I started off by heading for the space capsule to get the explosive – when I get there its all gone already.

I go back and tell Carnegie and he suggests asking Roosevelt for help tracking the culprit.

First time round Roosevelt isn’t much help as I need some evidence. I walk back to the capsule again and pick up a broken metal band that was holding the explosive originally and take this back to him. Now he needs a microscope to examine it. Nellie Bly helpfully tells me where to get one at this point.

The teleporters are invaluable in the game with all the constant fetching errands between cities. I’m back with the microscope in no time and shock horror the culprit was Rasputin. Now I need to get into Argyre to see him.

I sail my barge round and its one square too big to sail right up to the gates. I’m not too happy about this but a smaller one cannoned barge is not so far away to the NE. I try this instead but it still won’t breach the gates. I must be on the right lines so I start asking everyone.

Peary is a good source on Argyre and suggests the cannons himself but I need steel balls first.

Carnegie makes them straight off and after making room in my backpack I head back to Argyre.

The new balls do the trick and I’m inside.

There are only a couple of main characters inside Argyre + some commoners who don’t get named or have much to say. Emma Goldman gives me a long talk on the merits of anarchy and overthrowing government which is apparently why she is helping Rasputin.

Rasputin immediately points out the need to disguise my metal colleague and also tells me that the explosive is now in the dream world. Aside from deactivating the dream machine he can potentially blow the planet up by transferring it back again without care.

I’m not getting anywhere with Rasputin so I go for the berries instead. There are a few bushes around so I grab all the berries I can see and head back.

I get the dye made by Sarah Bernhardt.

Then take this to the machine in the pumping station and the process is a complete success.

She now has the appearance of the woman who came to my door right at the start of the game in the intro – this sort of reversed cause and effect thing are one of the things I like about time travel stories so its nice to see that here. She suggests we go see Segal at this point.

Segal and the others start work on making more bodies while we have to go and fetch the explosive so its back to Argyre again.

When I get back all the commoners are dead and Rasputin, confesses how he was lured to Mars by Raxachk. He has retreated into the dream world and I have to follow him to get the explosive and save Mars & Earth.

In the dream world I immediately bump into a familar face in the shape of Faulinei – one of the shadowlords from Ultima 5. Its nice to see a tie-in with the main series although this is pretty much the same idea as the gargoyle shrines in Ultima 6. The idea here is that the shadowlords are still part of my subconcious and in my dreams they still exist. They want to prove their virtues over mine so I get a series of three tests.

The first test involves two doors, two Spectors and I have to decide which is real. There is a mirror which I push infront of one and it reflects a martian instead of a human being. This must be the false one then and thats 1 test done.

Next up is the shadowlord of hatred.

This test involves a dying martian allegedly wounded by my friends. I have the option to kill or save him and of course help him out.

For the final test of courage, I need to kill off a leviathon. This is just a case of walking on and nearly but not quite dying.

The tests are perhaps a bit easier than I would have liked. It would have been nice to see a bit more made of these since you get through the lot in 5 mins. I’m now face to face (through a glass wall) with Raxachk. I can see the explosive but can’t reach it and there is also a door I can’t get through. Talking to Raxachk, he wants me to entertain him by facing three fights.

The first two fights are pretty easy, the last is a lot tougher with a leviathon + hordes of tentacles coming after me at once. I have got an elephant gun by this point which helps + I get as many goes as I like.

Raxachk leaves me to entertain myself. I’ve picked up two lots of berries by now. One shows me the inside of the locked area and another gives me the telekinesis ability to pull the level that opens the door. Inside is a huge quantity of dreamstuff.

I grab a bit of dreamstuff and first time get an M-60!

I attack Raxachk with this and he goes down straight away.

I transfer the explosive back – it appears that some of the harmful effects of transporting from the dreamworld are true as the world is shaking when I return. I leg it over to the space cannon.

When I get there every character in the game is lined up and ready to go. I can talk to them for a brief line if I want.

Talking to Carnegie, gives him the explosive and the end sequence starts.

I’ve had a blast replaying this game. It really stands out as one of the great RPG’s for me. There is perhaps a bit too much tooing and froing between cities fetching things but the teleporters stop this from taking too long. I wish more people had played ths game. Apparently there were intended to be ancient greece (with gods) and King Arthur games to complete a set of four Worlds of Ultimas but this never happened due to the sales. I’d have liked to play both those games but will have to be content with the 2 we got.

