17 Games Like Ultima Online
These MMO games like Ultima Online (UO) offer deep and engaging worlds that have sandbox mechanics to help you live a second life within a virtual setting.
Ultima Online is one of the original massively multiplayer online role playing games with a launch data in late 1997. With the lore of the previous Ultima titles to pull on the game launched with a rich world of history despite it being a spin off title of the popular role playing franchise. The success of Ultima Online led to other spin off attempts including games like Lord of Ultima and Ultima Forever although they never reached the same level of success.
Key to the success of Ultima Online was the focus on a persistent world that players felt at the centre of while still being able to interact freely with other players, building lasting relationships to the point where the game became almost a second life to those that occupied the game world. With the layers of mechanics UO was still able to command a thriving community despite the introduction of new MMO titles that eventually saturated the genre.
The games like Ultima Online selected for this list attempt to capture the same experience as UO. While no game can truly ever match the experience that many gamers had with UO these titles will get you some of the way there.
ArcheAge
In terms of fleshed out MMO experiences ArcheAge is near the top of the list with an impressive game world filled with adventures, secrets and features around every corner of the fantasy world. While ArcheAge innovates in a few areas of MMO gameplay much of the focus is put towards delivering vast content, quality and player choice over attempting to reinvent the historical MMO mechanics. Set in a fantasy game world the focus of ArcheAge is on being able to change the game world around you while...[Read Review]
Life is Feudal: Your Own
Step into a massive medieval world in Life is Feudal: Your Own that blends combat, crafting, building, sandbox, realistic directional combat and many other mechanics to create an adventure set far into the past. Alternatively explore the much larger world in Life is Feudal: MMO, the MMO variant of the title with different features (see the official website for full details) but the same gameplay. Life is Feudal: Your Own supports up to 64 players on a medieval map measuring 3km x 3km. With ample...[Read Review]
Second Life
Second Life is a free to play online life simulation game designed to appeal to fans of the virtual world genre that want to go a step deeper with enhanced customisation and a real world inspired economy. Developed by Linden Labs Second Life has been online since 2003 for Windows and Mac with regular core releases occurring...[Read Review]
EVE Online
EVE Online is a space adventure just waiting for you to join in. The game is a player driven MMORPG with an insane amount of depth. Launching in 2003 the game has slowly gained a loyal following to reach half a million subscribers in 2013 and went free to play in 2016. EVE Online is a game of freedom allowing players to approach the game in the way they want and find their own place in this ever expanding universe. The game features thousands of different star systems which are connected by star...[Read Review]
Albion Online
Albion Online centres itself heavily on the guild and sandbox mechanics that often form secondary features in other MMOs. Originally released in 2017 as a paid MMO Albion Online’s free to play shift in 2019 and large 2020 update (Queen) has seen a resurgence of interest in the unique sandbox MMO pushing its daily active accounts into the six figure mark and nearly half a million monthly active. With a single server housing these players you can expect an overwhelming number of players in f...[Read Review]
Haven and Hearth
Haven and Hearth is a free to play survival based MMORPG that will have you fighting to survive in an unforgiving game world with permanent death. You will have to fight off animals, hunger and other players. The game is being developed by Jorb and Loftar and takes place on a persistent single server. Haven and Hearth is free to play and offers plenty of unique features that create a realistic experience. The games focus is on two core gameplay aspects, permanent death and lasting changes to the...[Read Review]
Uncharted Waters Online
Uncharted Waters Online is a sandbox focused MMORPG that is set in the great age of sea travel. Explore the world in a century gone by as you trade from Europe to Asia and beyond. With this player driven game world paired with large scale naval battles Uncharted Waters Online was carved out a niche in the MMO space. Set in between the 16th and 18th centuries players can expect a game world that represents that fact, you won’t find high fantasy here but rather a semi realistic game world co...[Read Review]
RuneScape
