Gameplay
Exodus features revolutionary graphics for its time, being the first computer RPG to display animated characters. Also, Exodus differs from previous games in that players now direct the actions of a party of four characters rather than just one. Players now battle groups of enemies on a separate battle screen, where the player has to understand weapons and magic systems and employ rudimentary tactics in order to overcome each opponent, as opposed to the system in the previous two games, in which the player is simply depicted as trading blows with one opponent on the main map until either is defeated. Enemies are on the overworld map can be seen and avoided whilst enemies in a dungeon are random.
The party of four that you get is chosen in the beginning of the game. You choose between 11 classes which are as follows, Fighter, Paladin, Cleric, Wizard, Ranger, Thief, Barbarian, Lark, Illusionist, Druid, and Alchemist. Each class has a specified race between 5 different races. The default race for each class is the recommended race, but this can edited along with attribute points for each character. The races determine stat growth, some races allow certain stats to be maxed out while others limit the stats to half the allowed amount. Certain stats such as wisdom and intelligence determine what spells you are able to obtain with casters.
For the most part, all the classes are built around the 4 main classes with very minor differences, the 4 main classes are Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Thief. Fighter type classes are strong in melee and in defense, but have no spells or abilities and can equip most armor and weapons. The Thief type classes are good at resisting traps that may be in dungeons or in chests and are limited to what weapons and armor they can equip. Cleric type classes have healing spells and spells strong against undead and are limited to cloth armor and staves/maces. Wizard type classes have strong offensive type spells and are limited to cloth armor and staves.
Character leveling is individual, so leveling up your characters evenly is a good idea due to bigger stronger monsters appearing. Not leveling your characters evenly can result in the weaker characters dying easily in battles. One thing that is common is wizard and cleric types out leveling the melee types due to the fact they have AOE attacks and ranged attacks that allow them to kill enemies well before the melee types can even get to the enemy. The max level for your characters is 25 and is needed to be reached by all 4 characters in order to beat the game. When a character has the needed experience to level up, they must talk to Lord British for the character to actually level up.
One of the key items in the game that you must have is food. You have to frequently go to the grocery store to buy food and then share it with your party. If food gets low on a character, he will start taking damage from movement, much like being poisoned. Food depletes from walking around, but can also be stolen from you by goblins in dungeons.
Aside from the ability to talk to townspeople there are other commands that can be used on them, some of the commands have to be earned in order to use them. Some of the commands you can use are bribe, steal, and fight. Bribing can be used to make certain guards go away from their post. Steal can be used on townspeople and some enemies, but can result in a fight with townspeople if caught. Fight does pretty much what it says it does, you can choose to fight someone, though upon killing a townsperson, will invoke the guards to chase after you, which always come in parties of 8 and are very strong, so maybe not a good idea to do unless your high level. You can also choose to fight Lord British, but he cannot be killed, so choose this if you want a long drawn out fight in which you will ultimately lose.
Unlike the two previous Ultima games, which had wire-frame first-person dungeons, Exodus' dungeons are solid-3D in appearance and integrated into the game's plot. Dungeons are foreboding mazes that can take forever to navigate but are necessary to obtain certain marks that are needed to get through the game. One noticable characteristic of dungeons are the monsters in them. The monsters are not based off your level as the overworld monsters are, so going into certain dungeons may be to hard for you at first. There are many chests inside of dungeons and most of them are trapped. Aside from chests and marks inside of dungeons are also fountains, there are ones that heal and ones that poison you. Most of the futuristic aspects of the game seen in the previous installments are gone, including flying vehicles, time machines, and spaceships.
There are three modes of travel in the game, on foot, horseback, and boat. Getting around on foot is slow and can often lead up to monsters catching up to you. Horseback gives you the advantage of moving faster while consuming less food, making getting away from unwanted fights easier. Horses can only be bought from a few towns and are generally expensive. Getting a boat can be tricky, it requires you to reach a certain level for pirates to start appearing and then you have to find a pirate boat in the water, waiting paitently for them to come next to the coast so you can attack them, defeating the pirates gives you their boat.
By denying the player the ability to see what's behind mountain peaks, forests, and walls, the maps can now contain many small surprises such as hidden treasure, secret paths, and out-of-the-way informants. The look of the game is no longer based on certain characteristics of the Apple II hardware; it is rather a carefully designed screen layout.
Beating the game requires the player to get all marks, prayer cards and level 25 with all 4 characters before you are able to defeat Exodus.
Read more about this topic: Ultima III: Exodus