Next: Wing Commander 2 – Special Operations 1

The first job today was to set out to sort out the lens towers – they are all marked on the map so there is no problem finding them. I’ve been to one already and seen it was covered in weeds. I tracked back to the 1893 landing ship and picked up the weedkiller I’d ignored earlier first, then set off to have a look at the other two towers. The first had a smashed lens – this sounded like a job for our glass expert Tiffany so I picked that up.

The next tower was missing its motor – a broken one was in inside a building nearby so I took that also.

Tiffany fixes the lens in no time.

And back in Olympus Edison does the same for the motor.

Now I have to walk back to all the 3 towers fixing them – first the motor. It takes a bit of time to figure out exactly where I need to be stood to get this to work but I get there in the end.

Replacing the lens is the same procedure near enough.

Finally I use the weedkiller on the 3rd tower and then go into the control room nearby. I have to enter alignment coordinates – I got a hint way back about using the time here so I get the time from my pocket watch and sure enough that works.

Sherman pipes up about a pumping station which we could now use to fill the canals so I go to have a look.

As soon as I walk near an interesting looking valve my party gets steamed to death. I think I’ll come back here later.

Instead I go to have a look at this laboratory. It takes some finding but is directly north of the NW most martian city.

In it I find a robot gem cutter who apparently needs some radium to be able to cut gems.

Once cut these gems form the heartstone for the martian prototype body. I have some radium I’ve been carrying around so I put that in. I don’t have a gem though so I need to find some azurite. Hearst was into gems so I’ll try him.

The prototype body is in the lab ready to go as soon as I get this heartstone.

Hearst does have some azurite..

but won’t give me it unless I do him a favour in typical adventure game style. He sent a photographer to get a photo of the cannon but he never came back. Rather than look for him himself, I’ve got to do it apparently. I picked the camera up ages ago so I offer it to him.

That isn’t enough – I have to get it developed which means taking the plate to the other side of the world.

Melies develops the photo straight off.

Hearst still isn’t happy but he gives me the azurite.

Cutter makes me my heartstone. I put it in the body and then carry it all the way to one of the dream machines.

Starting up the machine works and Chsheket is transfered into the body.

Sherman takes his leave.

And is replaced by Chsheket in the party.

Nellie mentions we need to make her look more human and suggests Sarah Bernhardt so I head for Olympus.

Apparently there is a machine we can use to spray a rubber flesh like substance onto the body but we need some rouge berries to dye it the right colour. I’ve seen the machine in the pumping station already. The rouge berries are in Argyre which is the one place I haven’t been so I head there next.

As I was probably told way back at the start of the game, I ‘m locked out of Argyre by a big metal barrier. Its conveniently next to a canal which puts me in mind of that barge with the cannons. First I’ll need to fill the canals again so its back to the pumping station.

I send Chsheket through on her own. Being metal the steam doesn’t affect her and she is able to restart the pumping station.

All the canals are full again and there is a convenient barge just outside. This is just a little one without cannons so I sail it off towards the big one.

On the way I’m attacked by my first canal worm. These aren’t as tough as they look but Spector does take some hits.

The bigger barge has a rail track down the middle which has got to be a clue. I still have the problem of the iron ore – I decide to head for the iron mines on the way back.

Sure enough the rail tracks match up when I get to the mine.

I use the drill I rescued Shermann with earlier to mine for some iron ore. This I shovel into a cart which I push back to the barge.

I sail it to the Olympus mines and push the cart all the way to Carnegie who can now finish his cannon apparently. All we need now is some of the explosive from the 1893 ship to propel the ship back again to Earth which he asks me to fetch.

I’m running out of tasks now  – I just need to fetch those berries and get the explosive. There is still the matter of the possessed humans at Argyre though so I expect I’m not all that near the end yet. I’ll have a go at finishing this off tommorow night but have a feeling I may need another day.

The first job I did today was to fetch the control panel for Edison and get him to fix it. This didn’t seem to be any use at the dream machine in Olympus but will no doubt come in useful elsewhere.

I decide to take a look at this motherlode on the map I got from Cooter. On the way I’m attacked by a Martian agricultural robot which is a first.

I find the spot on the map and it turns out to be some sort of power station. There are two robots in there. The first called Coker fetches coal and puts in on a conveyor.

The conveyor is broken though – I take the broken belt with me so I can get it fixed.

The other robot Stoker takes the coal to the furnace. I don’t find this motherlode anywhere but there is a door that won’t work without power.

Back at Olympus Trippet fixes the belt.

I take it back to the power station, wheelbarrow some coal into the furnace to get it going then the robots take over.

The electricity comes back on and the locked door now opens and reveals limitless bins of oxium which I help myself to.

Stoker mentioned electricity towers which would need fixing if the power was brought straight back on. Sure enough on the other side of the station I find the towers with cables flapping around.

