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If you want a modern game that captures the spirit of classic Ultima, start with Pillars of Eternity. It is the strongest all-round match for party play, companions, exploration, tactical combat and old-school CRPG atmosphere. Choose Tyranny when your priority is choices that reshape the story, ATOM RPG for a Soviet post-apocalyptic setting, and Skald: Against the Black Priory for the closest visual callback to a DOS-era Ultima or Gold Box game.
The right choice depends on which part of Ultima you miss most: freedom to explore, a memorable party, consequential decisions, a different setting, or deliberately old-fashioned presentation.
| # | 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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Which games are most like classic Ultima?
“Like Ultima” can describe several different needs. One player may want a large world that rewards curiosity; another may want a party of companions and tactical encounters; someone else may mainly miss the writing, moral choices or low-resolution interface of a DOS-era role-playing game. No single modern title reproduces every part of the series, so the best alternative is the one that matches your preferred feature.
Quick picks
- Best overall successor: Pillars of Eternity — a modern party-based CRPG built around exploration, companions, tactical combat and classic-RPG atmosphere.
- Best for consequences: Tyranny — a story-driven RPG in which your decisions actively shape the campaign.
- Best post-apocalyptic alternative: ATOM RPG — classic CRPG structure transplanted to a Soviet wasteland.
- Best retro presentation: Skald: Against the Black Priory — a deliberately DOS-like visual style combined with more modern questing and combat design.
How the alternatives differ
The table below separates the qualities most often meant by “an Ultima-like RPG.” “World freedom” refers to how much the game emphasizes exploration and reactivity; “party” describes whether you manage companions rather than only one hero; “presentation” distinguishes modern production from an intentionally retro interface and visual style.
#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.
| Game | Exploration and reactivity | Hero and party | Combat approach | Narrative emphasis | Setting | Presentation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pillars of Eternity | Exploration and companion-driven adventuring are central | Party-based, with companions | Real-time combat with tactical pause | Deep writing, themes and role-playing choices | Fantasy | Modern presentation designed to evoke classic CRPGs |
| Tyranny | Story outcomes react strongly to player decisions | Party-based role-playing | Real-time combat with tactical pause | Choices reshape the campaign | Fantasy | Modern classic-styled CRPG presentation |
| ATOM RPG | Wasteland exploration and questing drive progression | Single protagonist with role-playing and party-style CRPG structure | Turn-based combat | Classic CRPG quests and survival-focused storytelling | Post-apocalyptic Soviet wasteland | Modern game built around classic CRPG conventions |
| Skald: Against the Black Priory | Interconnected quests and environmental interactivity | Role-playing built around a player character and supporting characters | Turn-based combat | Cosmic-horror storytelling with substantial questing | Dark fantasy and cosmic horror | Deliberately DOS-era, visually similar to Ultima and Gold Box games |
These are not four versions of the same design. Pillars and Tyranny modernize the party-based, tactical CRPG; ATOM RPG changes the setting while preserving the classic structure; and Skald makes the retro look itself part of the appeal.
Pillars of Eternity: the safest first choice
For most readers asking what to play after Ultima VII, Pillars of Eternity is the best starting point. It combines a controllable party, companions, exploration, tactical encounters and a strong emphasis on writing without requiring you to accept deliberately primitive presentation.
Obsidian describes its goal directly: Eternity aims to recapture the magic, imagination, depth, and nostalgia of classic RPG’s that we enjoyed making – and playing.
The game is explicitly positioned as a meeting point between the exploration and companions associated with Baldur’s Gate, the combat and dungeon diving of Icewind Dale, and the writing and themes of Planescape: Torment. Its rules use a custom system inspired by tabletop fantasy role-playing games.
Why it suits an Ultima fan
- Party decisions matter. You are not limited to building one isolated hero. Companions add tactical options and give the journey a social dimension.
- Exploration is a primary activity. The game expects you to investigate locations, travel beyond the critical path and use your party’s abilities to solve problems.
- Combat rewards planning. Real-time action can be paused so you can issue tactical commands, position characters and coordinate abilities instead of relying on reflexes.
