If you are asking what to play after Ultima VII, start with Pillars of Eternity. It is the closest all-round modern successor when you want a party, companions, exploration, tactical combat and the atmosphere of a classic computer RPG. Choose Tyranny instead if your priority is a story that changes around difficult decisions, ATOM RPG if you want the classic CRPG structure moved to a Soviet post-apocalyptic wasteland, or Skald: Against the Black Priory if the DOS-era look is the part of Ultima you miss most.
Those games do not copy Ultima in the same way. Each preserves a different part of the appeal: open-ended discovery, reactive storytelling, party tactics, unusual settings or deliberately old-school presentation. The comparison below helps you identify which one matches the reason you loved the series.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
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Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition - Xbox One | $29.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire - Xbox One | $9.97 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire - PlayStation 4 | $53.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
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Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire (Xbox One) | $9.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
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Pillars of Eternity Guidebook Volume 1 | $10.99 | Buy on Amazon |
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Quick answer: which Ultima alternative should you play?
Use this short decision guide before looking at the detailed breakdown:
- Best overall modern successor: Pillars of Eternity. It combines party companions, exploration, tactical combat and a consciously classic CRPG structure.
- Best for consequences and role-playing choices: Tyranny. Its central premise is a story shaped by the actions you take, rather than a fixed heroic quest.
- Best post-apocalyptic substitute: ATOM RPG. It carries classic CRPG design into a Soviet wasteland and openly draws inspiration from several landmark computer role-playing games.
- Best visual throwback: Skald: Against the Black Priory. Its DOS-era presentation recalls Ultima and Gold Box games while its quests, combat and interactivity are designed for modern players.
If you want one purchase with the fewest compromises, choose Pillars of Eternity. If you want the game that feels most visually like an old DOS release, choose Skald. The right choice depends on whether “like Ultima” means freedom, companions, moral choice, setting or interface.
#1 Best Overall
- Award-winning writing, story and artwork of Pillars of Eternity, and The White March: Parts I & II.
- Countless character creation options, from races and classes, to character backgrounds, which drive your personal story.
- An epic universe to explore, filled with intriguing party members and companions, a variety of in-game factions, and a lovingly rendered world to traverse.
- New UI and controls designed from the ground up, presenting the Pillars of Eternity experience like never before!
- Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition includes all previously released additional content from the PC version, including all DLC and expansions in a single package.and controls.
What people usually mean by “a game like Ultima”
Ultima covers several eras and styles, so there is no single mechanical feature that every fan is trying to replace. Someone coming from Ultima IV may value philosophical role-playing and a world that invites wandering. Someone coming from Ultima VII may be looking for a dense setting, memorable companions, systemic interactions and the sensation that the player can approach problems in more than one way. Another player may simply want an isometric computer RPG with readable statistics, dialogue choices and deliberate exploration rather than a reflex-driven action game.
The four recommendations address those expectations differently. Pillars of Eternity is the broadest match for the classic party-based CRPG experience. Tyranny concentrates on the consequences of authority, loyalty and compromise. ATOM RPG changes the fantasy setting to a post-apocalyptic Soviet landscape while retaining the old-school CRPG framework. Skald makes its visual language intentionally retro, then adds quest design and combat closer to later computer RPGs.
Think of them as four interpretations of Ultima rather than four attempts to reproduce it. That distinction prevents a common disappointment: choosing a game because it looks old, then discovering that its story focus or combat system is entirely different from what you wanted.
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| Game | Exploration and reactivity | Hero, party and companions | Combat approach | Narrative emphasis | Setting | Presentation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pillars of Eternity | Exploration-led classic CRPG structure with authored locations and companion interaction | Party and companions are central | Real-time with pause, built for tactical control | Deep writing, themes and character-driven choices | Fantasy | Modern presentation with classic CRPG conventions |
| Tyranny | World and relationships respond strongly to decisions | Party tactics support a role defined by your choices | Real-time with pause | Consequence-driven story in which actions shape the campaign | Fantasy under an oppressive regime | Modern isometric CRPG presentation |
| ATOM RPG | Wasteland exploration built around classic CRPG discovery | Individual survivor perspective within a traditional CRPG framework | Turn-based combat | Questing and role-playing in a post-apocalyptic society | Soviet post-apocalyptic wasteland | Modern game using a deliberately old-school structure |
| Skald: Against the Black Priory | Quests and environmental interactivity presented through a compact, focused adventure | Adventure party conventions are secondary to its distinctive world and story | Turn-based combat | Cosmic-horror storytelling with modern quest and interaction design | Dark fantasy and cosmic horror | Deliberately DOS-era; visually recalls Ultima and Gold Box RPGs |
The table shows why no single title wins every category. The first two preserve the real-time-with-pause party tradition; the latter two are stronger choices for players who want turn-based combat or a visibly retro interface. The settings also move from conventional fantasy to political fantasy, post-apocalyptic science fiction and cosmic horror.
