Ultima VI: The False Prophet
DOS - 1990
Also released on: Amiga - Atari ST - Commodore 64 - FM Towns - Sharp X68000
Description of Ultima VI: The False Prophet
Stephen Corcoran gave us this tip : Ultima VI has been ported to the Dungeon Siege engine (game available on Amazon), like Ultima V. This is a different project named U6Project : http://u6project.com/. You should check their site! If you have Ultima V Lazarus, it may not work, you'll have to uninstall Lazarus first.
External links
Captures and Snapshots
Comments and reviews
Silversurfer2018 2018-08-10 1 point
Of all the ultimas , u6 is still my favorite. I spent years on it. Searching the map every, cave, nook, and cranny only to keep finding more adventures, secrets, and treasures. I tried playing the dungeon siege remake but it was too unstable. I would keep buying remakes of u6 as long as people keep making them. I love that world. It was perfectly crafted.
blah blah 2017-05-27 6 points DOS version
Revolutionary game for it's time.
open world ... do what you want when you want... even mundane stuff like grind wheat into flour and bake bread, or hunt deer in the forest
rpg-lite .. while other RPG's were seeing more complexity to stats and such as adding value, Ultima 6 had only 3 basic stats (str, dex, int), and only 8 levels you could go up to. This doesn't sound like much, but...
story-driven ... the game was driven by plot and hunting down clues, not leveling up in order to fight in harder areas. You could literally avoid most combats in the game. There was never a pressure to go grind to be able to handle another area. Normally, what prevented you from moving on was the lack of a spell or item to deal with an obstacle (eg: dispel field spell in order to remove a barrier from a doorway). There were difficult places in the game (eg: Dungeon Destard, where Dragons lived). But, you could always find an alternate way around them to avoid conflict (eg: casting invisibility on your whole party or have everyone equip invis rings... then just stroll in undetected.)
no map transitions ... most RPG's up to that point had a large-scale overworld travel map, then zoomed-in overhead maps for combat and maybe zoomed in maps for dungeons or faux wire-frame dungeons. Ultima 6 just had a single map, and all action took place on it in overhead fashion. You travelled along roads, walked right into towns... no transition to a town map (!) ... when combat started it was right on the map view you were on, and you not only already saw your whole party with you, but you would simply position them during coimbat. Combat ended, you simply ended it and went back to what you were doing. You never left the map view you were on. This created a deeper dive into the game as the fourth-wall wasn't broken with map / view transitions.
AI player characters... you could set your party members to either be under your manual control, or use computer AI. So, combat could simply boil down to you controlling the Avatar, then watching your other party members and enemies position and fight the rest of the turn. Or, you could control your whole party. It was very flexible and fun.
Fleshed out world / NPC's .. I know I talked about an open-world, but the NPC's in the game all had lives, schedules (!), activities... you would find a fisherman on the docks fishing by day, and sleeping in his bed by night. Many NPC's were just filler; not part of any quest or clues, but you'd speak to them and find out they were far more fleshed out then just cookie cutter fodder. They had backgrounds, and sometimes would discuss how it impacted their schedules (when they did things) and where they went.
Secrets ... the world was HUGE, and tons of folks to talk to, so you would always stumble across a new cave or secret treasure stash every where. I played the game for years until I spoke with the glass blower in Minoc and asked a specific question which made him reveal he could craft glass swords! It's stuff like that, uncovering new secrets after years of playing, that keeps you coming back.
Random encounters ... the world was filled with random combats and stuff between no-name NPC's and monsters to make it seem alive... as if other adventurers are out there trying to make a name for themselves. Dungeons, roads between towns, etc... you'd be walking along and suddenly you'd hear fighting... wolves are hunting rabbits, dogs are killing snakes, NPC's are killing monsters... you could join in and help, or sit back or kill everyone and take their stuff. It depended on how you wanted to role play. There was always a big fight west of Britania on the road to Skara Brae between no-name human NPC's and mongbats that was a blast to get involved in. When you went down into the crypts under one town, there would be random, no-name human NPC's fighting skeletons... like they were a party of humans that went adventuring and you stumbled across them in the middle of combat with skeletons! This made the world feel so alive.
