Lord British aka Richard Garriott shows off the latest gameplay video for his up coming game Shroud of the Avatar. Lord British narrates the eleven minute video in which he moves his character from the overworld map to explore some woods to look for wood to make a chair. The first thing that caught my attention in the overworld map was the 2D looking character art, but then I noticed all the creatures roaming around as well. Later on in the video, as Lord British heads off to adventure in a dungeon across the overworld map, a large dragon’s shadow can be seen passing by. Even thought the game is still early in development, I’m actually excited to see more of what Shroud of the Avatar has to offer.

There were a few things in Shroud of the Avatar that caught my attention. The first was the lack of an interface. Lord British and the development staff wanted to keep the HUD as clean as possible. The other thing interested me was the fact that players will have to type in responses to interact with NPCs. Lord British gets into a conversation with the NPC barkeep and types in everything as there were no preset player conversation text available. Lord British continues the conversation with the barkeep and hears of a dungeon nearby and a Throne of Bone inside. Lord British then explains that quests are voluntary and are not just assigned through a quest log.

I never played Ultima as it never appealed to me. Hearing that this game reminds people of the old school Ultima experience means nothing to me, unfortunately. However, I’m looking for a new gaming experience and if Shroud of the Avatar is that, then I’ll give it a try. Check out the video for yourselves and see if it appeals to you or not.