Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire: Final Rating

Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire
Origin Systems (developer and publisher)

Released 1990 for DOS, 1992 for PC-98, 1993 for Sharp X68000

Date Started: 11 April 2015

Date Ended: 16 May 2015

Total Hours: 18

Reload Count: 8

Difficulty: Easy (2/5)
Final Rating: 48

Ranking at Time of Posting: 163/185 (88%)

Ranking at Game #458: 420/458 (92%)

I end mostly where I started, thinking that The Savage Empire is a perfectly serviceable little game that makes adequate use of a good game engine but would have been better if the creators hadn't tied it to the legend of the Avatar. Said legend is, of course, already hopelessly muddled, so when we get revelations in this game about the ancient Kotl race and the ability of a moonstone to somehow power an entire civilization, we don't even try to mentally work it into Ultima canon. We just shrug and keep playing.

I couldn't think of any other thematic issues to cover after the "won" posting, so let's get right into the GIMLET.

1. Game World. The Lost World-style setting of Eodon, the various tribes, and the revelations about the lizard-like past civilization are somewhat common fantasy and sci-fi tropes, but they're relatively original among RPGs. In this, the game deserves a lot of credit even if the execution was a little goofy at times. While Empire didn't always make the best use of the Ultima VI engine, it kept the open approach to the game world that the Ultima series has been rightly famous for. Empire arguably does a better job than any previous Ultimas in having the game world respond to the player's actions, with NPC dialogue changing substantially depending on various plot statuses. Score: 6.

The Avatar prepares to start the endgame on the Hill of the Drum.

2. Character Creation and Development. Probably the worst part of the game. In contrast to the multiple races and sexes offered by Ultima VI, the player has no choice but to play the Avatar as a Great White Hunter. Even worse, the backstory removes any sense of self-identification with the Avatar that previous Ultimas (IV in particular) took great pains to build up. A brief character creation process helps define starting attributes, but there's nothing else. Because the game starts you at Level 5, there is essentially no character development (barring a lot of grinding, which is unnecessary anyway) for either the Avatar or his NPC companions. There are no role-playing opportunities, no karma meter. The game barely qualifies as an RPG in this category. Score: 3.

Jimmy becomes the only character other than the Avatar to level up.

3. NPC Interaction. Always strong in Origin titles, a little weaker here because so many NPCs say the same things. Basically, every tribe has a chief, a shaman, and one or two other key NPCs, and then about 6-10 interchangeable men and women with the same dialogue. Still, the quality of the dialogue is pretty good, and you learn almost everything of importance about the game world and quest through these discussions.

I like that you have so many party members to choose from--including a Neanderthal, a lizard man, and an automaton--and that they don't cease to be individuals just because they've joined the party; you can still talk with them. Some of them have unique skills, like Triolo's magic, Rafkin's ability to make certain items, and Jimmy's notebook.

Finally, the game gets points for offering the first player-optional romance in the game. (Other games have seen a romance between the PC and some NPC, but always part of the main plot, not something that the player can choose.) There's not much to it: you just say LOVE to Aiela or Tristia, which causes their dialogues to change, and you get a couple of endgame screens. Still, it's always nice to find a "first." Or am I forgetting an earlier game?

I could have done without the unresolved Shamuru/Dokray/Triolo mystery. Score: 7.

4. Encounters and Foes. Getting through the game involves solving a variety of item-based and navigation-based puzzles, none of them terribly hard, most with multiple solutions. While the selection of enemies (giant apes, dinosaurs, sabre-toothed tigers) is original and appropriate to the setting, I never got over the sense that fighting dinosaurs should have been a bigger deal. Like all Origin games, the manual does an excellent job describing each enemy. Score: 6.

Because of course we can't just walk through the waterfall and into the cave, Gideon prepares to block the river by blowing up the boulder next to it. Don't ask.

5. Magic and Combat. The tribal magic system, with its collection of 9 spells, is thematically creative but tactically underwhelming--particularly since there's only one spellcaster. I didn't find combat particularly strong in Ultima VI, and it gets worse here with poor enemy and NPC AI and a general sense that combat is a minor part of the game. Score: 4.

