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Produced by: Jason Ely
Website: Elderlands
Forum: Elderlands Forums
Twitter: @elderlands
Releases:
* Elderlands Alpha v0.7 (829.6 KiB, 58 hits)

Elderlands is the latest old-school, very obviously Ultima-inspired online RPG by former Origin Systems software engineer Jason Ely, who previously worked on such titles as Ultima 8, Crusader: No Remorse, and Crusader: No Regret. He also developed Dransik, although Pixel Mine Games has since acquired that property from him.

In his own words, Ely describes Elderlands as “a 2D graphical Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) that has a retro look and feel. The game provides a nostalgic environment that gives players fun and innovative game-play in a large and dynamic world.” It includes three huge continents, hundreds of monster types, three class categories offering a total of 14 playable classes, customizable character appearances, guilds, a barter/trade-based economic system, multiple minigames and casino-type games, and fully scripted in-game NPCs with homes, jobs, and schedules.

The game can be downloaded from here or via the link above; it is necessary to create an account at the Elderlands website in order to play.

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Produced by: Arkane Studios
Website: Arx Fatalis Online (English site)
Releases:
* English Demo (Updated) (153.1 MiB, 346 hits)
* English Demo (Old) (154.2 MiB, 182 hits)
* German Demo (156.4 MiB, 180 hits)
* French Demo (154.4 MiB, 190 hits)
* Version 1.21 Patch (English) (7.9 MiB, 243 hits)
* Version 1.21 Patch (Spanish) (7.9 MiB, 135 hits)
* Version 1.21 Patch (French) (7.9 MiB, 134 hits)
* Version 1.21 Patch (German) (7.9 MiB, 143 hits)
* Version 1.21 Patch (Italian) (7.9 MiB, 151 hits)
* Version 1.21 Patch (Russian) (7.9 MiB, 139 hits)
* Version 1.21 Patch (Multi-language) (8.6 MiB, 155 hits)
* Bonus CD Content (181.0 MiB, 388 hits)
* Arx Fatalis v1.2.1 Source Code (1.9 MiB, 1,009 hits)

Arkane Studios developed this game in honor of the Ultima Underworld series, out of recognition of the superior gameplay style of those games.

The game, according to Wikipedia, “is set on a world whose sun has failed, forcing the above-ground creatures to take refuge in subterranean caverns. The action in Arx takes place in one of these large caves, where inhabitants from all races such as Trolls, Goblins, Dwarves, Humans, etc. have made their homes on various levels of the cave. The player awakens inside a prison cell and, after making his escape, eventually discovers his mission is to subvert and imprison the God of Destruction, Akbaa, who is trying to manifest itself in Arx.”

Featuring a strong plot with many subquests, multiple NPC races — each with different dialogue styles, character customization, exceptional world interactivity and even runic magic — this game could very well have been titled Ultima Underworld 3. And in fact, it was supposed to have exactly that title, but Arkane was unable to license the name.

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Produced by: Iron Will Games
Website: Dransik
Releases:
* Pixel Mine Installer (external file)

Dransik apparently began as an Ultima 5-like MMORPG, as a project supposedly headed by former Ultima 8 developer Jason Ely. At some point in its history, the game evolved somewhat, taking on a more isometric graphics set with some very beautiful special effects.

Dransik is no longer in development, of course, having morphed into a second online RPG called Ashen Empires. Ashen Empires inherited its isometric engine, so Dransik now looks, again, like an Ultima 5 clone…though that’s not a bad thing, by any means. It is now available for free download and play.

At one point, there was limitation imposed on you by the developers: your backpack/inventory capacity was reduced if you did not play via an active Ashen Empires account. Since Ashen Empires is now itself free, this restriction may have been lifted.