创世纪 7:
Ultima VII:
黑月之门
The Black Gate

Origin Systems, 1992
MS-DOS, SNES (Windows, Mac 和 Linux)*

Origin Systems, 1992
MS-DOS, SNES (Windows, Mac and Linux)*

“圣者[1] !你要知道不列颠尼亚(Britannia)已经进入了一个新的启蒙时代。你要知道是时候让一个真正的不列颠尼亚之王(Lord of Britannia)坐上王位并且统领人民了!在我的领导下,不列颠尼亚将会繁荣昌盛。所有人民都将欢欣鼓舞并且向他们的新王致上崇高的敬意!

你要知道,就算是你,圣者,也要在我面前臣服。你将像所有人一样,马上承认我的权威,因为我将时刻陪伴你,时刻供养你,并且成为你的主人!”

当这个红色的大脸邪恶地大笑并嘲讽我,最后渐渐隐入那平静的蓝色背景时,我整个人都震惊了。在大部分游戏里,反派都是那个坐在幕后坐享其成的人,但《创世纪 7(Ultima VII: The Black Gate)》里,这个自称为守护者(the Guardian)的人一开始就跳出来,告诉你他的邪恶意图并且全程都阴魂不散的萦绕在你身边。

任何一个玩过《创世纪 7》的人都会向你描述这段旅程的沉浸感以及故事的精巧程度有多强。游戏里的很多元素都都使得这段旅程更加的优秀,包括其剧情。作为圣者,你回到了不列颠尼亚去见你的朋友伊奥洛(Iolo),同时了解到关于铁匠和他的滴水兽(gargoyle)随从被残忍谋杀的案件。你的第一个目标便是揭秘这惨剧背后的真相。

“Avatar! Know that Britannia has entered into a new age of enlightenment. Know that the time has come for the one true Lord of Britannia to take his place at the head of his people! Under my guidance, Britannia will flourish. And all the people shall rejoice and pay homage to their new Guardian!

Know that you, too, shall kneel before me, Avatar. You too, shall soon acknowledge my authority, for I shall be your companion, your provider – and your master!”

As the red face mocked me with a menacing laugh and began to sink back into the blue static background, I was shocked. In most games, the antagonist just sits on the sidelines, but in Ultima VII the Guardian shows up right at the start, tells you his intent and then taunts you throughout the entire game.

Anyone who has played through Ultima VII can tell you what an immersive, amazing journey it is. Quite a few things set it apart, including its story. As the Avatar, you return to Britannia, meet your friend Iolo and learn of the brutal murder of a blacksmith and his gargoyle companion. Your first objective then is to solve the mystery behind this tragedy.

* Mod 制作者们发起了 Exult 计划,即重制版的《创世纪 7:黑月之门》。你可以使用当今的电脑来游玩它,同时游戏也有了更高的分辨率、状态栏等新功能;你甚至可以在黑暗之门中运用巨蛇岛(Serpents Isle)的物品。

* Modders created the Exult project, which allows you to play Ultima VII on modern PCs, with several new features like higher resolution, status bar and using Serpents Isle's inventory in The Black Gate.

守护者在游戏里会直接与你对话,并时常围绕在你身边——比如告诉你走错了或是你的一个伙伴牺牲了。

The Guardian speaks directly to you, then constantly taunts you during the game – pointing out you're going in the wrong direction or that a party member just died.

《创世纪 7》不像别的 RPG 游戏那样只需要击杀怪物就能拿到更好的装备。在《创世纪》系列里人物关系更加地重要。《创世纪》里人物的对话和那些你只需要跳过对话然后大开杀戒的游戏完全不一样,这里的对话宛如珍馐美馔,其质量堪比一本引人入胜的小说。

最终线索会指引你前往游戏的初始城市特林希克城(Trinsic[2] )、爪村(Paws)以及不列颠(Britain),之后你便可以在世界里自由自在地漫游了。不过不列颠尼亚和你上次来访时已然完全不一样,变得更加的黑暗了。因此在这片大陆上你会经常遇到例如通奸、滥用毒品以及阶级斗争等少儿不宜的内容。

