More Than 15 years later, this game's still rocking.
I won't say I have a tiny appetite for games, actually, i'm quite demanding in that way, but this game took me from mi hair and shoke me for a while.
First of all, when I met this game, the game was already a bit old (1995), and I was a bit young (5 years old). I spent hours playing this game, a bit too scary for a 5-year-old boy, that's why I just couldn't really get out of Tenebrae. A few (or many, it depends on the reference system) years later, I picked-up the game from my dusty shelves, I put the CD (yes, I had it in a CD with 3 other Origin's games) in my also dusty PC (the one and only with DOS in my home) and started playing, from zero.
My awesome was great, when I found out how good the game was done, that I didn't have any troubles at all with the graphic shock of play a 10 years old video game. Despite my experience in RPG games, and my improved english knowledge (two things I did not have in 1995), i could get through some levels, to call it that way, but i got stuck in a part, again.
Dissappointed, I put the game in the shelves again, to let it recover the dust it deserved. Time went by, and my yearning for the Avatar was in raise, so I reinstalled the game, but this time, I used Dos Box. Don't know if there's any difference, but this time I had the game completed in about 2 weeks.
The story involving the game and my life it's boring, so I'll describe the game itself now. It's long, hard, complicated and discouraging in some parts, but the satisfaction of solving the puzzles inside the games, the way the story puts you into the game, and the stunning (awesome for the 90's) musical effects (the music of tenebrae still illuminates my dreams sometimes), along with the Guardian's voices, makes the game worthy playing.
But, i did not put that the game it's "worth playing", I marked "Awesome". And this is why, the story itself, resembles more to a fairytale than the whole absurd world that modern RPG's tend to invent; the game-play it's prefectly worked out (at the first it's not that simple, but at the end you'll be able to go through the game without looking at it), every jump you do, it's a new jump, every step you take, has to be studied, nothing is left to chance; and, the most of the good reasons, because it's the father of every single RPG in the market today, and, features all the things that defines de difference between an RPG an a Masterpiece.
But, like every single game, it has his ups and downs during the flat gaming, and, I found only one big problem: The story finish horrible. Ok, yes, it's quite good for the Avatar, and let's the story continue through out Ultima IX, but, for the Tenebraens, the whole world is falling apart. I will not mention the facts, in order to not ruin players fun in history, but, even being greatly dissappointed by the end, the whole game as a unity, it's, as for me, the Best Game Ever.