The Black Gate vs. The Serpent Isle: Which is your favorite?

[Trevor_Clim]

hi!
a simple question but an interesting one, too!
(sorry if this has posted once again, but i couldnt find something similiar)

Please decide between those two ultimas and give a short comment why do you like the one more than the other. Please ignore the fact that Exult works different good with these two games!

My favorite is THE BLACK GATE, because i like the free roaming through the land, the different isles and the bigger party.

[Dominus]

I'm torn between the two. BG is huge, so much to do and to see. Freedom to do everything the way you want to.
SI is much more linear, but the plot is really great (even without everything that is cut).
I find myself playing SI far more often than BG. And with exult I only finished SI yet.

[RazorBlade]

Very hard question. I used to like BG more for its real great world where you wander around and discover new things every day. But SI had this special "play-a-book" feeling. I liked the story so much, I didnt bother that I could not walk everywhere from the beginning. It was more of a reward to get access to new areas. Then SI had those nice hot keys(like f) which when I got used to, didnt want to miss. Nowadays I prefer SI more because of the great story(also I never finished it-Dupre simply doesnt want to sacrifice himself ). The fact I like most about it is how it shows how everything depends on the point of view(with a little ironical side-swipe here and there.)

So short version: BG is great, SI is greater!

[Morg]

Well there is a good reason why both of them have the name Ultima 7. I think if i had to choose to keep only on of them it would be serpent isle because 1. I got it before i got the black gate 2. I've played the serpent isle so much i think of it as "MY" game

[OgreBattle]

I much prefer BG - got sick of changing clothes for the different climates and the linear game play of SI.

Just my 2 cents

[MagicMop]

I've gotta agree with Mister OgreBattle on this one. I'd take Black Gate anyday. As far as I'm concerned - it's got the perfect balance between wandering around doing what you feel like and following the plot.

Also, at the end of the game, you really get the feel that Britannia has changed for the better thanks to the stuff you did.... well, I guess it depends on how virtuous you're feeling while you're playing... heh heh...

In Serpant Isle, at the end of the game, everyone is dead regardless of whether you want them to be or not. I always thought to myself - "gee self, it would've been better for the general populous if the Avatar had never set foot on the island!"

MM

[Max aka Moscow Dragon]

BG is better in terms of world detalization, SI is better in terms of storyline.

[Tim]

I have more fun playing BG. I love both of them however. Definately the two best RPGs I have ever played.

[Crypt]

if the avatar hadn't followed balton to SI..what would have happened?

[Morg]

Odd place for that post crypt but as purely as a guess id say that, palos, dead eye, and brunt would have made excellent banes

you got 3 companions
batlins got 3 companions

[Crypt]

anyone else have any ideas on what would have happened? im just curious...anyone think the avatar going there way a bad idea? if he was in good ol britiania when the guardian came back couldn't he have stopped him...and...who wants to make a game using exult studio to play out these possible outcomes =]

[Jesse Broecker]

Black gate all the way I love the massive world and the freedom to explore it. I find that after playing the game through several times I am still finding new things. Also in SI the black sword is nothing morethan your key out of freedom.

If the Avatar didn't come to the island the banes still would have been released and no one would have restored order and saved britania in the process.

I think a cool game fore exult Studio would be to follow spark through the times of UW2 and while the avatar is in SI I've been throwing some plot ideas around.

[Morg]

I've got an idea for a game that takes place in britania during the events in SI.

The game starts with your mortegro being ported into skaera brea by a lightning strike (ala the last time you see him in si). It appears that these nasty storms of imbalance have allowed our good fiend horance the lich to be ressurected. You discover that the only way to defeat horance is to get x number of blackrock peices. It seams that several members of the town had blackrock but the catch is they are all dead. So its up to good old mortegro to run around the city to find signifigant artifacts belonging to these dead folk and then do some dungeon crawling to actually find the blackrock

well i guess its a little long winded and still an odd place to but this post but thats what my idea is.

[SB-X]

Why would you have to defeat our good fiend Horance?

[Ignum]

very tough call... SI had the better interface by far, with the hotkeys and in particular the body view when assigning weapons and armour. It also had a much better storyline although its a bit of a waste collecting all the treasure that seems to accumulate around the Avatar (purely by legal means of course and then the whole populace is wiped out. GB was fantastic in its free roaming nature and unlinear gameplay but at times I really wished for the hotkeys of SI and the graphical updates as well. But then, why bother choosing one over the other when they both come on the same cd... just play em!!! ^__^

[Dino3]

I think I like BG more, although I just started SI and haven't explored it. I love the freedom to roam, as well as the great interactivity offered by BG. You can bake bread, solve social problems etc.

What I like about SI is that they're always trying to kill you. I've played for a couple of hours, and I've already received about 3 or 4 murder attempts (up till the banquet only). That's really cool. There's always a traitor ready to kill you.

[Automaton Dragon]

I have to give the nod to BG. SI is very good, but BG is better in many ways:
- Larger party - in fact, there's so many potential companions, you have to choose which you want
- Much more freedom to roam & explore
- World seems larger
- More (& better) side quests
- Better world interaction. I still remember the thrill when I figured out how to rob the Britannian mint blind, then resurrect the teller & sell all of her own gold back to her!
- Although others seem to disagree, I would even say that I liked the BG plot better. The feeling of always being just one small step behind Batlin really kept my interest, and trying to expose the fellowship & solve the murders was really fun.
- Not an issue in exult, but it seemed to me that the original BG was much more stable than the original SI. I rarely had it crash, nor did I run into any plot-stopping bugs in the original BG - something I can't say for the original SI.

It's true that SI (originally) had a much better interface, but with Exult you get that with BG too

Just my 2 Filari

[SB-X]

> I have to give the nod to BG. SI is very good, but BG is better in many ways:
> [...]
> Just my 2 Filari

... but BG didn't have Filari.