Pillars of Eternity: the safest modern successor
Pillars of Eternity is the best first recommendation when “like Ultima” means a modern game built with the values of classic computer role-playing games. Obsidian Entertainment describes its goal directly: “Eternity aims to recapture the magic, imagination, depth, and nostalgia of classic RPG’s that we enjoyed making – and playing.” That is a useful description of its design priority, not merely a marketing slogan.
Why it matches classic Ultima fans
The game puts a party, companions and exploration at the center of play. You move through a fantasy world, meet characters with their own perspectives, investigate locations and make decisions through dialogue and quests. Combat is real-time with pause, so encounters reward planning rather than constant mouse speed. You can stop the action, issue orders, inspect the situation and resume when the party is ready.
Obsidian explicitly positions the game as a combination of several classic traditions: the exploration and companions associated with Baldur’s Gate, the combat and dungeon diving associated with Icewind Dale, and the writing and themes associated with Planescape: Torment. That mixture makes it a strong bridge for Ultima players. It offers the social texture and travel of a party RPG without requiring you to accept a deliberately antique interface.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsWhere it differs from Ultima
Pillars of Eternity is not a sandbox simulation in which every household object or town routine behaves like a miniature system. Its world is authored, its encounters are arranged by designers and its narrative has a stronger traditional party-CRPG shape. Exploration is important, but it is organized into zones, quests and story beats rather than being an entirely free-form experiment.
Rank #2
- Immerse yourself in a deeper single player RPG game experience
- Discover the new region of the Dead Fire - plot your own course by ship and explore the rich and exotic islands of the archipelago region
- Build your party and customize your companions - choose from 7 different companions to join you on your quest and assign multiple classes and deeper abilities for each
- Captain your ship across the seas - as your stronghold on the seas, your ship is much more than simply a vessel for exploring
The combat pause also changes the rhythm. Ultima veterans who prefer issuing one command at a time may need to adjust to managing several characters, positioning a formation and pausing repeatedly. The benefit is that difficult fights become readable tactical puzzles instead of tests of reaction time.
Who should start here
- Players who want the closest balance of story, exploration, companions and combat.
- Anyone moving from Ultima VII to a modern presentation without abandoning classic CRPG conventions.
- Readers who enjoy fantasy settings and want a substantial party-based campaign rather than a short retro experiment.
Choose Pillars of Eternity first unless you already know that consequence-driven narrative, post-apocalyptic atmosphere or DOS-style graphics matters more to you than the all-round package.
Tyranny: the choice for a story reshaped by your decisions
Tyranny is the strongest alternative when the part of Ultima you value is role-playing through decisions rather than following a predetermined heroic script. Paradox describes it as “a classic-styled RPG with a new and original story, shaped and molded by your actions.” The wording identifies the central appeal: your decisions are not decoration around the plot; they determine how the campaign develops.
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What makes its premise different
Instead of beginning as a conventional hero opposing an established evil, you operate inside a world already controlled by an oppressive power. That position changes the questions you ask. You are not simply deciding whether to defeat a villain. You are weighing obedience, compromise, alliances and the consequences of enforcing or resisting an existing order.
This structure gives Tyranny a sharper focus than a general-purpose fantasy adventure. Dialogue choices, faction relationships and judgments can redirect the story. Two players can therefore leave the opening situation with different priorities and see different consequences unfold from comparable events.
How it compares with Ultima
Ultima often asks what kind of person your avatar will become through conduct, exploration and choices. Tyranny narrows that moral space around power and responsibility. It is less interested in presenting a neutral world for leisurely wandering and more interested in making you answer for the institutions and people affected by your decisions.