While SSI Gold Box games were flings, Ultima 6 was my first "serious girlfriend" CRPG. I spent years playing it, discovering new stuff, and just living in that fantasy world. It was a fantastic game, b/c it didn't force you to do anything. It was The Elder Scrolls, before Elder Scrolls perfected their "open world do what you want" formula.
cmo999 2015-07-11 0 point DOS version
This site is awesome! It's really that easy to find old games that I used to play back in the 90s!
I love you
intrepid486 2014-08-08 0 point DOS version
Had this for super nintendo and the save feature was broken. The music would play all night and day for weeks, loved it. Great game!
guest 2012-10-03 1 point DOS version
Review of Ultima 6 for DOS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p_ucqmQbTY
Vryus 2012-07-10 1 point DOS version
When I first purchased and played this game it literally consumed by thoughts for a long time. It is by far one of the best games I have every played. The pure exploration aspect, the side-quests and the depth is just amazing.
DavidT 2012-04-26 0 point DOS version
This game gives you tears of joy. It is so deep, so fulfilling, an entire world to immerse yourself in and to learn so much from. Live it.
Some of my utterly happiest memories were spent in playing it and completing it, then going back to discover even more. I score it Ten out of ten and encourage anyone of any age to persevere with it.
Itoo 2012-02-24 5 points DOS version
This is an unrestricted, non-linear, open world, with a few simple missions and plenty of side-quests. I couldn't get my daughter to play Ultima 4 to save my life, but this one she played with. Nearly all the objects can be taken, fights can be evaded, and you really can't die. Every character has a very unique portrait and personality, and most are somehow interconnected with someone else either for mainline plot or side-skits.
Since each of the characters is a unique personality with a unique contribution to the plot, you learn a lot about how people think and behave, their motivations, goals, and quirks similar to reality but on your own time and without having to go out and meet 100 people and further get to a point with those people where you can interview them. In Ultima you are the Avatar, and everyone is generally more than happy to answer your questions.
Although I couldn't get my daughter to play Ultima 4, Quest of the Avatar, I was still able to teach her some of the Ultima moral system through this game. You still have to go around visiting the shrines, they still give you moral advice, and the characters in each of the eight towns still teach you about their particular virtue as you interact with them. The Ultima series in general is great for personal character development, by acting as the hero in the game, you build the hero you are in real life.
As with most Ultima games, its best to take notes. There aren't any "you are here" signs or mission summary statements to keep you clued in on anything you might be doing, major plot or minor plot.
Mike 2011-02-07 1 point DOS version
easily the best game of the entire Ultima series. incredibly detailed and HUGE world! you can spend literally a months just exploring it and talking to citizens of Britannia without even thinking about the main quest.
the game is very open, and it's rare that you find a game crafted with this much care. this was groundbreaking in so many ways when it came out. it re-defined the RPG. set a new standard.
the feel of this game is really something special, and i wasted most of my childhood playing it. i finally beat it recently. it's not that i couldn't have when i was younger, i just never bothered trying. there was just so much other stuff to do i didn't care.
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Buy Ultima VI: The False Prophet
Ultima VI: The False Prophet is available for a small price on the following website, and is no longer abandonware. GOG.com provides the best release and does not include DRM, please buy from them! You can read our online store guide.
Game Extras and Resources
Some of these file may not be included in the game stores. For Ultima VI: The False Prophet, we have the following files:
Other Releases
Ultima VI: The False Prophet was also released on the following systems:
Amiga
- Year: 1992
- Publisher: ORIGIN Systems, Inc.
- Developer: ORIGIN Systems, Inc.
Atari ST
- Year: 1992
- Publisher: ORIGIN Systems, Inc.
- Developer: ORIGIN Systems, Inc.
Commodore 64
- Year: 1991
- Publisher: ORIGIN Systems, Inc.
- Developer: ORIGIN Systems, Inc.
FM Towns
- Year: 1991
- Publisher: Fujitsu Limited
- Developer: ORIGIN Systems, Inc.
Sharp X68000
- Year: 1992
- Publisher: Pony Canyon, Inc.
- Developer: ORIGIN Systems, Inc.
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