Overview: The first thing you need to know about Lord of Ultima is that it’s not an Ultima game the way you might be thinking. (If you only have the vaguest knowledge of Ultima to begin with, feel free to ignore the rest of this paragraph.) It’s not an RPG at all – it’s a semi-real-time strategy game along the lines of Evony. While nods are given to the Ultima brand in the form of “Trinsic Temples” and “Moonglow Towers,” it doesn’t even take place in Sosaria or any of the remaining lost lands. (Whatever happened to the Lands of the Dark Unknown, anyway?) However, while the use of the Ultima name makes this reviewer want to shake her stick and mutter, “Get off my lawn, thou upstart brat,” we can’t deny that this is a well-executed strategy game.

The basis of the game is very familiar if you’ve played web games in this genre at all – you get a starting city, in which you place buildings and recruit units. The tutorial is very smooth and walks you through the various quirks – one of the more interesting ones is that building placement is a strategic choice. Certain buildings gain bonuses when placed next to other specific buildings or terrain features. This makes foresight a virtue and proper city planning critical to efficiency.

One building that isn’t unlocked immediately is the Castle. Building a Castle opens you to attack from other players, and also allows you to attack them. It’s entirely possible to play the game without ever building a Castle – you could certainly use your one city as the basis for a merchant empire, or solely attack the monster-filled Dungeons – but the game is definitely geared towards player-vs-player conflict.

With any free-to-play PvP game, the buy-in becomes a balance concern. Lord of Ultima is clearly designed to mitigate these concerns – while there’s certainly an advantage to having extra resources or a faster-traveling army, and the various ministers that can execute basic commands (upgrade buildings, recruit units, raid dungeons) while you’re away are a tremendous convenience, none of these things will give you a decisive advantage in battle.

While it’s not clear if there’s a real advantage to be gained by using the Ultima name (see our interview with die-hard Ultima fans to get an idea of the target audience’s reaction) Lord of Ultima is making a valiant effort to stand on its own as a worthwhile game. If you like web-based strategy games, this one is definitely one to try.