Like Pillars of Eternity, it uses real-time-with-pause combat and a party-oriented tactical structure. The difference is emphasis: Pillars is the safer recommendation for broad exploration and companions, while Tyranny is the better recommendation when you want the narrative to react aggressively to your role-play.
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Who should choose Tyranny
- Players who replay RPGs to test different decisions and story outcomes.
- Fans of morally uncomfortable choices rather than straightforward good-versus-evil quests.
- Anyone who wants a classic-styled fantasy RPG in which the protagonist’s position changes the meaning of ordinary conversations and missions.
Do not choose it expecting a visual recreation of DOS-era Ultima. Its appeal is systemic narrative consequence, presented through a modern isometric CRPG format.
Rank #3
- Immerse yourself in a deeper single player RPG game experience
- Discover the new region of the Dead Fire - plot your own course by ship and explore the rich and exotic islands of the archipelago region
- Build your party and customize your companions - choose from 7 different companions to join you on your quest and assign multiple classes and deeper abilities for each
- Captain your ship across the seas - as your stronghold on the seas, your ship is much more than simply a vessel for exploring
ATOM RPG: classic CRPG design in a Soviet wasteland
ATOM RPG is the recommendation for players who want to leave fantasy behind without leaving old-school computer role-playing behind. The official site describes it as “inspired by classic CRPGs: Fallout, System Shock, Deus Ex, Baldur’s Gate and many others,” and places the player in a Soviet wasteland. That combination gives it a clear identity: familiar CRPG grammar, radically different setting.
Why the setting matters
A post-apocalyptic Soviet landscape changes the texture of exploration. Ruined facilities, isolated communities and scarce resources replace castles and conventional fantasy settlements. The world’s history is communicated through locations, conversations and the traces left by the catastrophe. For an Ultima fan, the attraction is not that the setting resembles Britannia; it is that the game uses exploration to make the setting legible.
The Soviet context also separates ATOM RPG from the many fantasy successors that reproduce the same medieval vocabulary. Its atmosphere is harsher and more improvisational. You are interpreting a damaged society rather than restoring a kingdom through a familiar heroic arc.
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How it plays
ATOM RPG uses turn-based combat, making it the clearest alternative here for players who prefer deliberate action selection over real-time-with-pause. Turns give you time to assess distances, threats and available actions. That slower rhythm pairs naturally with exploration and problem solving because combat is one decision-making mode among several, not the constant center of attention.
Its structure remains recognizably classic CRPG: explore, talk, investigate, develop the character and decide how to approach situations. The game is therefore a good fit if your favorite Ultima moments involve discovering an unusual location or solving a problem through curiosity rather than simply winning a battle.
Where it differs from fantasy Ultima
The setting and tone are the major shift. You will not find the familiar fantasy iconography, and the post-apocalyptic world can feel more austere than a colorful medieval realm. The change is a strength if you want a fresh context, but it is a mismatch if your priority is magic, knights and traditional fantasy geography.
Choose ATOM RPG when the structure of classic CRPGs matters more than the genre wrapper. It is especially suitable for readers who want a turn-based alternative and are comfortable trading fantasy adventure for a Soviet wasteland.
Skald: Against the Black Priory: the strongest DOS-era visual callback
Skald: Against the Black Priory is the most direct visual answer to the question, “What modern game looks like old Ultima?” PC Gamer describes it as looking like “a DOS-era Ultima or Gold Box RPG,” while offering combat, quests and interactivity closer to Fallout or Baldur’s Gate. That contrast explains its appeal: the surface is intentionally old, but the underlying design is not limited to period conventions.
Rank #4
- Immerse yourself in a deeper single player RPG game experience - enriched with cutting edge technology and features, Deadfire builds on the foundation of classic D&D gameplay with vastly improved graphics, deeper game mechanics and a whole new hand-crafted adventure where choices truly matter
- Discover the new region of the Deadfire - plot your own course by ship and explore the rich and exotic islands of the archipelago region, discovering new places interacting with their inhabitants and engaging in a variety of quests at every port
- Build your party and customize your companions - choose from 7 different companions to join you on your quest and assign multiple classes and deeper abilities for each. Witness their personal relationships and interactions unfold with the addition of the new companion system
- Captain your ship across the seas - as your stronghold on the seas, your ship is much more than simply a vessel for exploring. Upgrade your ship and crew and choose what skills you improve in order to survive dangerous encounters along the way
Why the presentation stands out
The low-resolution, tile-based aesthetic and restrained interface recall the era when a role-playing game’s world was represented by small sprites, text and carefully arranged maps. For some players, that is not nostalgia alone. The visual economy makes spaces easy to parse, keeps attention on written descriptions and creates a sense of shared lineage with early computer RPGs.
