Ultima Online: Samurai Empire First Look

At a recent press event, EA Games revealed its upcoming expansion pack for Origin System's groundbreaking massively multiplayer game Ultima Online. The game itself originally launched in 1997 and let players explore an online version of the fantasy realms made famous in Origin Systems' classic Ultima role-playing series. The new expansion will add an all-new package of content inspired by feudal Japanese culture, including the addition of two character classes, the samurai and the ninja. The expansion continues the original game's ongoing story--the legendary hero Lord British has "mysteriously disappeared," the evil Blackthorn has been defeated, and now new challenges face the inhabitants of Ultima Online.

The expansion's new classes will possess all-new sets of powerful abilities. Samurai will possess seven new skills including "honorable execution," "lightning strike," and "whirlwind." Samurai, like ninja, also be able to use all-new weapons and items. Ninjas will also have all-new abilities like "mirror image," "smoke bomb," and "animal form." The abilities revealed today appear to be most relevant to combat, though some skills, like the ninja's animal form (which lets ninjas disguise themselves as harmless animals to scout out enemy territory) have other uses.

In addition to the new classes and skills, the expansion will add a suite of new monsters, like deadly fan dancers and flying dragons, including a type of dragon that can be ridden as a mount. The expansion will also add a set of housing and architecture options, including the ability for players to add new furniture and decorations inspired by Japanese culture (including shrines, pagodas, and temples) to their homes. The expansion will also add several new locations, including an all-new landmass, two new dungeons, and a new city.

Ultima Online fans may be excited by the announcement of this new expansion pack, though they may also find the new game's announcement at this time to be strange, considering that EA recently shut down Origin Systems' office in Austin, Texas, and canceled Ultima X: Odyssey, the massively multiplayer game that Origin had been working on previously. When asked about the unusual timing of the expansion pack's announcement, EA representatives explained that the expansion has been in development for quite some time by separate teams and that even after Origin was shuttered, 75 percent of the team from Austin came on board to work on the new game. While the development team still possesses the technology and art assets that were created for Ultima X: Odyssey, it has no plans to use any of it in Samurai Empire. The representatives admitted that Ultima Online itself continues to have "issues" and that the team is currently focused on resolving these issues and expanding and improving Ultima Online, rather than attempting to build a new game. The expansion is scheduled for release later this year.