Worlds of Ultima - The Savage Empire

Year 1990, I'm twelve years old, and on my Hercules monitor glows a message that I've been pulled into a world of prehistoric jungles, dinosaurs, and tribal warriors. Ultima 6 had stared at me from that same screen just a few months before — and suddenly here was its engine again, but this time without Britannia and without Lord British.

Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire is an RPG from Origin Systems that tells the story of the Avatar thrown into a hidden world inside the planet — a place where dinosaurs live alongside spear-wielding tribes and where pulp adventures straight out of Jules Verne or Edgar Rice Burroughs aren't inspiration, but the scenario itself. The goal is to unite warring tribes against a common enemy. Nothing more, but also nothing less.

The game mechanics stand on the foundations of Ultima 6 — tile-based movement, contextual actions, an inventory full of items you wonder why you're carrying, and conversations through keywords. Compared to Ultima, it got a cosmetic facelift for the graphical interface, but the engine remained the same, so if you've played the sixth game, you know exactly what you're getting into. Combat is straightforward, sometimes clunky, and definitely doesn't feel like the game's main draw. That's exploration and conversations with tribal chiefs. The world is surprisingly dense with details — each tribe has character, its own motivations, and a slightly different vocabulary. Origin put more care into this than you'd expect from a spin-off project.

Why do I remember it? Because it was the first moment I understood that RPGs don't need a fantasy setting to work. Dinosaurs as enemies and stone axes as weapons felt almost provocative back then. Unfortunately, the Worlds of Ultima series remained unfinished — only one direct sequel came out and then silence. The Savage Empire feels a bit like the first chapter of a novel no one ever finished writing. It's aged reasonably well — keyboard controls are mechanical but logical, and the world keeps its charm. The pixel art jungle looks acceptable even today.

Who would enjoy it now? Fans of Ultima 6 who haven't played this one yet — and there are surprisingly many. And also anyone who loves pulp adventures from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and doesn't mind that the pace is slower than modern reflexes allow. You can fire it up in a browser via DOSBox Online without installation, without frustration. A half hour invested in the first tribal conversations will show you if it'll hook you. It hooked me. I still love it — even though a dinosaur killed me three times in a row before noon in 1990.