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Another bullet dodged
Jun. 24th, 2011 11:12 amMost any Ultima fan can tell you that EA has been a poor custodian of the franchise, right from its unethical treatment of Origin. Fortunately, though, we seem to have dodged a particularly egregious insult in the form of a cancelled beat-'em-up based on Ultima IV.
The very mention of beat-'em-ups in conjunction with a title formed as an antidote to the idea of games having to be founded on beating-'em-up should raise an eyebrow. It's the character art that found its way out to the 'net that's most entertainingly ridiculous. I actually do like the reimagining of the Ranger as a Celtic nature-attuned stealth barbarian and the Paladin as a creepy cultist (though the Codex burst the latter bubble by mentioning that the Paladin design was partially snaked from Final Fantasy XII's Judges). The Avatar's garb, though, seems comic-book familiar - the Wiccan, via Solid Snake? I seem to recall someone who's closer - and the game's idea of "Shepherd" is apparently "goth chick with very prominent tits." The naked Mage and Druid are parodies of female video-game couture - extra points for not having the Druid's translucent thongs even attached to her body; extra demerits, though, for depicting the one visibly black character - the representative of the cerebral, engineering-and blacksmithing-based Tinker class - as a stereotypical tribal savage. The Bard and his pastede on yay Cigarette of Rebel Defiance could've maybe sorta worked were pirates not a particularly poor representation of the class's trademark virtue of Compassion, but the idea that Virtues were going to stay in the game is laughable anyhow. "The idea was to make a brand new interpretation of my favorite game of all time," says the lead artist, but, brother, it's hard as heck to see how the game would have reflected whatever he liked about Ultima IV so much in the first place.
(Bad news, though - apparently the freeware release of the original Ultima IV is being pulled from distribution, signaling that EA perhaps hasn't given up on reimagining Quest of the Avatar, despite their abandonment of this particular incarnation.)
.
The very mention of beat-'em-ups in conjunction with a title formed as an antidote to the idea of games having to be founded on beating-'em-up should raise an eyebrow. It's the character art that found its way out to the 'net that's most entertainingly ridiculous. I actually do like the reimagining of the Ranger as a Celtic nature-attuned stealth barbarian and the Paladin as a creepy cultist (though the Codex burst the latter bubble by mentioning that the Paladin design was partially snaked from Final Fantasy XII's Judges). The Avatar's garb, though, seems comic-book familiar - the Wiccan, via Solid Snake? I seem to recall someone who's closer - and the game's idea of "Shepherd" is apparently "goth chick with very prominent tits." The naked Mage and Druid are parodies of female video-game couture - extra points for not having the Druid's translucent thongs even attached to her body; extra demerits, though, for depicting the one visibly black character - the representative of the cerebral, engineering-and blacksmithing-based Tinker class - as a stereotypical tribal savage. The Bard and his pastede on yay Cigarette of Rebel Defiance could've maybe sorta worked were pirates not a particularly poor representation of the class's trademark virtue of Compassion, but the idea that Virtues were going to stay in the game is laughable anyhow. "The idea was to make a brand new interpretation of my favorite game of all time," says the lead artist, but, brother, it's hard as heck to see how the game would have reflected whatever he liked about Ultima IV so much in the first place.
(Bad news, though - apparently the freeware release of the original Ultima IV is being pulled from distribution, signaling that EA perhaps hasn't given up on reimagining Quest of the Avatar, despite their abandonment of this particular incarnation.)
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