Ultima VII Add-On - The Forge of Virtue

History: Ultima 7 was designed to be extended with an Add-On scenario. The Forge of Virtue adds the Isle of Fire to the world. Yes, exactly the same island where the hero has defeated the evil Exodus in Ultima 3. Lord British even gives you one of his ships to reach it.

The return to the castle of Exodus.

A blind mage named Erethian provides valuable information.

Background: While you explore the ruins of Exodus' Castle you will discover that his evil mind, the Dark Core is still present. You will have to enter three dungeons, pass tests and find three parts of an amulet there before you can banish it into the void. On your way you can also maximize your skills and forge the Demon Sword, one of the most powerful weapons in the Ultima universe. This will help you a lot during the main quest of Ultima 7.

The Forge of Virtue where the Blackrock sword is created.

Arcadion the demon lends much of his power to the sword. Also note the Dark Core of Exodus.

Recommended Version: Although there is a pitiful console version of the game, the Black Gate is designed almost exclusively for the PC. Playing the english version also allows you to install the Forge of Virtue Add-On for this game. There are german and french versions of the game, but I heard they don't support the Add-On. The PC versions of Ultima 7+8 use a crazy memory management system, thus they are hard to install under Windows. There are patches for Win9x as well as a complete remake of the Ultima 7 engine, called Exult. This engine runs smoothly under newer Windows versions and allows to install some fan-made mods and bugfixes, too.

Golem creation in the Test of Love.

The Truth dungeon has many amulets but only one is real.

Statistics:

Party with 1 created character and up to 7 NPCs.
71 different magic spells
Introduction of linear (mana-free) spells
Dungeons/Outdoors/Buildings 2D
On-Screen-mapping: Yes (No in dungeons)

The Test of Courage involves battles with Liches, Golems and immortal Dragons. Peanuts for a hero like the Avatar.

Finally - The Ultimate Weapon!

Morale: While any similarity between game characters and living real-world persons is purely coincidental according to the statements of Origin, the whole story about the Fellowship and their attempt to gain influence suspiciously reminds one of certain control-hungry sects, especially one. The whole system, the hierarchies, the taxes, the membership terms, the attempt to recruit followers in high positions, the set of questions for beginning members, all this is a clear warning to be aware of sects which threaten individual freedom and democracy more and more. As the Avatar discovers in the later game, the Fellowship even uses some sort of psychical manipulation. Well, in the game this problem is easily removed by disabling a technical device. In the real world, the problem will be much more difficult to deal with: Creating filters and detectors for subliminal manipulation attempts and making laws against them without allowing the laws to create more injustice than the act of manipulation itself.

Britannia