6. Equipment.  The sandbox nature of the game means that there's a ton of stuff lying around with no reason to take any of it, including jars, baskets, pots, tools, extra totems, rocks, sticks, and so forth. I don't mind this. It makes the world seem more real. The selection of armor and weapons is less interesting, particularly since the game doesn't tell you the relative damage of weapons or the relative protection of armor, and since combat isn't hard enough to bother with upgrades anyway. Towards the end of the game, I just equipped my new companions with whatever was most convenient, and they did fine. I didn't care for all the unused equipment slots.

A lot of the items are for solving puzzles, and many of these work together in creative ways. Tar can be collected in a bucket, then applied to strips of cloth (themselves made by putting scissors to whole cloth) to make "tarred cloth," which can then be wrapped around branches (pulled from trees) to make torches or used as a fuse in a bomb. Dropping a tree branch onto an open fire makes charcoal, which can be combined with phosphorous (scraped from crystals) and sulfur (screened from sulfur pits) to make gunpowder. Using a knife on a slain mammal gives you a pelt and some meat. There are a lot of these types of interactions, and they'd be a lot more fun if they were more helpful. Score: 5.

I think using a knife is the only way to do this.

7. Economy. There are plenty of valuables to find in the game, but only a couple of places to spend them, and essentially no reason to spend them in those places, since everything you need can be picked up for free. A very under-developed part of the game. You could argue that it's not necessary for The Savage Empire, but I still like my RPGs to have an economy. Score: 1.

8. Quests. Empire has a multi-staged main quest. It's interesting, but it doesn't offer choices, alternate outcomes, or really anything that qualifies as a "side quest." I did think that the "uniting the tribes" plot was a bit fun, particularly since (just like the map-piece-finding quest in Ultima VI) it offered such a variety of difficulties and lengths to the individual tasks. Score: 4.

I forgot to show the lizard guys last time, so here they are.

9. Graphics, Sound, and Interface. The graphics are well-drawn, but from my colorblind perspective, the palette used by Empire was awful. I couldn't discern a lot of objects, NPCs, and enemies against their backgrounds. The day/night cycle was a constant annoyance. On the other hand, I liked the frequent use of full screen graphics at key parts of the story--there were more of these in Empire than any Ultima game I can recall. There were some fun sound effects but no way to separate sound from the incessant music, so I left it off. (The music, I should add, is good--creative and thematic--but I still didn't want to hear it all the time.)

The giant Avatar prepares to trample a company of puny villagers.

The interface is generally excellent. Like any good game of this era, it offers the ability to move flexibly between keyboard and mouse, with major commands mapped to a single letter. The ability to designate an "active" character is essentially unique to this game and Ultima VI, and it's just what this type of RPG needs. One drawback to the interface: my characters kept getting stuck on things, and I didn't notice for a long time. This required a lot of effort to reunite the party. Score: 5.

10. Gameplay. Nice and non-linear. Even the major quest stages can be done slightly out of order (e.g., you could reunite most of the tribes before rescuing Aiela). The non-linearity and availability of different NPC companions makes it slightly replayable, though not very. The overall pacing is good--neither too long or too short--but like Ultima VI, it suffers a bit by being too easy. And despite using the same engine, it doesn't offer quite the same "screwing around" possibilities of its parent. Score: 5.

I don't often discuss a game's packaging and manual, even when they're good, but The Savage Empire deserves a couple extra bonus points for going the extra mile. The manual (may the MOCAGH never die) is presented as an adventure magazine written, in part, by the Avatar, Jimmy Malone, and Dr. Rafkin after their adventures in Eodon. It's full of clues hidden in sections like "Letters to the Editor" (one gives a hint about the importance of a fire extinguisher; another discusses bomb-making) and advertisements.

The "pulp manual" is part story, part instruction, part description, and part fun.

The manual also has one of the best and most obscure Easter eggs I've ever seen. In a (fictional) advertisement for an upcoming Savage Empire film, the cast is given as Richard Corlane, Bryan Swade, and Faith Selburn. You would have to be the most incredible film geek to know that these are the three (fictional) stars listed for a (fictional) Broadway musical called A Day in New York, featured in a single screen in the 1949 Gene Kelly/Frank Sinatra film On the Town.

