In the course of this lengthy adventure you'll combat countless foes, solve numerous puzzles and slowly unravel the mystery of the evil columns through many conversations with townsfolk and other inhabitants of Britannia. While the afore-mentioned conversations carry the story well they tend to be rather brief and the quality of the voice acting is simply abysmal. Characters that were acted passably can be counted on one hand and this sadly reduces the otherwise immersive atmosphere.

There is no loading screen and no interface. Saving and loading games, casting spells and reading involves opening books by clicking on them and turning pages. Movement uses an unusual yet very intuitive control system that quickly becomes second nature. Jumping puzzles are for once particularly easy as you simply point your crosshair at the point you wish to jump to and press space to jump exactly where you wanted to assuming the cursor indicates you can make it. After a few hours of playing Ultima IX though you may well find your elite Quake 3 skills devastated though due to the rather different controls as we found out. Still, it's a small price to pay.

Inventory management also deserves a brief mention as it is something that few games manage to implement well. Your tool belt is invaluable for quick access to spells, potions and weapons and can be further expanded with extra bags. More equipment can be stowed in your backpack, which also contains a map of Britannia and your arrow count. To cast a spell you simply pick it from a book and click where it is to be cast, or spells can be dragged onto your tool belt for even easier access. It may not sound like a major point, but once you've cast your 100th ignite spell you'll value the ease of use the quick access tool belt provides.

While the voice acting is on the whole pretty dire, the general sound is quite the opposite. Ambient sounds such as seagulls, owls in the forest at night, spell sounds and even footsteps are well reproduced and contribute to the overall immersive nature of the experience. Add to this noticeably good use of EAX for 3D audio and you have a particularly good sounding game. Music was also produced by a full orchestra, and while it isn't up to the high standard of games such as Outcast it continues the feel of the music from previous titles and complements the medieval atmosphere nicely, although some may find it slightly repetitive over the 50+ hours it takes to complete the game