同时游戏里简洁且全鼠标操作的界面也使得游玩时的沉浸感更深了。你终于不用记下那一长串的键盘指令了,例如——行走,拿起物品,打开物品栏,移动物品等等。现在你只需鼠标轻轻一点便可以完成操作。并且那些生硬且无趣,需要根据你输入的例如“名字(name)”、“职业(job)”、“再见(bye)”等关键字生成的对话也成为了过去式。现在你只需要点击出现在屏幕上的对话选项即可。

同时《创世纪 7》的世界里也增添了很多的细节。不仅是对话和一些隐藏要素有了很多新的细节,同时整个世界都有了很多新的玩法。想做一块面包吗?那就去收割谷物,磨成面粉,加点水使其成为生面团,最后放进烤箱。这样你就有了面包。你还可以薅羊毛来做成羊毛衫,锻造出自己的剑,钓鱼,堆起箱子去爬往更高的地方,或者是进行农耕等等新奇的体验。

我真的很喜欢《创世纪 7》,不过它也还是有一些缺陷的。首当其中的便是其战斗系统。《创世纪 7》的战斗系统是实时的且大多数时候都是自动的,你基本只需要把普通模式(peace)切换成战斗模式(combat)就可以了。但是有时很抓狂的是,当你进入战斗模式时你团队的所有成员都在屏幕之外。如果在地牢里出现这种情况的话,那就意味着至少有一个在屏幕之外的成员绝对会死,不管其等级有多高。

It's a very different experience from RPGs where you just need to out-kill monsters to get a shiny new weapon. In the Ultima series people matter. Their dialogue is not something to be skipped so you can just get on with the game. The text is something to be savoured, like a compelling book.

Eventually, the trail leads you out of the starting city of Trinsic, to Paws, then Britain, and from there you can head wherever you want. However, Britannia has become a much darker place since your last visit, so adultery, drug abuse and class struggles are just a few of the more mature themes you will find.

Adding to the immersion is the clean and fully mouse-driven interface. Gone are the list of keyboard commands needed to play – walking, talking, picking up items, opening your inventory, moving objects around, etc... it's all done with a click of the mouse. Also gone are the stiff dialogues based on typing “name”, “job”, “bye” and other keywords. Now you just have to click on the dialogue options that appear on-screen.

Another aspect is the sheer amount of detail that went into Ultima VII's world. Not only in the dialogues and secrets, but in the simulation of the world itself. Want to make bread? Cut the grain, grind it into flour, add water to make dough, then pop it into the oven. Now you have bread. You can also shear sheep and make cloth, forge your own sword, go fishing, pile up crates to climb, get a job as farmer, etc.

I obviously enjoy Ultima VII immensely, but it does have its flaws though. One of them is the combat. It's real-time and mostly automatic – you basically just toggle in between a “peace” or “combat” mode. The frustration sets in when you go into combat mode and everyone in your party runs off-screen. In a dungeon this usually means at least someone will die, no matter how high their level.

__________

1 译者注:其原文为 Avatar,是《创世纪》系列一直以来主角的名称,最初其在《创世纪 1》里被叫做 The Stranger,即异乡人,但在《创世纪 4:圣者传奇(Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar)》之后主人公便更名为圣者。虽然游戏没有明说异乡人和圣者是否是同一个人,但是游戏的各种剧情流程都默认了其是同一个人。
2 译者注:Trinsic 是《创世纪》里的荣耀(Honour)之城,因此也是不列颠尼亚的骑士(Paladins)总部。关于荣耀和骑士的信息请参阅《创世纪 4:圣者的传奇》的评测文章。

《电脑 RPG 游戏史(The CRPG Book Project)》原书信息

英文原版主编:Felipe Pepe
原项目网址:https://crpgbook.wordpress.com/
授权协议:知识共享 署名-非商业性使用 4.0 国际许可协议 (CC BY-NC 4.0)

这本书历时四年,由 119 名志愿者共同完成。

《CRPG 通鉴(The CRPG Book Project)》中文版版权说明

您正在看到的内容是《CRPG 通鉴》版本的一部分。
本中文版在原书授权协议的约束下进行创作与线上传播。

中文版编者:《CRPG 通鉴》编译委员会
中文版项目网址:https://crpgbook.cn

本书(《CRPG 通鉴》版本)正在筹备出版中文实体版,欢迎各路英豪加入我们编译委员会,详情请访问 这里

参与此中文 CRPG 文章的讨论

暂无关于此中文 CRPG 文章的评论。

您需要登录或者注册后才能发表评论
登录/注册