All in all, fantastic work by Aaron Allston (credited for both the overall game story and the game manual) and worth an extra 2 bonus points for a final score of 48. That's considerably lower than the 68 I gave to Ultima VI, but still in the top 10% of 1990 games, and the third-highest rating I've given in the past year.

I started my series of posts on The Savage Empire praising Origin for re-using a great engine instead of discarding it after a single use. Thus, I was a little surprised and annoyed to find Dennis Owens complaining about the same thing in his March 1991 Computer Gaming World review. "Although once upon a time, Ultima stood for innovation and surprise," he grouses, "[they] seem to have devolved into copies of themselves--all requiring that worlds be explored...monsters be bashed, and objects be found." I mean, Jesus, Dennis--you could reduce all RPGs to such trite phrasing. Ultima hasn't lost its innovation just because the creators re-used one engine. Frankly, if they hadn't, we'd be waiting until Ultima VII for the next game. Would that have been better?

While he does have some positive things to say, his conclusion is mixed: "Compared to any except its own brothers and sisters, The Savage Empire...must be considered dazzling and successful. Compared to its peers, however, the game presents what may be a disturbing view of a possible trend in the Ultima line: caricature."

In her 1993 "survey" of RPGs on the market, Scorpia was a little more positive, concluding that it was "good for filling in the hours while you wait for the next real Ultima," with which I completely agree.

For the next Ultima game, I thought I'd have a choice between Martian Dreams and Ultima Underworld, but I was disappointed to see that Underworld is a 1992 game (really looking forward to that one), so Martian Dreams is definitely the next outing as the Avatar. I know people usually rate that one nigher than The Savage Empire, but the backstory seems a bit stupid to me. Maybe everything else will be better.

****

And that pretty much wraps up 1990! Technically, I still have Operation: Overkill to finish, but that's proving to be a boring slog, not unlike Dragon Sword but without the same ability to cheat. If I do finish it, it will probably be several weeks from now, after playing an hour here and an hour there in between other games. That means we'll be moving on to the 1990/1991 transition posting. I look forward to writing it.

Savage Empire: Won!

I'm always trying, but he never writes back.

Another seven hours of gameplay brought The Savage Empire to a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion. The major steps were to:

• Finish uniting the tribes, including three I had not yet visted.
• Gain access to the ancient city of Kotl, learn the secret of Eodon, and power everything down.
• Lead the united tribes on a final assault against the Myrmidex queen.

None of the remaining tribes--the Neanderthal-like Haakur, the white Jukari, and the lizardlike Sakkhra--had any particular plot relevance. I just had to visit them, talk to their chiefs, and do whatever quest they gave me with the UNITE keyword. 

The Jukari chief asked me to recover a "sacred hide" from a cave that had recently been blocked by the same lava eruption that had killed the chief's father. To get over the lava, I had to use a...wait for it...fire extinguisher. By spraying it on various patches, I made "hard spots" that allowed my party to step across. I don't recommend trying this with real lava.

Stupid fire extinguisher doesn't even put out an actual fire.

The Haakur chief, who had some valid points to make about the Jukari's choice of homeland...

...wanted me to recover his dead son's shield from a spider-infested cave south of him. To clear out the spider webs, I had to use torches, which was more of a pain in the neck than you might imagine. Unable to find any unlit torches in the various villages, I had to schlep all the way back to Rafkin's laboratory and the tar pits nearby. Tar applied to cloth applied to tree branches created torches.

It was almost worth it. The torches, applied to batches of spider webs, produced one of the best (and most satisfying) animations we've seen so far in RPG history. 

In the cave, I encountered Myrmidex for the first time. I had expected them to be humanoid ants, but they looked more like bees. They weren't tough to kill, but they attacked in swarms.

Anyway, I recovered the shield and returned it to the chief for his allegiance.

I handled the Sakkhra after exploring Kotl, but in any event they needed me to get rid of a Tyrannosaurus Rex who was preventing them from getting to their fruit orchards. I knew from previous experience that T-Rexes can't be killed, but when I got to his location, he fortunately was loafing around under a giant boulder on a cliff. An explosive thrown in the right location brought the boulder crashing down on his head.

