A helpful reader brought to our attention the existence of ULTIZURK IV: Lord of the Cyclops, a shareware RPG in development by 'MadMan.' This ambitious project promises to 'close the book' on shareware RPGs, and is supposedly nearing completion. In a unique presentation, details about the game are introduced by character narrators, concentrating on specific details. Here are some of the features of this RPG:

-The land is greatly detailed. While we don't claim the layouts to be quite as fancy as a modern commercial game, yet it obviously isn't another U4/U5 clone either. :) So, graphically, not state-of-the-art, but pretty all the same.

-That detailed land is MORE interactive then Ultima 7! Yes, you can bake bread in Lord of the Cyclops, and much more indeed! All the bushes, plants, etc. seen in the first pic, for example, can be plucked, harvested, eaten, mixed into herbs, sold off, etc. The second pic displays a portion of "Agricultural Hall", where you can knit your own warm clothing to travel up north, make wine from scratch on a wine press, and even pop popcorn!

-The Castle pic - screenshot three - shows some nice cannons. But they not only actually fire, they RECOIL, and if you're behind it, you'll take a hit - stand aside it when shooting those legions of goblins. :) And yes, you can climb up top and walk all over the castle and many other buildings in this multi-layered game. One of our design points is listed as "no holds barred".

-The picture from inside the Inn shows how all containers are actual pop-up boxes, where you can easily simply pick up the object and add it to your pack! Unless, of course, you are attempting to STEAL something - one of the innumerable features involving the many skills and stats in the game.

Lord of the Cyclops Web Site

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