An old review of UW resurrected

twisty on 29/5/2001 at 12:38

As promised, I have tracked down that old review of Ultima Underworld. It comes from an Australian magazine which seems to sport many LGS fans. This review forms part of a flashback series that must have been going on back then. Unfortunately I don't have a scanner yet, so I can't supply the screenshots - but its not like you haven't seen them before, anyway.<hr>


ULTIMA UNDERWORLD - The Stygian Abyss


PC PowerPlay

Issue 37		June 1999

This review by David Wildgoose



Re-immerse yourself in one of the most important titles' in RPG history

Everything old is new again. For years Origin had been churning out epic role-playing adventures with their acclaimed Ultima series. Although best known for their top-down and, later, isometric viewpoint, each of the early Ultima games also used primitive 3d graphics. Until and including Ultima V, the underground dungeons of Britannia (as well as the other worlds you journeyed to) were predominately depicted in wire-frame 3d and explored thanks to a step-by-step movement method.

However, Ultima V saw Origin abandon this potentially anachronistic set-up in favour of a wholly isometric experience.

Meanwhile, Lord British had wisely handed the licence for an offshoot Ultima game to the clever people at Looking Glass Studios. The final result - Ultima Underworld - saw a resurrection of the first person 3D perspective and, in doing so, became what is widely regarded as the best dungeon-based RPG ever made. A sequel followed a year later that was perhaps the better game technically, but it's the original that deserves most of the acclaim.

The Stygian Abyss forged significant innovation in two areas - its graphics technology and its gameplay. On purely visual terms alone, this was a masterpiece. The relatively small viewing window belied the impressive technical achievements it portrayed. Before Wolfenstein, this was the first PC game to utilise a real-time 3D engine. Proper 3D it was too, with intricate environments featuring split level tunnels, bridges and rooms on top of rooms. Not even Doom, released a full two years later, had realised the added benefits three-dimensionality could offer. Yet here was a game - an RPG, would you believe it! - fully extending the x, y and z axes of its architecture. Much of the Underworld's games' oft-praised atmosphere was due to the undeniable immersive pull of its 3D world.

A further aspect of innovation, and one just as crucial as generating that atmosphere, arrived with the gameplay. Ultima games had always emphasised NPC interaction over brute killing and Underworld was no different. With the obvious exception being that you didn't even have to attack the monsters, you could chat with them instead. Whole tribe of lizardmen, dwarves and goblins scrounged a miserable existence in the Abyss, presenting you with conflicts to be resolved and allies whose favour had to be won. A host of minor characters also populated the Stygian Abyss, fleshing out the game world with their sorrowful tales and engaging you in a number of mysterious quests. Where so many RPGs lamely sought to satisfy us tedious hack and slash, Ultima Underworld gave us a rich and fascinating mini-world to live in for a few months. Personally, for me it ranks as one of the best three games I've ever played.

Now, of course, we'll soon have Ultima: Ascension boasting an innovative, new 3D graphics engine. But, as we know, its really just Ultima returning to its roots. <hr>

<HR width="75%">2 FM's in Progress -- The Small Hours and Asylum 
Check out my first FM
<a href="http://twistalot.cjb.com/index.html">The Ritual</a>

twisty on 29/5/2001 at 12:55

Rather ominously, I just noticed that the above post was my 666th since joining the forums. Anyway, I also found a later edition of PC PowerPlay's magazine which ran a special titled "The top 50 games of all time". It ranked UW as 8th, Thief DP as 3rd and System Shock2 coming in at 13.

<HR width="75%">2 FM's in Progress -- The Small Hours and Asylum 
Check out my first FM
<a href="http://twistalot.cjb.com/index.html">The Ritual</a>

spirix1 on 30/5/2001 at 06:43

this certainly gave me a little wider view of ultima underworld. thanks twisty!

twisty on 30/5/2001 at 11:34

NP :)

Shadowcat on 1/6/2001 at 05:23

Thanks for typing that in, Twisty!! Great stuff :)

Hopefully it caused a few of their readers to go out and track down a copy...