Last updated on November 30th, 2025 at 10:59 pm
Lowlander – Roleplaying Game Review
Lowlander is a Roleplaying/Adventure game from Flat Black Films, first launched in 1st January 2015.
It’s rated 9+ and currently has 77+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Lowlander Stand Out
Come — return with us to the days of yesteryear. When 8 colors were enough, and the pixels were individually detectable to the human eye. This is LOWLANDER, a fantasy role-playing adventure from simpler times. This might be your father’s RPG!
Embark on a glorious adventure to save the world from the clutches of the evil sorceress Azamon and her hordes of low-res low-lifes! You begin as a lost and wandering soul who can barely stay alive. Your circumstances will rise in the service of King Shebastian as you help to rid the world of evil. It IS as simple as black-and-white!
Lowlander harkens back to the early days of personal computers. If you’ve been looking to get your nostalgia on, but can’t be bothered to use two hands doing it, then this is the game for you.
FEATURES
- glorious one handed retro-RPG action
- approximately 8 hours of minimalist adventure
- explore a huge world, gain experience and rise in power
- delve into dark dungeons for loot and riches
- save your game and resume it later!
- no in-app purchases. buy once, own forever!
- Lord British approved!
- over 8 colors!
- realistic moving water!
This Roleplaying game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Lowlander is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 9th October 2016
Recent improvements include:
This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.
- A SOUNDTRACK! Thanks to James Michael St. Claire for composing awesome music for Lowlander!
Download & Availability
Lowlander is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Its a great homage to the Ultima games we loved as a kid, adapted for a mobile experience.
The design of this game is quite simple but for a one handed game that is a plus. For how streamlined and intuitive the controls and graphic is the story is cool and gameplay is charming and challenging. The game is basic but given but the map feels big. The world is open and interesting to explore but not overwhelming in it being a grind. We would say its a perfect balance. We have played ultima in the past (apple iie and nes) and some other ultima clones (one for ti-82 that was excellent) and this is top notch. Finally we would like to say that the gameplay loop is appropriate for old school gamers that have since lost interest in gaming as well as modern gamers interested in retro style gaming. Its the perfect balance of retro vibe and streamlined gameplay. With very little confusion. Unfortunately there isnt a lot of info on how to play online or game faqs. We would seek out a gameplay demo of the first 10 minutes so you dont starve to death or die.
Great game brought back Questron and Ultima feelings. On to the next.
Both of the Lowlander games are excellent! Reminiscent of Ultima 3 and games from 1980s, but current for today, these games are a blast. Puzzles that drive you crazy and then suddenly seem so obvious! Well worth the diminutive price. Love these games.
Im a huge fan of ultima which has a great balance of adventure, side quests, epic story, etc. We used to get tired of all the combat as it took much of the game play time. Lowlander is perfect. Right MoZ of everything and a good story. Plus we no longer have as many hours to game so Lowlander meets that need of being the right amount of game play. Well done, keep em coming.
Lowlander is a phenomenal game that brought back a lot of fond memories of playing Ultima III and IV for hour upon hour on our Commodore 64. The storyline, game play, sense of humor, complexity were fantastic and ended up working quite well on our iPhone. Kudos to the author. Would love to see more games just like this.
Not too much to say thats not already been said – this is a really fun game in the style of Ultima II. Would wholly recommend if youre a fan of the older Ultima games and are itching for more.
This game was unexpectedly delightful. Great story, huge map, and took us a long time to complete (about 14 hours). If youre a fan of old time RPGs then this game is absolutely for you. Cant wait to try out number 2.
LOVE this game! Reminds us of Ultima Exodus so much, our first RPG computer game. Long live Lord British! Massive thanks to those who made this – we needed this in our life again, lol.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for creating this tribute to the Ultima series. This game brought back such fond memories of playing Ultima III on our Commodore 64 as a kid. Very well done.
This is a Flawless recreation of the early Ultima games. It has great balance between difficulty and playability. It is a quest based game where the people you meet give you tasks to perform, which then show up on a checklist so that you dont have to write them down. The mapping works really, and everyone should know that you can pan the map by swiping it. No glitches. No ads. Perfect.