The party kills another member of an endangered species.

Finding the entrance to Kotl was a matter of putting Aiela's gem on a pedestal, which caused the stairway to open. It took a while to find the stairway at the bottom of the mesa, but it turned out to be conveniently located a few steps away from the teleporter hub.

In the entryway, I found a headless automaton and no way to proceed. I had to return to Tichticatl and talk to the deposed shaman to recall that the head was in the city's treasury. Once I had it, I returned to the hidden city and activated the automaton. It was named Yunapotli, and it joined my party and opened the door to the city. A few steps into the city was a hologram of a Kotl named Katalkotl.

Between Katalkotl and Yunapotli, they filled in the missing gaps in Eodon's backstory: The Kotl were a lizard-like race that inhabited the underground city millennia ago. Harnessing the power of a black moonstone, they created automatons to serve them. Finding that the automatons weren't enough, they genetically-engineered the Myrmidex from ants, trusting that their strength and obedience would make them good workers. Instead, the Myrmidex revolted and carried away the moonstone (which continued to power the city from a distance).

A lot of grief would have been prevented if you'd just been willing to do your own housecleaning.

Seeking more servants, Katalkotl traversed the world and lured denizens of various tribes to the city (how his travels brought him in contact with both Neanderthals and Aztecs, who existed more than 35,000 years apart, is unexplained). The human servants also grew discontented with their lot in life and eventually fled, forming the various tribes of the valley. Later, the Myrmidex returned and sacked the city. A few surviving Kotl fled to the hills and became the Sakkhra. 

The city was enormous and I'm sure I didn't explore half of it. Scattered around the various rooms were healing crystals, which instantly restore one character to perfect health, black staffs, and "devices" that turned out to be explosive devices. I loaded up on these and used them for most of my explosive needs in the rest of the game, though they had a unfortunate tendency of blowing up in my hands and damaging my party even after I had supposedly thrown them. I think this was a bug.

Finding items among the debris of an ancient battle.

In one room, I encountered a wisp, who continued the same story that Ultima VI delivered about wisps being projections from the Xornite dimension. It said it was in the area to study the power distortions created by the Kotl's harnessing of the moonstone. It indicated that Eodon was actually on Earth, but sucked outside the normal space-time continuum by the energy distortions, and it worried that if the moonstone wasn't shut down, the resulting instability would result in "destruction of large regions of the multiverse."

The evil Dr. Spector, invincible in his force field, was guarding a bridge that led to the city's control room. Unable to pass him, I had to go through a maze of teleporters and walls to access the room from another direction. My explorations brought me into combat with automatons, robotic dinosaurs, and "serpent women."

When I reached the control panel, I smashed it. This shut down the generators and all the city's automatons, including Yunapotli. He had a sad farewell.

He was replaced in my party with Dr. Spector, who had snapped back to sanity. I was a bit annoyed, as I had been looking forward to killing Spector and his puppet chief. When I returned to Tichticatl, I at least had the satisfaction of hearing that when his force field disappeared, his own people had ripped Huitlapacti apart.

Anyway, the city started collapsing, so I had to make a beeline for the exit. The entrance disappeared as soon as I left, taking probably a bunch of cool stuff with it. Next time I have to remember to finish exploring before smashing the load-bearing control panel.

I hate when I turn off the lights in my house and the walls fall down.

Spector stressed the importance of uniting the tribes and destroying the Myrmidex queen and their moonstone.

Way ahead of you.

I finished the other tribal quests in short order, then headed for the Hill of the Drum. Banging on the giant drum that some guy had created for me out of an animal skin, I summoned the tribes to war and triggered the endgame sequence.

I soon found myself in the caves of the Myrmidex. Despite all the build-up, none of the warriors from the tribes appeared anywhere, but I assume they were off somewhere, thinning the herd and making my job easier.

Battling Myrmidex. Towards the end of the game, I got lazy with equipment. I don't even think Aiela and Johann have weapons and armor.

The caverns were a huge maze, with the queen somewhere in the middle. Following one wall didn't do any good, and it took me a crazy number of hours to finally make it to the queen's chamber. Later, I looked at a map online:

So it was with great relief that I finally found the queen. There was a quick cutscene...

