Ultima VII: Жылан Аралының Сиқырлы Саяхаты

Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle is a role playing video game released in 1993 as part of the core Ultima series, its story beginning eighteen months after the conclusion of Ultima VII: The Black Gate. In Serpent Isle, the Avatar follows Batlin to the eponymous land called Serpent Isle, finding three city states founded by those who left Britannia generations before and ancient ruins from a still older lost civilization that was there long before them. This is the first game in the main Ultima series to take place in its entirety outside Britannia as it has been known since Ultima III. It is also more linear than the earlier parts—unlike the earlier games, where the order in which quests were completed was of little concern, the new approach makes it possible to give the game a more carefully plotted storyline, while at the same time somewhat limiting the player's choice. Additionally, there are few optional sub quests; every objective somehow ties into the main quest.

Back in Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness, one section of the game world was known as "The Lands of Danger and Despair". Shamino, a recurring character in the Ultima series, was a ruling lord here. The Lands of Danger and Despair vanished after the conclusion of Ultima I and became Serpent Isle, separated from Sosaria, as the world of Britannia was called before Ultima IV. The original inhabitants of Serpent Isle, the Ophidians, had a culture where serpents played a central role. They eventually became polarized as the forces of Order and Chaos, respectively, and fought a great war that destroyed their culture and left their cities and temples in ruins. Order "won" the war, destroying the Chaos Serpent, but thereby upsetting the natural balance to the point where the entire universe is unraveling. (It turns out that the "Great Earth Serpent" that guarded Exodus's fortress in Ultima III was actually the Balance Serpent that Exodus had ripped from the void, triggering the war between Chaos and Order in the first place.) Much later, Serpent Isle was re settled by humans who had left Sosaria voluntarily, or who had been exiled. An alternate name for Serpent Isle is "New Sosaria", a reference to the original homeland of these settlers. Many of them referred to Lord British as "Beast British", and had a very low opinion of him. After he united the lands, and with the establishment of the eight virtues, those unhappy with his rule fled to Serpent Isle. Unlike Britannia, which has eight cities representing the eight virtues of the Avatar, Serpent Isle has three city states, each with their own beliefs, which are warped versions of the Britannian principles of Truth, Love and Courage:

In the city of Moonshade, mages rule, and "mundanes" are regarded as an inferior servant class. Instead of truth, they strive for power. Those from the city of Fawn champion beauty above all else, instead of Love. The Monitor warrior culture is ostensibly based on knightly courage, but in truth is rife with feuds, intrigue and betrayal. Serpent Isle has essentially the same map layout as the former Lands of Danger and Despair, though this might not be immediately obvious to players. The formerly separate towns of East and West Montor have merged into Monitor; the large Sleeping Bull Inn has taken the place of the village of Bulldozer; the village of Gorlab vanished in the newly formed Gorlab Swamp (an important plot element); and the ruined Ophidian cities of Skullcrusher and Spinebreaker, apparently named after the mountain chains in which they lie, are located where dungeons of the same name were found in the earlier game.

Eighteen months after the destruction of the eponymous Black Gate at the conclusion of Ultima VII: The Black Gate (and six months after the Guardian attempted to trap the Avatar and the whole of Castle Britannia in a blackrock sphere on the anniversary of that event in Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds) it is discovered that the Guardian ordered his right hand man Batlin to follow Iolo's wife Gwenno, who went to explore Serpent Isle. and many subplots are concerned with their cruel rule.

Finally, after defeating the Banes and rescuing his companions, the Avatar must use his knowledge about the ancient Ophidian culture to ascend to the position of Hierophant of Balance (through exploring their ruined cities and shrines, and performing a variety of rituals) to ultimately restore the lost Chaos Serpent to balance the warring forces of Order and Chaos. It turns out that a living soul must be sacrificed in the process. The Avatar volunteers, but Sir Dupre, driven by guilt for the deeds he committed while possessed by the Bane of Wantonness, insists on sacrificing himself instead and hurls himself into the crematorium. In the end sequence, the Avatar is teleported into the void to face the Serpents, who thank him and affirm that order is restored; then suddenly, the Guardian's giant hand appears and grabs the Avatar, abducting him to (yet) another world. (Ultima VIII: Pagan continues the story from there.)

Many elements of the game's plot were cut from the final release, due to the deadline imposed by Electronic Arts. Most of the cut plot elements were from the second half of the game after Batlin's death, although a few ideas from earlier parts of the game were also removed. Many of these elements can still be found in the final game's data files, and some remnants still exist in the game itself.

Computer Gaming Worlds Scorpia in 1993 stated that Serpent Isle was much more complex than The Black Gate, but with "some major problems", criticizing the inventory system and need to manually feed characters, slow disk access, and several puzzles. She concluded that "Serpent Isle is a good story gone wrong. While the main plotline is solid, execution of it is inadequate too many poorly designed 'puzzles' Origin needs to re examine Ultima IV for a refresher course [on] how open game design and logical plot connections are supposed to work." Cnet stated that "Serpent Isle, the continuation of Ultima VII, is often considered the best Ultima ever made. Though its look is mostly borrowed from Ultima VII, Serpent Isle offers a huge quest and some of the most fascinating characters and situations ever to be found in a role playing game." The Free Lance Star stated that "Ultima VII Part II, The Serpent Isle, is yet another improvement in the series, technologically, visually, and in terms of story line." Scorpia only recommended Silver Seed to those who would play or replay Serpent Isle. She stated that "the storyline of the game doesn't amount to much", noting that planting the silver seed in the past apparently did not change the present, and that the included walkthrough indicated that Electronic Arts wanted players to quickly return to the main Serpent Isle plot with the expansion's new items. Scorpia reported that various improvements made gameplay "less of a hassle", citing the keyring, lockpicking, and food and reagent handling, but warned of various new bugs. She concluded that "while Silver Seed isn't a terrific game in itself and has a few problems, it will certainly make playing Serpent Isle a little more enjoyable". In 1994, PC Gamer US named Serpent Isle the 13th best computer game ever. The editors wrote that it "marks the pinnacle of what has become one of the most popular game cycles ever", and they considered it "a must for every PC gamer". The same year, PC Gamer UK named Serpent Isle and The Black Gate collectively the 39th best computer game of all time. The editors called it "absolutely enormous – we are talking months of play here – with complex, absorbing and involving multiple sub plots and storylines. Garriott's commitment to creating a complete fantasy world has been fully realised here."