The valley's numerous tribes all resemble various different ethnic groups from Earth's past, including stereotypical African, Polynesian, Neanderthal and Asian cultures. Along with these human tribes and the aforementioned dinosaurs, The Savage Empire also features more fantastical creatures, such as a lizard-like tribe, Aztecan automatons and evil giant ant-people called Myrmidex – the game's main antagonists.

Your goal as the Avatar is to bring all the different warring tribes together to defeat the Myrmidex and bring peace to Eodon. In typical Ultima fashion each tribe expects you to accomplish some tasks in order for them to pledge their support. These tasks range from rescuing a chief's daughter and blocking a lava flow to drugging a T-Rex and hanging a bell on its neck.

The gameplay is very similar to Ultima VI – those familiar with it will feel right at home with the clunky UI, turn-based combat system and day-and-night NPC schedules. The new crafting system is robust, allowing you to skin animals, use ovens to bake clay pots and even grind sulfur, charcoal and potassium nitrate to make gunpowder. Another big difference is the magic system: the Avatar must make spirit offerings to cast a rather limited amount of spells (only nine in total).

In The Savage Empire the Avatar won't meet his traditional companions from the main Ultima series, like Iolo, Dupre or Shamino. However, he'll be joined by rather familiar-looking natives who just so happen to closely resemble his friends, such as Triolo, Dokray and Shamuru. He'll also have the choice to romance the brave warrior Aiela or her adopted sister, Tristia the first interaction of this kind in CRPGs.

While Savage Empire is much smaller in scope than the main Ultima games, it still manages to retain the exploration, quest structure and semi-open world aspects of Ultima VI, offering a solid experience.