...and then I killed her in about two blows.

Behind her was the moonstone--much bigger than the Britannian standard--and I attacked it until it blew up. This triggered the endgame text:

You and your companions rain blow after blow down on the corrupted moonstone...and the last mighty blow shatters it into a million glowing shards! The debris showers upon you.

"Maybe we could have destroyed it with missile weapons? Or by throwing it off a cliff?"

You hear a cry: "The Myrmidex are driven mad!" The Myrmidex stumble about, confused. With the queen and the stone gone, they have lost all sense of purpose. Now is your best opportunity to escape. And so you do. Battered, cut, triumphant, you emerge from the Myrmidex caves.

At the head of a long column of exhausted and victorious warriors, you return to the Drum Hill...to celebrate! Members of all tribes come for the feast....the largest and most important feast ever held in the Valley of Eodon. Kurak sits beside Yolaru, Pindiro beside Barako, Haakur beside Sakkhra, and peace is sworn between the tribes. You know this peace isn't for you. Soon enough, you will hear the call to action again. But tonight, there is time for music and dance, friendship and love.

At dawn, your past catches up with you...and your future beckons. A vision of Lord British appears before you. "You have done well," he says. "But now I must take you to where you are needed. For the sake of the friends you leave behind, I am sorry. Prepare yourself."

You say farewell to Aiela. "Aiela does not know your world. Take her there," she pleads. "Teach her of your world." You shake your head. "My world would strangle you. You must stay. My heart remains with you, but my duty is elsewhere...with him."

"Also, I don't want to have to teach you about feminine products. That would just be awkward for everyone."

Tears roll down her cheeks. "Abandon duty, and you will not be the warrior Aiela loves. Choose duty, and you must leave. Either way, Aiela loses all...Farewell."

You are joined by Spector's former assistant, Fritz, who came out of hiding to fight the Myrmidex, and bears their scars. The moongate appears, summoned by the shade of Lord British. Jimmy, Spector, and Fritz gather their belongings, but Rafkin does not. "I'm staying, my friend," he says. "Someone must. I will stay here...and hope other scientists come. Farewell." Saddened, you follow your friends and allies into the moongate, leaving the Valley of Eodon. Perhaps someday you will return to those you have left behind.

And that's it except for the final screen at the top of the post. Lord British has managed to yank my chain again, ending the first serious RPG romance that I can recall. There was no explanation about Shamuru, Triolo, and Dokray despite Lord British's shade providing an obvious excuse. Origin missed a real opportunity for the three of them to start cracking up at the end of the game, revealing that they'd just been faking amnesia all along.

Notice that the three pseudo-Britannians are not among those departing through the moongate. And why is the moongate red, by the way?

When Lord British said that he was taking me "where I'm needed," I assume he means to Martian Dreams, which I'm 99% sure was the next Ultima game. 

When the game was over, I looked through my notes and found that I had numerous unsolved mysteries:

• The wisp in Kotl said that if I gave it valuable information, it would present me "with information of true value." What did it want from me, and what would it have delivered?

• I ended the game with a "crystal brain" in my inventory. Fritz had given it to me. I never used it anywhere; is this what the wisp wanted?

This is going to haunt me, and no site seems to have the answer.

• I carried a bunch of other things the entire game that sounded useful, but I never found any use for them. They included a digging stick, a key, a vine coiled as a rope, orchids, and a bunch of valuables--a pile of diamonds, gold pieces, a jade neclace, and a tooth necklace.

• There were inventory slots for rings, boots, and helmets, but I never found any of these things. Were there any?

• I believe you can get into the Myrmidex caves at any point from the Haakur spider caves. What would happen if a player started a new game, headed right for the caves, and killed the queen without doing any of the other quests first? Is it even possible? Does it change the endgame screens?

• If the moonstone was keeping Eodon in a space-time pocket inaccessible from Earth, why didn't destroying the moonstone return the valley to Earth?

Looking through some walkthroughs and other material (particular thanks to Dino's Guide to the Savage Empire), I discovered a few things that I missed. First, apparently it was possible to enter into a romance with Aiela's bratty adopted sister, Tristia. If you're dumb enough to do this, she completely slams you during your farewells.