Spectors wearing rubber gloves so I try to get him to fix it but he won’t have it.

I swap the equipment around and do it myself.

That gets the electric supply for the whole planet going again. I head out to have a look at one of the towers to the north next.

When I get there the controls don’t work as the lens is overgrown with weeds. I’ve can’t do anything about this yet so will come back.

The teleport tubes now work which should help me out no end. I decide to take a look at the dream machine down at Hellas.

I notice a rusted shut door on the way – I use some lamp oil on it and find a load of live martian seeds behind it – these have to be useful so I grab one.

Marcus gives me a bit of advice about the dreamworld and where to find the machine.

On the way to the machine I find a canal barge – I’m sure I’ll be using these later but the canals are still empty even with the electric going.

I fix the dream machine with Edisons panel + some radium and fire it up.

This transports me to a very odd world of void and obelisks. Walking into an obelisk takes me to another world.

These worlds are pretty bizarre – each obelisk represents one of the posessed people who have been trapped in nightmares by the martians. I have to go in and solve some problem or other to get them out. In the first one I have to get a minotaur who is causing havoc in a china shop out the back of the shop by using a red carpet and then locking him out.

Once complete Tiffany is now standing where the obelisk was ready to be returned to his body.

The next obelisk takes me to a dreamworld recreation of Hellas complete with a small population of Martians. I get all sorts of information here. One of the martians was aparently working on some sort of replacement body in a laboratory under the north icecap which I will need to find later but it apparently was under ice a lot of the time even when the canals were full so I’ll have to get the canals filled first.

The leader of the group volunteers to leave the dreamworld if I can grow a new body. I get various intructions on this.

I’m also told the neccessary checmicals, I’ll need to use as a fertilzer. I’ll have a go at this after I free everyone from the dream world.

In the next world I have to get past a load of moving trees.

And then nursemaid a martian pod plant to maturity.

I’m given a few seeds and some water which I’m supposed to use to repel the attacking worms from the plant. Its easier just to fight the worms off all in all.

Eventually the pod ripens, I cut it open and thats another one done.

H.G. Wells is being attacked by a load of invisible monsters. I can see their footprints so I attack them with the elephant fun I picked up ealier in the map.

Lenin’s world is one of the oddest with workers just out of reach on a winding path.

Lenin wants me to divide the wealth equally…..

I gather up all the money and put it down in 25 piles of 10.

After giving back the spare change Lenin is happy with the job and thats the last of the obelisks done.

Next its time to grow this pod plant. The chemicals are in one of the buildings in Hellas. I trek to the north pole and back to shovel some ice into a bucket for the water.

The plant takes 9 days to grow and apparently I have to visit it every 3 days. I take the easy option and just camp outside to pass the time. The plant slowly gets bigger.

Eventually its ripe – I cut it open and get a complete martian body.

I go back in the dream machine and Prektesh tells me to put the body in the machine and he will transfer into it.

It all seems to go ok

Butt apparently the infection is now in the soil. Prektesh dies and tells me to take the body to Tekapesh.

Tekapesh agrees to be more helpful when I give him the body.

He grants me access ot his dream machine. I go and use it and get another 4 obelisks.

The first world here is a room that shrinks when you step on the grey tiles. I have to get the oil at the far end and get back again so I can open the door.

This is easy enough.

The next world is another really odd one. Its supposed to represent the solar system but does it using tiles from the rest of the game.

For instance I’m chased on one square by a red dot so thats obviously supposed to be Jupiter.

I find Lowell near the edge. He wants me to find Pluto for him which means getting past the monster.

Its a pretty mean looking canal worm but I have a cupids bow. Shooting it with this charms it and I can just walk past.

A lot of empty space later I find pluto and use my mirror to signal Lowell that I’ve found it.

The Clemens quest is one of the more boring ones. I have to move a barge around with a lever collecting the pages of his book. Invisible blocks get in the way all the time which leads to a lot of trial and error. This is one of the larger dreams also.

40+ pages later he tells me I’ve got them all and compiles them into a book for me to post.

Theres a postbox at the end of the stars. I use the manuscript on it and thats him free.

Next world, I’m immediately set upon by four proto-martians. I finish these off and then get a message saying I’ve collapsed from exhaustion.

When I wake up all my party are dead.

The moment I step outside the door I find out I’m still asleep. I grab a load of dollars off the bodies of my party and find a horse auction at the other end.

One of the horses is Smith. I bid for him at the auction and he gives me a load of clues for all the previous games. That doesn’t help me out much. I go back in and restart the world and this time buy the grey horse which turns out to be the last missing person.

