Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar is a fantasy roleplaying game and one of the most important video games of all time.

The fourth game in the series was created by the legendary Richard Garriot, who considers Ultima IV his favorite chapter of the Ultima series.

The game was created for the Apple II in 1985, then ported to Commodore 64, MS-DOS (1987), Amiga (1988), and many other platforms, including MSX, Atari ST, NES, and many more.

Ultima IV was the first in the “Age of Enlightenment” trilogy, which moved from a "hack and slash" gameplay towards a story-based approach. After the defeat of the evil triad in the last game, Sosaria was changed. The world was renamed Britannia for the ruling Lord British. Lord British proclaims the eight virtues (Honesty, Compassion, Valor, Justice, Sacrifice, Honor, Spirituality, and Humility) as ideals everyone should strive for. Only the main character can become a master of these virtues and access the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom.

This game explores morality long before it became the newest craze to add a morality system to your RPG. More than that, it does it well. The standard elements of the game – battles, dungeons – are well done, but what really makes the game stand out is its morality system. My only issue with the game was that it lacked a plot other than “become the avatar.” This is only a minor issue, and this game stands out as one of the greatest PC games of all time.