The Avatar looks appropriately wounded.

Also, it was apparently possible to find Seggallion, the expatriate from Knights of Legend who appeared briefly in Ultima VI, hiding out on his own plateau. His dialogue doesn't indicate any past familiarity with the Avatar, consisting mostly of Origin in-jokes prompted by various Origin employees' names.

Finally, I'll mention that only two of my characters--the Avatar and Jimmy--ever leveled up, and each of them only leveled up once, towards the end of the game. Character development definitely wasn't a major part of The Savage Empire.

My one screen shot of leveling up.

I'm going to see if I can wrap up Operation: Overkill and 1990 over the next few days as I ponder The Savage Empire's final rating.

****

Like many of you, I've been eagerly anticipating Corey and Lori Cole's Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption. Corey notified me this week that the project has gone into a second round of Kickstarter funding to make up for a budget gap. If you're keen for a Quest for Glory-style game in the next few years, I recommend visiting the page and supporting the project. The project has come a long way, and the official site has some great examples of artwork, dialogue, and gameplay.

The Savage Empire: Love in the Time of Dinosaurs

Those aren't the thongs I want to remove. Hey-oooo!

You'll be pleased to know that things have settled down for Irene and me. We've settled into a two-bedroom apartment near Boston while our house is fully gutted and re-constructed over the next six months. I actually rather like the apartment better, but I suppose we'll likely see another hiatus in the fall when I have to reverse the whole process.

Now that I have a chance to approach The Savage Empire with more time and less stress, I'm finding it a better game than the last time I posted. Still not as good as Ultima VI, of course, but more than what I've been thinking of it as: an obstacle between me and the end of 1990. Earlier today, I didn't want to stop playing to write this entry, which is always a good sign. In playing, I resisted the temptation to start over, but I did re-walk a lot of ground (I revisited all the tribes) and took better notes. 

This is the only device I've found that lets you tell the precise time.

To recap the past, the Avatar has been sucked into the Valley of Eodon by a corrupted moonstone that had come into the possession of the Avatar's archaeologist friend, Dr. Rafkin. Jimmy Malone, a reporter visiting Rafkin, also got caught in the wake. Eodon turns out to be a kind of Lost World, with dinosaurs, giant mammals, and a bunch of tribes with ethnicities and cultural influences drawn from various temporal and geographic points on Earth--some of them regrettably stereotypical but many of them quite creative.

The Avatar quickly became infatuated with Aiela, princess of the Kurak tribe (based on South American Indians), but she was soon kidnapped in a raid led by Darden, leader of the Urali tribe. The Avatar would have rushed off to rescue her, except no one seems to know where the Urali come from; their homeland is hidden. To assist in his quest, the Avatar is joined by NPC companions who look remarkably like his companions in Britannia, including Shamuru (Shamino), Triolo (Iolo), and Dokray (Dupre)--all of whom are recent arrivals in Eodon, with convenient memory loss and odd reactions to dialogue prompts like BRITANNIA and their actual names.

There better be some explanation for this.

With a party consisting of Triolo (a shaman's apprentice and the only one capable of casting spells in the game), Shamuru, and Professor Rafkin, I have been trying to collect intelligence about the location of the Urali. I found their exiled shaman, Tuporo, on an island in the north, but he wouldn't tell me anything until I returned with his "mind," which he said was stolen and imprisoned in a blue rock by the chief of the Barrab tribe.

On the long trip to the Barrab, I visited most of the other tribes and engaged in keyword-based, Origin-style dialogue with everyone I could find. A couple of other quest threads emerged. The first has to do with the history of the land; tribal legends suggest that beings of advanced technology and intelligence brought the various peoples to Eodon as slaves, but the slaves revolted and drove them away. A hidden city called Kotl still contains their technology and power sources, and a mad German professor named Spector has used these devices to take over the Nahuatla tribe and plans to conquer Earth--if he can ever get back there.

The tribes fight a lot among each other, but people speak of a time in the past when a great warrior unified the tribes to defeat the Myrmidex--hostile insect-people. There have been several suggestions that I should try to repeat this feat and unify the tribes. This would be a more pressing objective if I had even once encountered a Myrmidex.

