![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/assets1.ignimgs.com/2017/04/24/24-1493052954311_640w.jpg)
Ultima VII: The Black Gate built on the Ultima series in new, even revolutionary ways. It shed the famously clunky UI of previous games to allow more of its refreshingly detailed world to shine through. Instead, checking your inventory or looting happened in pop-up menus, which not only carried into future Ultima titles, but games outside the RPG genre too. Ultima VII also dropped the strict, grid-based approach to movement, introduced dialogue trees, and went real-time. Its innovations to the format are matched only by its impressive interactivity and the non-linearity of its main plot. You’re free to roam around its open world, pick up sidequests, forge weapons, bake bread, hang out in a pub, and even committ crimes. Ultima VII managed to root itself comfortably in the conventions it created, but still have the sophistication to move forward in awesome new ways.
- The first mainline Ultima game to use dialogue trees.
- The last Ultima game developed by Origin, before Electronic Arts.