Ultima Underworld 1 and/or 2

[aamiralavi]

#7162

I’m slightly (system) shocked that this seminal game has neither been suggested nor seems to have been covered before! 🤔

[TigerQuoll]

#7167

The club did Ultima VII some time ago, and I feel like the Underworld games have been mentioned somewhere on the podcast.
I would love an excuse to revisit these. I started playing UUW 1 some time ago, but it felt very slow to get started. I loved the engine and the atmosphere and the depth of gameplay and story, but I struggled to get past those first several hours you need to really get into the swing of it.
It also suffers from that typical RPG problem of asking you to go in blind when creating your character, with no idea of what classes or combination of stats are going to be useful.

[fastwinstondoom]

#7173

The underworld games are a really do need an episode of their own, even if they were briefly mentioned in the ultima episode. It came out before Wolf3d and it is such a crazy technological achivement for the time… also, Warren Spector and Paul Neurath. The start of the immersive sim! Truly a milestone game.

[fastwinstondoom]

#8742

Yearly bump for taking a trip down to the Stygian Abyss!

[TigerQuoll]

#8743

It came out before Wolf3D, yes. But it came out even longer before Doom, and actually has some technical advancements over that game: fully 3D models, angled floors, swinging doors, true bridges, physics.
(Although the actual level geometry is admittedly simpler than that of Doom)

Rereading my last post, I think I came off much harsher than I meant to. There’s so much I think I would love about these games, and just a few (pretty common for RPGs of the time) quibbles that make them a challenge to get into.

[fastwinstondoom]

#8760

Also, it had swimmable water! WITH monsters in it. And fish, which you could catch for food using a fishing rod made from a stick and some thread 😀

[TigerQuoll]

#8761

Yes, Doom sorely lacked a fishing mechanic.

[Pix]

#8888

Just listened to the recent Wolfenstein podcast and you mentioned that you ought to play Underworld some time. Thought I’d take the hint and suggest it but it’s already here of course. I’ll throw my support behind the idea while I’m here anyway. You possibly needed to be there at the time to truly appreciate it but it’s quite possibly my favourite game of all time.