Now everyone is free, I ask Tekapesh to return to the dream world and he agrees.

All the 1893 crew now seem to be back in their bodies although there are the ones at Argyre that I still haven’t been to see yet. Talking to all of them, I don’t get any particularly useful information so it looks like I need to go back and try one of the other quests next. I’ll probably have a look at the towers at the North and see if I can’t get them fixed.

I’ve spent most of this session in the dream world which proved to be fairly odd – it seems like an excuse for the developers to do some strange things with the game engine. It all fits within the context of the game – the little mini quests are definitely better than just navigating maze like dungeons. I don’t feel like I’m that near the end of the game yet – this is taking quite a bit longer than Savage Empire and doesn’t feel much smaller than Ultima 6 was. This is probably the best Origin game I’ve played up to this point so I’m not complaining anyway.

This is the second and unfortunately last of the Worlds Of Ultima games. This one was headed up by Warren Spector who doesn’t seem to know how to make a bad game. Its been a few years but I have played this one before and regard it as one of my favorites of the Ultima series.

As ever the game uses the OriginFX engine – the intro has been changed to use Mars instead of earth.

The plot goes as follows – in 1893 Percival Lowell built a cannon with the purpose of shooting a ship to Mars using a new found explosive.

The day before the ship is supposed to take off many of the Victorian periods leading figures are getting a tour but someone sabotages the ship.

And it fires a day early..

Now you must rescue them. How you get there in the first place is explained in a second introduction.

Dr Spector from Savage Empire, receives a call to see you urgently but not from you.

As soon as he shows up an unknown woman hands over a package

She urges us to hurry then disappears again.

The package contains a book allegedly written by Spector himself in 1895, a note for Tesla, a map and a picture of us with famous victorians.

We follow the map and head towards a cave hidden away in the mountains.

And sure enough find Teslas lab.

Following the instructions we use the orb of the moons at a given angle.

And are sent 100 years back in time.

We give Tesla his note

Dr Blood is less than eager to believe us not surprisingly

But the fact that he wrote the note himself convinces him.

Apparently they are just about to send a second expidition to Mars to find out what happened to the first one and we get to tag along for the ride.

Its a great introduction, all in all. It’s a bit improbably but not too much of a stretch and intelligently written which is a nice change after Wing Commander 2.

The character creation is somewhat similar to the other Ultimas but far less obvious in its workings.

I get asked a string of questions and these somehow influence my statistics. I just answer truthfully and don’t worry about these.

This gets me into the game itself at last. It should be said that Mars in 1895 is a lot different to the Mars of today – it has a thin atmosphere, some life (either worm based or plant based animals). The manuals give a lot of detail about a sentient Martian race also who were plant based and born with the races knowledge which they extracted from the soil. The race apparently died out but cities and canals were left on Mars.

The first stop is going to be the crash site of the original landing. I’m given cooridates by Tesla who recommends I get a sextant + any other equipment from the rear of the ship.

I talk to all of the other of the ships occupants first – nearly every character in this is a famous Victorian which is an interesting idea. There are a few made up characters like Dr Blood who I can go back to be healed at any time. The back of the ship, sure enough is full of equipment which I take a lot of including a crowbar to open the ships door.

Tesla won’t let me out until I answer the copy protection question.

Thats easy enough and I’m soon out of the ship.

Most of the surface of mars is fairly barren but there are still forests of strange trees around and quite a bit of wildlife (all of which seems to be hostile). The oxygen levels are low which affects all my characters stats unless they are carrying oxium which you chew to release oxygen. This can be found or bought around Mars.

It doesn’t take long to find the first landing site.

Leftenant Dibbs is there apparently waiting for us.

Apparently the original expidition found cities and evidence of advanced technology.

They also used some sort of dream machine which drove some of them mad. Dibbs is a real mine of information infact on what has been happening. Some of the people set up a trading post which he recommends visiting first.

I’m attacked by some six legged Sextellegers on the way. They aren’t too hard to kill – its a similar difficulty level to Savage Empire monsters although they do always seem to be in larger groups in this game.

To get to the trading post I have to cross a canal – these are dry at the moment and run all over the surface of Mars. There are a few bridges here and there which I can use but they are few and far between.

At the trading post Buffalo Bill offers to sell me ammo and the like but he also mentions his missing supplier Cooter.

Calamity Jane will sell me berries which the manual says have some sort of power to give telekinesis, spatial awareness or psychic ability to talk to objects. These are seriously out of my price bracket at the moment. Oxium is being used as money.

I get detailed instructions on how to get to Cooters place so I head off there next.

