader of the great captains rigging the oracle using a series of levers. Like everyone I catch out he seems to think that attacking me is a good idea.

Once he is disposed of I’m left with a load of levers and no idea what to do with them. I flick a few around at random and the oracle starts to talk to me. I give the oracle instructions to tell the truth at the trial.

At the trial, I call a few witnesses but they don’t improve matters so I give that up quickly and call for a verdict. The oracle describes the conspiracy between the high priestess and the great captain and all is forgiven.

I’m not sure I achieved much in Fawn really – all I got out of the whole trial business was that diamond necklace which must mean its going to be significant later in the game. Having said that I discovered that the woman who runs the sleeping bull will buy jewelery at good prices so I may just have sold it to her for all I know. I’m running out of quests here so I head out to find the arrested ships captain who I was told about at the sleeping bull. He is being held at one of the guard towers just to the NW of the bull. I can buy his freedom from the guards for a measly 100 Monetari which sounds ok but as soon as I offer to pay they up the price.

At the bull, I’m approached by a woman called Lydia who has heard that I need funds and wants us to go off together on a quest to retrive some. This all sounds a bit dodgy but I don’t see I have much choice so I agree to leave my companions and the two of use set off together.

Lydia doesn’t exactly tell me where we are going but seems to regard the whole thing as a big adventure and tells me to follow the coast north then east. I can ask for directions and after a while we home in on a likely looking building. The key she has opens the door which is a hopeful sign and sure enough there are a load of gold bars just inside. The building has some sort of bizarre security system which seems to randomly teleport us around and monsters appear then change into different monsters or items when I kill them. I give up on trying to clear the building of them and just leave the building.

Once we get outside we are attacked by a load of bandits. Lydia conveniently magics herself away and agrees to meet me back at the pub leaving me to deal with half a dozen of them on my own. Thanks to my equipment from the silver seed addon, I manage to fight them off. Lydia isn’t waiting for me at the pub but I’ve got all the gold bars so I’m not too worried about this.

The guards accept the gold bars and hand over the key. I don’t think much of the legal system but I release Hawk who without a thank you heads back to the pub.

I’m sure Hawk would sail me over to Moonshade at this point but there is still the matter of the missing girl from Monitor. I’ve no idea where to find one of these bloodhound-like creatures but I’ve still not explored the area north of Fawn + the two castles should be up there somewhere. When I get to the swamp, however, my party start falling asleep one by one until I do the same. I wake up in a very bizarre place – its some sort of ruined version of Lord British’s castle. He is even here himself – he tells me how a series of earthquakes, storms and the like have hit Britannia since I left. He mentions the royal mint being struck by lightning and replaced by a lighthouse. Retrospectively, as I write this I’m wondering if that was the place I got the gold bars from with Lydia. It would partly explain the strange teleporting and random creatures inside it. I wasn’t sure whether to believe that this was the real LB but this would seem to lend credence to it if I’m right. I’m sure Britannia isn’t as bad as it looks in this dream world but it appears that the storms we are getting in Serpent Isle have spread. The dreamworld appears to be a reasonable size – I notice a big fire after some exploring, walk into it and then wake up with my companions back outside the swamp.

It appears that I will need some way to stay awake in this swamp. I carry on exploring the immediate area and find a bit red portal with a few daemons around it. Stepping through I’m teleported to a small building in the middle of a lake of lava. There doesn’t seem to be anything to do here – I find a teleport that returns me back to where I came from.

I don’t find anything else of interest and decide its time to head for Moonshade. Hawk agrees to set sail as soon as I ask and I head for the boat outside. First time around, he gets stuck and doesn’t manage to walk to the boat forcing me to reload. There is no trouble second time around.

We are dogged by magical storms for the whole journey but make it to land in one piece. The captain has decided enough is enough by this point and will not sail back so I’m stuck here until I either cure the storms or find another route.

The meatloaf lookalike who came over with us on the boat tells me about some rumored passages that connect Moonshade to the other islands. I’ll look for these after I’m done looking around.