- The writing is not an afterthought. Themes, dialogue and character conflicts are a core part of the experience, making it a good fit if the narrative ambition of later Ultima games is what you remember.
- It feels contemporary without abandoning CRPG conventions. The interface, visuals and rules are more approachable than a 1980s or early-1990s release, but the design still expects careful reading and deliberate party management.
What to expect before starting
Pillars of Eternity is not a direct remake of Ultima. Its focus is a structured party adventure rather than a simulation of every everyday activity in a world. The strongest overlap is in the combination of exploration, role-playing, companions and tactical decision-making. If the specific attraction is a visibly old interface or tile-based presentation, Skald is a closer match.
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
Choose Pillars if…
- You want one recommendation that balances exploration, companions, combat and story.
- You prefer a fantasy setting and a modern interface.
- You enjoy pausing real-time battles to make deliberate tactical decisions.
- You want the atmosphere of a classic CRPG without playing a period release.
Tyranny: the choice-driven alternative
Tyranny is the better answer when “like Ultima” means role-playing with meaningful moral and political consequences. Rather than treating the plot as a fixed sequence, it builds the campaign around decisions that alter what happens next.
Paradox describes it as a classic-styled RPG with a new and original story, shaped and molded by your actions.
That promise makes Tyranny distinct from a conventional heroic fantasy adventure: the appeal is not simply discovering a world, but deciding what kind of authority, compromise or resistance your character represents within it.
How its reactivity changes the experience
- Choices are structural. Decisions affect the direction of the story rather than serving only as optional dialogue flavor.
- Role-playing is ideological as well as mechanical. Your character’s position in the world is defined by the actions you take and the consequences you accept.
- The party format supports varied approaches. As in other classic-styled CRPGs, companions and tactical combat give you more than one way to handle a problem.
- It is less about recreating a specific old interface. The game uses modern presentation while preserving the party-based, pause-and-plan CRPG structure.
Who should play Tyranny?
Pick Tyranny if you replayed Ultima to test different ethical approaches, enjoyed seeing factions respond to your behavior, or want a campaign that acknowledges your decisions. It is a weaker fit if your main requirement is a broad, leisurely wilderness to map or a deliberately pixelated DOS look; Skald serves the latter preference, while Pillars is the safer general-purpose fantasy recommendation.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsATOM RPG: classic CRPG design in a Soviet wasteland
ATOM RPG answers the question from a different angle: what if the classic CRPG formula moved out of fantasy and into a post-apocalyptic Soviet setting? Its official site calls it a game “inspired by classic CRPGs: Fallout, System Shock, Deus Ex, Baldur’s Gate and many others” and places the player in a Soviet wasteland.
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
What carries over from the classic formula
- Exploration replaces a linear tour. The wasteland is a setting to investigate, with locations and encounters that reward curiosity.
- Quests define your character. The way you handle problems matters as much as the destination, preserving the open-ended role-playing mindset associated with classic computer RPGs.
- Turn-based combat slows decisions down. You can consider positioning, equipment and abilities instead of treating fights as an action sequence.
- The setting changes the tone completely. Ruined Soviet environments, scarcity and post-apocalyptic survival create a different emotional register from fantasy Britannia or a conventional medieval realm.
Why it may be the right follow-up to Ultima
ATOM RPG is a good choice if what you miss is the sense that a computer RPG can be a place to investigate rather than merely a chain of battles. Its classic influences are explicit, but it does not copy Ultima in setting or presentation. Instead, it applies familiar CRPG ideas to a world of abandoned infrastructure, political tension and survival.
Choose ATOM RPG if…
- You want a post-apocalyptic alternative instead of another fantasy kingdom.
- You prefer turn-based encounters and time to plan each move.
- You enjoy exploring a hostile world, collecting information and solving quests through role-playing.
- You want the broader classic-CRPG tradition, including influences beyond Ultima itself.
Skald: Against the Black Priory: the closest visual match
If your first reaction to a screenshot matters as much as the rules, Skald: Against the Black Priory is the standout. 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. Its story uses cosmic-horror themes.
Why the presentation is important
Most modern successors borrow the structure of classic CRPGs but smooth away their visual roughness. Skald makes the roughness intentional. Its low-resolution, DOS-era appearance is not a nostalgic screenshot filter applied to a contemporary game; it is part of how the world communicates scale, danger and mystery.