Continuing towards the Barrab, I paid a quick visit to the Disquiqui village, whose people are based off Polynesians. A fat and carnal race, they are usually drunk on an alcohol called pulque. They had Jimmy Malone imprisoned in the back of a hut, and the chief's daughter, Guoblum, was announcing plans to marry him. Fortunately, they didn't seem to mind that I just opened his door and let him go. He automatically joined my party, which surprised me because I thought I was limited to three companions. (Did I notice the Disquiqui NPCs were based on the Three Stooges? Yes. We don't need to dignify their idiotic inclusion with any more discussion.)

 

Jimmy comes with a notebook in which he records all your active quests and side-quests and will recount them to the keyword NOTEBOOK. I don't remember seeing quest logs in my chronology so far, which makes it all the more notable that they found a creative way to do it. 

Jimmy reviews our active quests.

Moving on, I finally reached the Barrab. The chief, Balakai, related that he had tricked a mentally-weakened Topuru into thinking that Balakai had "stolen" Topuru's mind. Balakai wouldn't give me the blue stone but said that any blue stone would do well enough to convince the addled Topuru. He further related that large blue stones can be found in the caves occupied by the lizard-like Sakkhra.

Girding myself for combats with lizard-folk, I headed in the indicated direction, only to find a large blue stone just sitting in the middle of the dirt a few paces away from the Barrab village. I used a hammer on it, and soon I had a blue stone. I guess the Sakkhra can wait for later.

That seems a little too easy.

I used a teleporter (see below) to get back to Topuru's area and returned to his island by raft. With his "mind" restored, he gave me some turtle food (no idea) and told me that the Urali's land can be accessed by a particular cave in the cliff wall on the east side of the map.

I found the right cave and fought some bears before the tunnel emerged in a hidden part of Eodon. A series of connected islands culminated in one guarded by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. T-Rexes are essentially invincible in this game (none of my weapons or spells did anything), and they're capable of killing characters in one bite. The only way I could figure out how to pass him was to activate solo mode for each character one at a time and have him carefully thread his way around the dinosaur's back when he was facing another direction. Still, this guy was responsible for a lot of reloads.

On the other side, the Urali shaman told me that Darden had taken over the Urali by stealing the statue of their god, Fabozz, and sticking it in a cave. He said I could remove Darden from power by restoring the statue. 

I had to fight a number of Urali (armed with poisoned darts) on the way to the cave. Inside, the largest battle of the game so far came with a group of Urali guarding the statue.

When I was done with the combat, it was clear that there was no way to pick up and move the statue. Talking to it produced only one word: "Light." I tried the "Light" spell to no avail. Searching through my inventory, I saw that Jimmy had a camera. I used it and the statue disappeared with the flash. I don't know how you solve the puzzle if Jimmy isn't with you; maybe he's necessary.

The voice of Fabozz rang out that Wamap the Shaman would be the new chief and that I could rescue Aiela in some caves to the south. As I left the cave, I found that the Urali stopped attacking me. I wandered around for a while before I found Aiela's cave, south of the Urali village, guarded by several Urali who were friendly. When I let her out of her cave, Darden showed up and attacked. But he had no one backing him up, and he died in a couple shots from my my rifle.

In the portrait, doesn't she look a bit like Marta from Arrested Development?

Aiela confessed her love for the Avatar...

This is going to end badly.

...and was welcomed back to her village with open arms.

Her half-sister is still kind of nasty.

The next major step seems to involve uniting the tribes against the theoretical Myrmidex threat. This, in turn, seems to involve performing some quest for each of the tribal chiefs. I solved some during the process of finding Aiela; others, I don't yet know how to solve. Jimmy's notebook helps me summarize:

• Aoloron of the Kurak just wanted me to rescue Aiela. Done.

• Apaton of the Yolaru wanted me to bring him 10 obsidian swords from the Nahuatla. These are carried by their warriors, most of whom attacked me on sight, so it didn't take long to assemble a collection of 10.

