Ultima Online: Renaissance

The Good
In Ultima Online, you can do just about anything. People have even built whole towns run entirely by PC's! (player characters, not personal computers) I myself have held auctions, organized hunting parties, killed some really evil and powerful monsters and a lot more than that, just with one character. There is huge amount of possible professions to choose from, too.

The Bad
If you wanna create a character, buy some weapons, leave the town and kill a few ogres, don't buy this game. Building up your character takes time. And then there's the thing about paying 10 bucks a month, but that's definitely worth it.

The Bottom Line
I personally believe that Ultima Online: Renaissance is quite literally the best game ever made. That is, until Ultima Online: Third Dawn hits the shelves. You create a character by choosing from a number of character templates (or creating your own template), designing their looks and then send them out into a world full of interesting players, NPC's and (my personal favorite,) monsters. A real must-have.

The Good
It has everything you could want in a multiplayer roleplaying game, except for roleplaying. There are many professions to choose from, be a tailor, barkeeper, warrior, or wizard. There are animals to tame and mercanaries to hire, also many quests. It's also very easy to configure so you can play for free on a player-ran server, where the community is usually a little better. The combat system consists of a war mode, or a peace mode, it's real time (although it often seems like an "I hit you, you hit me" turn based sort of thing). The game itself is awesome, the people however need some work.

The Bad
- Horrible people on the pay servers, a lot of stupid character names, and immature people.

• $10 a month to put up with 11 year olds and constant player killing

• On pay servers all the good places for a house are taken, you'll most likely have to go on eBay to buy one.

• If you are into roleplaying, I'd suggest playing on a player-ran server rather than paying $10 monthly to be harassed for "talking funny"
  
  The Bottom Line
  Ultima Online is a unique multiplayer experience, with almost unlimitied possibilities. However, many people stray from the pay servers to play on the masses of free player-ran servers where the player base is lower, and the lag isn't all that bad. Despite the few problems it does have, Origin did do a good job with the game. (I covered a lot of the community issues, because you could just read the box to know its sell-points.)

The Good
UO is a great MMORPG, though it certainly isn't to everyone's taste. If you want to make items and sell them rather than go off on numerous "quests" (AKA "goose chases"), then you'll appreciate how UO makes this a viable option for you. People have complained about the lack of 3D graphics, but I prefer the 2D isometric perspective. Typed messages are printed onscreen above the character speaking, which makes communication less confusing.

UO also has an inherent advantage over its competitors: the venerable Ultima franchise. The vaguely Arthurian, but essentially original, virtue-oriented world of Ultima is very familiar to old-timers like myself. It has a kind of integrity to it, as it never feels like the game designers took all of the fantasy paperbacks off the shelf at the local Barnes & Noble and threw them into a blender (I'm looking at you, EQ).

The tutorial and the new "newbie" area of Haven that came with Renaissance are excellent. Social interaction is always a mixed bag with these online games, but I found most other players to be both polite and helpful. The division of the world into PVP and non-PVP facets was (and still is) a major improvement, and the reputation system seems to have made cutthroat criminality less attractive than it once was.

The Bad
The flaws in UO can be divided into two categories:

Specific to UO: Lag, lag, and more lag. In fairness, I think even the laggy Renaissance was a significant improvement over previous versions of UO, and it makes a difference what time of day/night you log on.

General complaints about online games: Consumes enormous amounts of time and money. Death is far too costly, considering how long it takes for a character to gain a reasonable level of skill (and also considering that you have probably invested hundreds of dollars and months of your life in building up that character). Very few people actually role play, and WAY too many people use the game as a chat room. Anti-social jerks can also be a problem, as meanies will try to mislead and take advantage of newbies and other naïve players--even on the non-PvP servers.

The Bottom Line
If you have the considerable time and money required by an online game, and the Ultima universe appeals to you, then Renaissance and later iterations of UO are a good buy.