Skald uses that look deliberately rather than because of technical limitations. The result is a game that can feel immediately familiar to an Ultima veteran while still presenting quests and interactions with modern expectations about pacing and clarity.
Its cosmic-horror identity
The setting is not a conventional Britannian fantasy. Cosmic-horror storytelling introduces uncertainty, dread and forces that are difficult to understand on ordinary human terms. That tone changes how exploration feels: a new location is not merely an opportunity for treasure or a friendly settlement; it may reveal another piece of an unsettling, larger mystery.
This makes Skald a strong choice for readers who want retro presentation but are open to a darker narrative. If you want bright heroic fantasy, Pillars of Eternity is the safer fit. If you want an old-looking interface paired with an unusual horror story, Skald is the standout.
Who should play it
- Players who want the clearest visual connection to DOS-era Ultima and Gold Box games.
- Readers who prefer turn-based combat and compact, quest-focused adventures.
- Anyone interested in cosmic horror rather than another conventional medieval fantasy campaign.
Its retro presentation is a feature, not a compromise to tolerate. Choose it only if you genuinely enjoy old-school graphics and interfaces.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Which game is closest to your favorite part of Ultima?
If you miss wandering and discovering a party adventure
Start with Pillars of Eternity. It gives exploration and companions enough room to define the experience, while its modern presentation reduces the friction of returning to classic CRPG conventions.
If you miss role-playing through ethical decisions
Choose Tyranny. Its campaign is built around the idea that actions shape the story, so your decisions have a more immediate structural effect than in a standard linear fantasy quest.
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Choose ATOM RPG. Its Soviet post-apocalyptic setting is the largest thematic departure in this list, but its classic CRPG inspirations make the transition understandable.
Best Value
If the old graphics are the main attraction
Choose Skald: Against the Black Priory. It is the only recommendation here whose visual identity intentionally evokes a DOS-era Ultima or Gold Box game.
If you prefer turn-based combat
Choose between ATOM RPG and Skald. Both avoid real-time-with-pause, but they offer different moods: wasteland survival in ATOM and cosmic horror in Skald.
If you prefer real-time-with-pause party tactics
Choose Pillars of Eternity for the broadest party-and-exploration experience, or Tyranny if reactive storytelling is your deciding factor.
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- Begin with Pillars of Eternity if you want to test whether modern classic-CRPG design is the right successor to your Ultima memories.
- Move to Tyranny if you enjoyed the party combat but wanted your decisions to alter the campaign more dramatically.
- Try ATOM RPG if you want the same broad role-playing tradition in a post-apocalyptic setting and prefer turn-based encounters.
- Finish with Skald if you want the strongest visual and interface connection to DOS-era games, or start with it if presentation is your primary criterion.
This order moves from the most generally accessible recommendation to the most specialized. It is not a ranking of quality; it is a way to minimize the chance that a mismatch in setting, combat or presentation hides the qualities you are actually looking for.
What none of these games reproduces exactly
Even the closest successor will not recreate the particular combination of systems, era and personal memories that made Ultima important. Pillars of Eternity offers a modern authored party campaign rather than a one-to-one simulation of Britannia. Tyranny gives you stronger narrative consequences but a narrower thematic focus. ATOM RPG preserves classic CRPG structure while replacing fantasy with a Soviet wasteland. Skald recreates the look most closely but changes the mood to cosmic horror.
That is why choosing by feature is more reliable than choosing by a single label such as “old-school.” Decide whether you want companions, freedom, moral consequence, a particular setting, turn-based combat or a retro interface. Once that priority is clear, the shortlist becomes straightforward.
Final recommendation
Pillars of Eternity is the best all-round answer to “What games are like Ultima?” It brings together the party, companions, exploration, tactical combat and classic CRPG atmosphere most readers mean by that question. Tyranny is the better pick for consequence-driven storytelling, ATOM RPG for a post-apocalyptic interpretation of classic CRPG design, and Skald: Against the Black Priory for the most convincing DOS-era visual callback.
Quick Recap
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