RuneScape has long been a popular free to play MMORPG. It is widely regarded as one of the most popular browser based games around and has been constantly evolving since its humble beginnings over a decade ago. With hundreds of millions of accounts there are plenty of players to join you in this fantasy MMORPG. RuneScape offers all the features you would expect from a modern game with quests, skills, trade, chat, mini-games, NPCs and co-operative based adventures. RuneScape takes place in the ma...[Read Review]
Wurm Online
Wurm Online is a sandbox style MMORPG that has a creative focus allowing you to create your own adventure. You can play Wurm Online with a basic account for free but to remove some restrictions you will have to commit to a subscription based premium account. The game also has a stand alone version released on Steam in 2015 called Wurm Unlimited. Fans of Minecraft will be pleased to know that Markus Persson himself worked on the game so there is definitely a Minecraft influence present (Wurm Onli...[Read Review]
Mabinogi
Mabinogi allows you to create your own anime life in an experience that is simply overflowing with content, features and options while revolving around social elements. For those MMO players that crave customisation, anime styling and large scale friendship groups Mabinogi has proven to consistently deliver this experience since its original launch in 2008. Centred around the growth of character through the game world of Erinn the core Mabinogi experience revolves around questing, community enga...[Read Review]
Salem
Salem is a free to play MMO with a focus on exploration and crafting mechanics. Seatribe is behind development of the game who also run the popular hardcore MMO, Haven and Hearth (to which Salem has many similarities). Just like in Haven and Hearth players can expect permanent death in Salem so it definitely isn’t for the faint of heart. Salem is set in 17th century New England and as the name might suggest has obvious ties to the witchcraft of the era, with players playing as a pilgrim. Your jo...[Read Review]
Eldevin
Aiming to bring the MMO genre back towards story driven gameplay is Eldevin a title that is simply packed full of game content. The story behind the kingdom of Eldevin is one of a peaceful land that over the past decade has slowly fallen into chaos upon the discovery of powerful Elemental Spheres. These ancient artifacts have attacked the minds of even the most devoted champions leaving only a few fighters and the powerful kingdom of Eldevin standing in the way of Tristan who aims to claim the s...[Read Review]
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is the relaunched Final Fantasy MMORPG adventure that addresses the key issues of the original version to give you that MMO in the FF universe that you’ve always craved. Set on the continent of Eorzea there is a huge amount of ancient lore to explore with a map that is split into various city-states. At the centre of this story is the Mothercrystal, a sentient crystal. Every area of the map is beautifully crafted with locations that feel very fleshed out a...[Read Review]
Black Desert Online
Hailing from Korea and focused on sandbox orientated mechanics is Black Desert Online a buy to play for those in Europe and North America. You’ve got most of the traditional MMO features and a host of interesting design choices to explore in the Black Desert Online universe which also includes a mobile version (Black Desert Mobile). Central to the game world are the Black Stones which have corrupted the minds of the ancient civilisations and lay in the desert between the two major game civ...[Read Review]
Ascent – The Space Game
Ascent – The Space Game is a PvE sandbox title that uses space and over 200 billion star systems as the foundation of your experience. Set after the vast human empire has crumbled it’s time to build a new civilisation and rekindle the human drive for exploration. In addition to exploration players will construct, colonise, research, mine, trade, farm and partake in combat. Starting in the Apollo tutorial Sector which consists of 9 planets everything outside of this area is player cra...[Read Review]
EverQuest II
EverQuest II is a 3D MMORPG that builds on the EverQuest series. The game was released in November 2004 and as of 2011 went free to play so everyone can enjoy the experience. For gamers who played the original EverQuest the game takes place in the same fictional world (Norrath) although 500 years have passed since that time. This makes the game separate enough from the original that it won’t affect new comers to the series but still has those nostalgic moments for EverQuest fans. Character creat...[Read Review]
Mortal Online
Offering a hardcore sandbox experience Mortal Online is not a game for the faint-hearted player. Set in a deep medieval fantasy realm the struggle of life in Mortal Online is a real challenge for even MMO veterans. Your game starts in Mortal Online in a similar manner to other MMO titles with you carving your own character out of stone with visual customisation, race and stats at centre stage. With your character foundation established you’ll embark into the world where both PvE and PvP fo...[Read Review]