Moonshade is a city of mages. Like the rest of serpent isle the moral system here is a bit questionable. There is a definite class system between magical and non magical people (called Mundanes). In fact quite a lot of the people in town refuse to even speak to me as a non mage. The mages seem to largely live in large isolated houses and have automatons to act as servents.

I find a school for mages with a few children being taught. One of these is the child of a Monitor resident I met earlier and he gives me a note to take back to his parents. Moonshade have the policy of snatching any children from the parents who displays magical ability alegedly in the interests of public safety. I can’t imagine this policy is too popular with the residents of Fawn and Monitor – its a good job they aren’t on the same island. While I’m in here I get handed a magic scroll – when I try to use it I get to talk to one of the 3 town leaders. It turns out Batlin passed through town a while back with his tame demon and she thinks I’m in league with him somehow and wants me to reveal how to control demons. I obviously don’t agree to this, not that I know anyway.

At this point I spend quite a bit of time looking for something to do in Moonshade and not getting too far. However, meatloaf has managed to arrange a meeting with the towns lord for me. He says he will summon me at the appropriate time. A few minutes later my party is teleported straight to him.

The lord has gone to the trouble of putting on a banquet for me and seems like a reasonable guy despite the attitude of some of the townspeople.

All three town leaders are present including the one who sent me the scroll earlier. She is a bit less reasonable and decides to pelt me with fireballs before being restrained. These towns could do with picking some better rulers – they all seem to want to kill me. She teleports away and the banquet is interrupted again by a man with a message for the Lord. I didn’t learn too much from this meeting but when I leave I do find that a few more of the buildings are occupied so this was blatantly a trigger event. The towns shop is now occupied and I learn from the man there that there is a shortage of reagents especially blood moss which he also mentioned when he came in with the message during the banquet.

On this basis I head out to find some blood moss and generally explore a bit to the south. There isn’t actually much to see but I do find some blood moss with no problems at all.

When I get back to town I can’t actually give the blood moss to the shopkeeper. I guess I have to do something else first but I don’t know what. I do find a mage who specialises in spells to do with death who calls a seance for my benefit. I get a brief chat with Chrisopher who’s murder I spent the whole of the last game trying to solve. Just as he is about to tell me something useful the seance ends.

I spent a long time on this game today and have made some decent progress. I’m learning a bit about Serpent Isle but I still don’t know much about the mysterious Ophidians who lived here in ancient times. One oddity about this game is that there are only 3 cities mentioned in the manual and I’ve basically explored them all now. I’ve still got a couple of castles and monk isle to see but the implication is that there will be a lot less conversation and a lot more dungeon crawling in the later stages of this game.

I can’t say if I prefer this to Ultima 7 or not at this stage. I feel that the plot is yet to really start moving and the background details are still being filled in. The game feels a little different, I’m being led through it more and there are things that never happened in U7, like the cutscenes, characters approaching me and the even longer conversations. I’ve heard this game described as being linear, this may be true to some extent but I’ve really not noticed it so far. It certainly hasn’t affected how I’ve played the game and I’ve always had options on what to do next although I will admit they do seem to be slowly running out. As long as the world doesn’t close behind me as I go linearity won’t bother me but I do want to be able to go back and pick up loose ends. The new hotkeys are far more useful than they sound and the keyring is a lifesaver. The number of keys I’ve already seen is this game is huge and without it I’d have been hunting through my pack every time for the right one.

What I can say at this point is that Serpent Isle is living up to U7 which is high praise by any standards. My main criticism would be that there is a little too much conversation and the conversation topics can be difficult to follow when they lose their original context. It strikes me as the sort of game that would benefit from being replayed so that you know a bit more going into these conversations. I expect part of this problem is caused by playing the game with a hangover and not having had enough sleep which didn’t improve my attention levels any.

I’ll continue exploring the town next, and see if I can’t manage to give this blood moss away one way or another. I also need to have a look at the northern part of the island where there is some sort of dungeon called the mountains of freedom which the mages use as a prison. There is no mention of it yet, but this being an Ultima, I would be highly surprised if I don’t have to rescue someone/something from there in the near future.