When I sleep I get a chance to increase my level. This is done in a fairly standard pick one of three options in a dream just like Savage Empire.

There is a maze like series of chasms to get through before I find Cooters mine.

I can’t get into it though – I remember Bill saying I needed some of those berries which I can’t afford + there is a plank just out of reach. I’ll have to come back later.

I head for the nearest city Olympus next – There is a man standing outside who won’t let me in as he thinks I might be a madman and infectious somehow.

Apparently if I get the signature of the three famous explorers to vouch for my sanity he will consider me ok. He even tells me where to find them right at the far side of the map. This can wait for later while I hunt for berries.

Just south of Olympus I find a patch of berries and take all that I can find. One of the berries lets me move the plank in the mine into position so I can walk up it.

There is noone in there but I do find a couple of notes – it looks like he is in Coprates Chasma which is just to the east.

A bit of walking around and I find him barracaded into a cave to avoid about 6 monsters outside. As a reward he gives me the location of his map.

It takes some finding but I get there in the end and dig up his map.

The map isn’t all that specific – I’ll have a look for this later. First I try to find the three explorers.

On the way I bump into Marcus who despite what I’ve been told seems sane enough. He gives me a bit of information about the dream world and warns me about the effects on some of his colleages.

I bump into the madmen who have all been possessed by dead Martians through the use of the dream machine.

There is a huge amount of background detail here once again. The story in brief is that a Martian years ago tried to gain power by threatening the world with a plague he had created. No one thought he would carry out this threat but he released it and everyone was killed off. Some of the Martians somehow retreated into the dream world and have taken possession of the humans to try to restart their species as they believe the plague is now gone.

They don’t seem to be getting too far though – Fazek tells me about a laboratory where they made the fertilizer. I expect I will have to go there and make it for them at some point.

I’m trying to find the explorers for now though so I’ll stick to that quest. It turns out I’ve gone the wrong route as there is no way across the canals – I have to backtrack half the world to get where I want to go.

When I get there Yellin is outside a mine and his companions trapped inside behind a rock fall. He has the parts for a Martian drill but can’t assemble it without a wrench – as luck would have it I picked one of these up some time back.

I assemble the drill

and push it into the mine.

The trapped men are behind – these 3 explorers are obviously more alter egos for Dupre, Iolo and Shamino.

Sherman joins my party as what I’m guessing will be the final companion since that fills up the window on the right.

I get all 3 of them to sign and then take the long walk back to Olympus.

Nathaniel lets me in this time.

Theres a host of characters in here. The dream machine is being guarded but Legrande will let me in if I find his missing brother Jean.

Peary gives me a clue about some sort of electricity broadcasting towers at the North pole. I’ll have to look into these sometime.

I try to find the mine where Jean lost his brother first. I travel some some sort of underground station first.

On the way I find a dead body with a camera. I’ve no idea what this is about but it looks like a quest if I’ve ever seen one so I grab the camera and no doubt I’ll figure out what to do with it later.

I also find the cannon that is constructed to get us back home again. Further down the mountain I can go in a mine entrance and talking to the man making the cannon he informs me that they are just one load of iron ore short. Sounds like another problem for me to sort out then.

Deeper into the mine I find Jean who gives me his masonic symbol to take to his brother.

There are a lot of fairly deadly giant worms around in this mine. I also find some radium which using a lead box and tongs I got from Madam Curie I pick up. Apparently these can be used to power Martian robots but I’ve not seen any yet to try this out on.

Legrande takes the symbol and lets me in.

There doesn’t seem to be anything I can do in here at all after all that effort but there is some Martian headgear I can take which I will no doubt need.

I bump into Edison who talks about possibly fixing the machine using a replacement control from the station underground.

I’ve seen this control already but didn’t try to pick it up so I’ll head there next.

This seems like a huge post for not that much time spent on the game. Its a rich plot with a lot going on – its a little unbelievable at times but for all that this could be the most likely of all the Ultima’s. At least the nature of the world with just a few people on it makes sense here.

Technically nothing much seems to have changed from Savage Empire but the new tileset means it doesn’t feel much like that game. I like the structure of the game most of all – Savage Empire was the same thing over and over. There is none of that here, yet I know what my overall goal is and each quest solved gets me slightly closer to it. The game is obviously trying to recreate the feeling of an H.G. Wells or Jules Verne novel and is actually managing it so far. Its still early days but this game is just as good as I remember so far. The storyline and setting and just so unusual that I can’t think of another RPG like it.

I’ve plenty of quests left to look at. My first priority is probably to try to restore the power to Mars so I can use the teleporters. Anything that saves me walking everywhere would be good.