• Balakai of the Barrab wants me to find some medicine to heal his son, Nakai. The medicine comes from the root of a rare flower on top of the Great Mesa. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get to the top of the mesa. There's once place in which a tree seems perfectly positioned to create a bridge, but I haven't been able to figure out how to fell it. Fortunately, I just found an axe in Dr. Rafkin's lab, so maybe that will be the solution.

A tree not long for the world.

• Chafblum of the Disquiqui wanted me to put a cowbell around the neck of a local Tyrannosaurus Rex so the tribe could hear him coming. He gave me some sleep-inducing liquor to apply to a spear to put the beast to sleep. It wasn't very hard.

• Halawa of the Barako needs me to rescue her daughter, who was kidnapped by a big gorilla. He's also up on top of a mesa, and I can't figure out how to get up to him.

• Inara of the Pindiro agreed to join me the moment she heard about my plan to unite the tribes. That was a freebee.

The one person who doesn't demand a quid-pro-quo to do the right thing.

• Moctapotl, the deposed king of the Nahuatla, is hanging out with the Disquiqui, waiting for me to get rid of Dr. Spector and his puppet king, Huitlapacti. This will involve traveling to the hidden city, which somehow involves a gem that Aiela had in her possession when I rescued her. I didn't take good notes about this and need to ask around more.

• Wamap of the Urali was happy to join my crusade after I got rid of Darden.

Jimmy's notebook doesn't have anything to say about the primitive Jukari or the Neanderthal-like Haakur. I haven't visited either tribe yet; they're both tucked away from the main travel paths in the far southeast. I suppose I should head there soon.

Late in my travels, I finally encountered Dr. Rafkin's lab and looted it for tools and valuables, including a fully-operational modern rifle, which I gave to the Avatar. Rafkin made more rifles out of bamboo poles, but using them is a bit of a pain in the neck--I lack enough gunpowder, apparently--and combat isn't hard enough anyway to worry about trying to get the best weapons. The combat system remains underwhelming overall, with most battles winnable with no damage to my characters, let alone danger of death.

The Avatar briefly ponders why he never brings one of these to Britannia.

Ultima VI had a decent magic system to augment combat tactics, but The Savage Empire's system is primitive. I suppose this is deliberate, in keeping with the game's theme. Only Triolo can cast spells, and he does so by invoking one of three skulls (Heluzz, Aphazz, or Motazz) and giving it an offering of one of three herbs: chocolatl, pinde, or yopo. The combination of skulls and herbs leads to 9 possible spells: protection, eagle eye, heal, light, detect hostiles, charm enemies, summon animal, curse enemy, and battle frenzy. Of them, I've only found "Heal" to be really necessary. "Light" helps a little at night, but not much, and it's easier just to go to sleep. "Protection" wears off in seconds. "Detect Hostiles" doesn't seem to do any more than trying to sleep, and none of the combat spells have been worth the time to cast so far. "Eagle Eye" is admittedly pretty useful when I get lost.

"Eagle Eye" acts like a gem in the previous Ultima games.

Some other notes:

• I'm starting to explore the game's teleportation system. Teleporters scattered throughout the land lead to a central hub in the southwest of the valley. The hub has 36 squares but only 7 are "active" right now, and their positions on the grid correspond roughly with their positions in the valley. While I don't have a difficult time finding a village from its associated teleporter, I have a terrible time finding the teleporter if I'm already in the associated village.

• I also have the hardest time finding specific people in the villages. Their colors just don't stand out enough for me from the background, and often, a key figure like the chief is wandering around the fringes of the village instead of where you'd expect him in the middle.

• I did find a "store" of sorts among the Nahuatla, where a woman will take emeralds for swords, armor, and shields. It's much easier just to pick them up.

I could pay you emeralds for armor...or I could just go ahead and take it.

• Fun image of some tar pits with a dead tiger in one of them.

 

• You need food to recover hit points when you rest. When I started the game, I kept gathering food from villages, but later I realized it's easy enough to get it from slaughtering animals and, if necessary, fishing.

Jimmy isn't really good for much else.

I have nothing but time to play tonight and tomorrow, so I'm going to shoot for wrapping this up in one or two more postings. I hope the game does something interesting with the plot threads and doesn't wind up "all a dream" or something stupid like that.

Time so far: 11 hours
Reload count: 6