Overall an enjoyable game. We played it all the way through twice. Looking forward to playing Lowlander 2. Its very reminiscent of Ultima 2 with many improvements. Best Ultima-like game for the iPhone. The beginning can be a little tough and our first time trying this game we gave up to soon and didnt play it again until 3 months later. We did run into some bugs(11/4/2019): -Talking to Holly quest never clears -Once when going through the 2nd time the dungeons got messed up and the maps all showed up as revealed. -Once auto-saving got turned off without us knowing. We died and the game reverted to a much earlier save point then a manual save we had made. -Some minor glitches in shops especially when selling a duplicate of an equipped item. -Upon completion of the game Holly was unaware her brother was freed.
We never write reviews but for this one we had to. This game has a HUGE world. Great quests. Interesting items. Hours of play! Kudos to the developer such a cool game. Thank you. Worth every penny.
Very satisfying dawn-of-electronic-RPG game. No in app purchasesyay! (we abhor IAPs. We can understand spending $ to get into a dungeon. Once in, though, anyone who attempts to shake down an adventurer should get a footmans mace +1, +2 vs. Thieves, in the teeth.).
We are long time Ultima fan. This game is exactly what we were looking for. Plays great on the go on our iPhone 8. The only thing missing from this game is the cloth map! We like the controls and the auto mapping minimap.
This is sure to be our favorite game on iOS (and Mac) until we play Lowlander II. If you are a fan of the original Ultima games, this is a must own.
We have a bad habit of downloading (or even paying for) games and then not playing them. We have tried out many Ultima style games and even though we loved the original series as a kid, we haven't really enjoyed any of them since Jeff Vogels Exile series back in the 90s. Lowlander was a wonderful exception! We admit it took a while to get started (we starved to death several times before finding food), but after that initial hurdle, we spent many hours with it (often killing time on airplanes). Even the glitches made it feel more like the original! Just downloaded Lowlander 2 today (hilarious title, btw). Special kudos to Richard Garriot for giving it his blessing.
It's like a flashback to Ultima II in all the best ways. Single character that levels up quickly in combat and simple inventory. So many new RPGs are getting overly complex with crafting and things that feel like career paths. This is pick up and play fun! Please support this indie game – it's clearly a work of love and we'd buy more if it'd help the developer create more versions and variants.
Great job on this one. Really feels like an old school ultima style game.
Nice to have a throwback to 80s retro gaming for once. This is where the RPG originated, Lord British. Lowlander takes us back to our struggle against Minax and Exodus. Enjoyable romp for mobile gaming.
Years ago, we played Ultima we – VII. We loved those games, especially the earlier ones. This games is very similar to Ultima we and II. It's loads of fun to play. Love the soundtrack. We highly recommend this game for many hours of enjoyment.
Lowlander is a nice callback to the early Ultima games. We completed Ultima we and IV back int the day (although we never saw II, which this game is apparently particularly indebted to), and Lowlander really scratches that Ultima itch. Once or twice it was confusing or frustrating (less so than the originals), so note the existence of a lengthy discussion thread on the toucharcade forums that has hints and advice from players and the developer (and somewhere around page 26 somebody posted a map of the overworld).
If you liked the Ultima tile-based RPGs, you will LOVE this game. The design is top notch. The games is deep, engaging, and whimsical, without taking itself to seriously. Buy it now.
One of the best games out there for the iPhone. Incredible and highly recommended.
This is a well made game that faithfully recreates Ultima, but the dialogue and humor is absolutely terrible and detracts from the experience.
Ultra tedious and unrewarding. Its Ultima ][ with slightly better graphics minus anything interesting or imaginative.
Nicely done! We have played Ultima 1-9 and always enjoyed the feel of U3. This is a lot like U2 and is very enjoyable. Support an independent developer and spend that few extra dollars for a great game like this.
Great game. Definitely worth your time and money. Those who love old Nintendo/PC RPGs will find this fun. We bought of for a plane trip and ended up playing several hours past the flight. The only critique we would add to the developer, is for your next game (and we hope you do another) please don't add in modern day references–like the Starbucks shop. It's really not funny, and it breaks the immersiveness of the game. Even though the story line was bare bones in this game, it was enough to spark the imagination. If you need help adding to a story for your next game, please contact us. We would gladly volunteer to help brainstorm/write content to help you create another fun adventure.