Where it modernizes the formula
- Questing is more developed than the visuals suggest. The game offers a broader adventure structure rather than relying on a sequence of disconnected fights.
- Interactivity is a central attraction. Locations and situations invite the kind of experimentation classic CRPG players expect.
- Turn-based combat supports careful play. Battles are approached as tactical problems instead of reflex tests.
- Cosmic horror replaces conventional heroic fantasy. The mood is stranger and more oppressive than a straightforward medieval adventure.
Choose Skald if…
- You want the strongest visual callback to early Ultima or Gold Box games.
- You enjoy reading, experimenting and accepting an interface that intentionally feels old.
- You want modern quest and interaction design inside a retro shell.
- You are interested in horror rather than a purely heroic fantasy tone.
Which game fits the feature you value most?
If you want open-ended exploration
Start with Pillars of Eternity for a fantasy party adventure built around exploration and companions. Choose ATOM RPG if you want that exploratory impulse expressed through a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Skald also rewards investigation, but its main selling point is the combination of interactivity and DOS-era presentation.
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
If you want companions and party tactics
Pillars of Eternity is the clearest match. Its identity is built around a party, companions and tactical combat. Tyranny is the alternative when you want that same general CRPG framework with more emphasis on how decisions reshape the campaign.
If you want choices to reshape the story
Pick Tyranny. Its defining promise is that the story is shaped and molded by your actions, making it the strongest recommendation for players who want consequences rather than a mostly fixed narrative.
If you want a different setting
ATOM RPG is the obvious choice for post-apocalyptic science fiction and a Soviet wasteland. Skald offers dark fantasy and cosmic horror. Pillars and Tyranny stay closer to fantasy, but they approach that genre differently: one emphasizes the broad classic-adventure balance, while the other foregrounds political and moral decisions.
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If you want the old visual language
Skald: Against the Black Priory is the closest match. It deliberately evokes the look of a DOS-era Ultima or Gold Box RPG. The other three are modern-looking games that borrow classic structures rather than reproducing the period aesthetic.
Best Value
If you want time to plan battles
Choose between the two tactical approaches. Pillars of Eternity and Tyranny use real-time combat with a tactical pause, letting you stop the action and issue commands. ATOM RPG and Skald use turn-based combat, so each encounter unfolds in discrete decisions. The first group feels more fluid; the second gives every move a clearly separated planning window.
A practical starting order for Ultima fans
- Begin with Pillars of Eternity if you are unsure which element matters most. It covers the widest range of classic-CRPG expectations: party management, companions, exploration, tactical combat and substantial writing.
- Move to Tyranny if the most memorable part of your first game was making a decision and seeing the world react to it.
- Try ATOM RPG when you want to keep the classic structure but leave fantasy behind for a Soviet post-apocalyptic setting.
- Choose Skald when the visual language of early computer RPGs is non-negotiable, or when you want cosmic horror in a deliberately DOS-like package.
What these games do not have in common
It is useful to set expectations before choosing. None of these recommendations is a one-for-one continuation of Ultima. They divide its legacy among different priorities:
- Pillars of Eternity preserves the party-based fantasy CRPG and modernizes its presentation.
- Tyranny concentrates on consequence-driven storytelling.
- ATOM RPG carries classic CRPG exploration and problem-solving into a post-apocalyptic setting.
- Skald preserves the visual and interface nostalgia most visibly while using a newer approach to quests and interactivity.
That division is why “the best” alternative depends on your definition of Ultima. A reader seeking a broad, modern successor should begin with Pillars of Eternity; a player seeking the strongest consequence system should choose Tyranny; a setting-driven player should choose ATOM RPG; and a retro-aesthetic purist should choose Skald.
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For a single answer to “What should I play after Ultima VII?”, choose Pillars of Eternity. It offers the most balanced continuation of the classic party-based CRPG tradition. Keep Tyranny in reserve for consequence-heavy role-playing, ATOM RPG for a post-apocalyptic interpretation of the formula, and Skald: Against the Black Priory for the closest DOS-era visual experience.
Quick Recap
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