Ultima The Ultima Underworld I & II Thread

[Suchy]

http://www.stygianabyss.com/

Oh God, please make me unsee it...

 

[MetalCraze]

Nah, that was Diablo. Definitely not a good game though.

Except "RPGs" now are shitty first-person/third-person action games and the only games in the recent years that somehow resembled Diablo was Torchlight.

 

[mountain hare]

Nah, that was Diablo. Definitely not a good game though.

:O Diablo kicked ass, good sir.

 

[Sceptic]

Gamefaqs says 1992.

It was 1992. After all this is the game that inspired id to make Wolf 3D (though I think Carmack got the idea from the UW tech demo before the game was released).

Except "RPGs" now are shitty first-person/third-person action games and the only games in the recent years that somehow resembled Diablo was Torchlight.

We've been over this before ducky. UW is as much an action game as OFP is a turn-based strategy game. About the only common thing between all the action games you decry and UW is that they're both in first-person and real-time. That's it. Never mind that EVERYTHING you do in the game depends on your character skills (fighting, spellcasting, jumping... yeah even jumping depends 100% on your char skill), that there are only about half a dozen fights that you really must fight, that even if you do pick a fighter most of your time is spent not fighting and that the game is far, far too slow-paced. Oh yeah and UW isn't shitty. So... why did UW bring the decline? Because others took the technology, stipped out all the RPG elements and started making action games? how's that LG's fault?

 

[Mastermind]

Ultima Underworld - how a good game killed a whole genre in the end

Strong in this one, the butthurt is.

 

[Luzur]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UMBgW2GgEs

heres the PS1 intro.

 

[Jaesun]

Interesting, so it is properly pronounces STY-GEE-EN Abyss. I learned something today!

Gawd that VO was awful. heh

 

[Darth Slaughter]

I am not even going to comment on this one. I have already said my piece.

Don't say anything... PLAAAAY IT. MOAR!!!

 

[Luzur]

yes, Silellak needs to ready himself for another round of Console Ultima!

 

[Sceptic]

Interesting, so it is properly pronounces STY-GEE-EN Abyss. I learned something today!

Gawd that VO was awful. heh

It's the exact same voices from the PC into, so I guess you can blame the STY-GEE-EN Abyss on the original.

"Treachery and DOOOOOOOOOM" was hilarious. Especially in hindsight.

 

[Silellak]

yes, Silellak needs to ready himself for another round of Console Ultima!

Ultima Underworld - how a good game killed a whole genre in the end

So...are you actually going to like, justify that statement? Or just sit there with a smug smile on your face?

 

[Yggdrasil]

Amazing game. Just compare how good the 3D engine was in contrast to the hailed 3D engines that came afterwards - Wolfenstein and even Doom (which also had only "2.5 D", not full 3D as UU).

Another interesting aspect of UU is that the developers apparently were interested in creating not only a simple RPG, but a "dungeon simulator". The result is that the dungeon does feel alive and real -, as opposed to Diablo and other crap that came later.

 

[dr. one]

great game. next gen for its time, yet gameplay/design/story weren´t neglected at all.

 

[Mortmal]

great game. next gen for its time, yet gameplay/design/story weren´t neglected at all.

yes the decline came much later, underworld inspired arena and legends of valor(not too good game) , then daggerfall those are direct successors, decline came with oblivion when they completely neglected the story, and dumbed down the gameplay to the bare minimum. Wich is sad theres lot of potential with oblivion engine.

 

[Luzur]

just look at that Nehrim mod.

 

[ElectricOtter]

Holy shit we need this as a avatar:

Arx Fatalis is pretty awesome.

 

[lightbane]

Ultima Underworld - how a good game killed a whole genre in the end

I don't think you should blame them for the decline. Imagine if you wrote a great sci-fi book, which ended up serving as inspiration for Bungie to create Halo. Would you like to be blamed and ridiculed for this? Would you like to receive the title of "precursor of Halo"? You just can't control what others will do with your work as an inspiration source. It's like the people that used to say "Myst killed the adventure genre", when in reality this makes no sense at all.

That already happened (more or less), before Halo was Marathon 1, Marathon Durandal and Marathon Infinity, games that were actually fun, challenging with a great story and characters, and lastly but not least without any popamole regenerating health/shields at all. All of these were raped and vaguely referenced when Halo came.

 

[Burning Bridges]

I think this time Skyway may not have thought much about his remark, and perhaps he will admit it

I was concerned about UW before it came out, when I had just seen screens in gaming magazines. High end 3d technology + rpg could only spawn an action game.

But when it came out everyone was surprised that it was a full fledged, incredibly professional and athmospheric RPG, and how the 3d created a completely novel experience (mind, genuine 3d as opposed to pseudo as in Wolfenstein).

It was, perhaps the most revolutionary game I ever played. There were so many groundbreaking features in execution, it may have been the beginning of a new era in rpgs, it's a pity it never happened. Escept a few similar games from somewhat different genre (Thief, System Shock), but the real underworld-inspired games never came.

 

[Saxon1974]

Interesting, so it is properly pronounces STY-GEE-EN Abyss. I learned something today!

Gawd that VO was awful. heh

Yes that surprised me too. I think that the Baron's voice over was done by R. Garriot too.

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS SKYWAY JUST POSTS RANDOM STUPOID SHIT IMAGINE HIS POSTS IN ALL CAPS THEY WOULD BE WORSE THAN MINE AT MY DRUNKEST

MAYBE BROS WITH SOME BRIANS MIGHT REALIZE THAT INCREASING PRODUCTION BUDGET MADE RISKIER GAMRES LESS JUSTIFIABLE AND AS BUDGETS AND STAFF INCREASED FOR GAMES THE QUANTITY AND CREATIOVITY IN RELEASES DECLINED

BROS LOLLOLOL WHO WOULD POST THAT BULLSHIT WHEN YOU CAN POST FALLOUT THREE FOR FAGS HERP DERP BUTTHURT I AM DISSAPPOINT FAIL DECLINE OR ANY OTHER BRIANDEAD SHIT YOU WANT TO WRITE

 

[Darth Roxor]

 

[made]

Halp! How I moved in Underworld 2 lol?!

Dosbox, can't move with keyboard nor mouse. UW1 works np. Loaded an older save further in so it must have worked at some point, although I think I used a frontend back then. Any ideas? Special config required?

 

[Trojan_generic]

Halp! How I moved in Underworld 2 lol?!

Dosbox, can't move with keyboard nor mouse. UW1 works np. Loaded an older save further in so it must have worked at some point, although I think I used a frontend back then. Any ideas? Special config required?

First of all, if you have any other controller (ie. joystick) plugged in, unplug it. If you can get past the title screen, then the game should recognize at least some input. You playing windowed or full screen?

 

[made]

Cheers m8, was the gamepad.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Amazing game. Just compare how good the 3D engine was in contrast to the hailed 3D engines that came afterwards - Wolfenstein and even Doom (which also had only "2.5 D", not full 3D as UU).

If you're comparing UU to Wolf3D, then you're right. But the Doom engine actually had movement along the Z-axis, the game just wasn't made to take much advantage of it. So it and UU are on the exact same page... in fact, Doom is the superior of the two because the architecture of the levels is not confined to squares, like Wolf3D and UU both are.

"Full 3D" didn't come along until Descent, IIRC. In case you're wondering, Full 3D is when two sectors can occupy the same space along the z-axis, like say you being able to both cross on and underneath a bridge, or a spiral staircase.