Brings back memories!!! Please follow it up with a sequal.
Ok it's early into this but so far this game is exactly what it promises to be- Ultima like, but without all the floppy disk swapping. So if you loved Ultima but work, kids soccer and doing your taxes eat up all your free time and emulators seem like a silly idea, then do yourself a favor and get this game.
Another old Ultima fan saying "nice job" on Lowlander! It really captures the Ultima feel, and has figured out controls well with a Touch screen. Really enjoyed the game, looking forward to V2.
Great and entertaining ultima 2 style game!! Only two things could make it perfect – 1) as you discover cities/towns/dungeons name and coordinate location is viewable to find your way back when/if needed and 2) a sequel! : ).
If you liked Ultima or Ultima II then this is for you. The game plays well. No crashes. The story and size is nice for many hours of play. We're at around 16 hours now. Open world map but with enough quests to keep you after the storyline. Thanks.
A super fun game that nails the early Ultima aesthetic. Definitely a bargain at this price (about 20 cents per hour of gameplay). Would happily purchase a sequel.
Wow. This game took us right back to the early 80's. As a long time fan of the Ultima franchise, this game really struck a chord with us. Highly recommended.
An Ultima-esque game with a reasonable mobile interface. The DungeonMoto approves.
Thanks for what was clearly a labor of love. Great sense of humor, a quirky mix of fantasy and anachronism, and cleverly simple touch play. The only thing missing is the thrill of the first play through now that we've finished it.
Little to say beyond what other 5 star reviewers have said, but this is a marvelous reminder of what brilliance in an RPG means – creativity, humor, depth – forgotten in the age of modern graphics. Thank you for bringing us back to Ultima, Flat Black Films.
Can be a little tough at the very beginning, but tons of fun right from the start. A must for anyone who enjoyed any of the early Ultima games. Impatiently waiting for more adventures in this world. (And huzzah for pay-to-own. Death to pay-to-play!).
Took us about 10 hours to beat, well worth the amount to pay if you remember playing the old ultima games on your Commodore 64. Hail lord British.
We enjoyed playing this game tremendously. It gets ridiculously deep for such a simple UI.
This game is great. We used to play the Ultima games back in the 80's, and this captures the feel of those games perfectly but with a more modern interface. We couldn't put it down.
The game alone is amazing. Love it. If your into the older style games, this might be your cup of tea. On another note- we had a question about a problem we were having (it turned out to be an user error on our part) which we e-mailed them about. Not even 2min later they messaged us back and started to look we to it. There are not many people, not just developers, who are willing to take time out of their day to assist someone, and these people do just that. So, thank you very much for taking time out of your day just to see to a question we had :).
If you were a fan of the early Ultima games, this is definitely a game to try.
So good, so addictive, so ultima. Get it.
We are in LOVE. Thank you! The Dev clearly had a love affair with these games as we did. You had us at a guard telling us "we will beat you.".
This game is true to its old school CRPG roots. Has a very Ultima II/III feel while being original and very fun to play. Game world is huge and lots to explore. Very addicting and hard to put down. Hoping for a future second release! Well done.
If you were disappointed with the Ultima 4 port released for iOS, look no further. This game truly encapsulates that old-school rpg feel without having terrible controls. In fact, the controls are quite nice. The world is really big and there's lots to discover.
First off the developer is really responsive and appears to really care about his work. He's very active on forums and responds quickly. The games inspiration is the ultima series and it's done really well. You can play the game with one hand. The graphics are brighter than the ultima series but the main gameplay elements are intact. The game has hunger and everything. Thank you dev, nice job.
If you have been looking for something similar to Ultima, look no further. This game has that old school favor where graphics didn't matter much and your imagination was the hook. Really been enjoying this game. Thanks devs.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.2.3
- Size: 28.16 MB
- iOS: 8.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
- Developer: Flat Black Films
Last updated: 9th October 2016 | Genre: Roleplaying, Adventure | Developer: Flat Black Films