[PC] Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss

[christian]

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[christian]

Lovely excerpts from Computer Gaming World's review - http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/inde ... ub=2&id=96

One might wonder if Lord British is not guilty of strapping [a SteadiCam] onto some unfortunate employee from Origin Systems and depositing that person into some medieval, horror-filled tunnel in order to capture some rare motion picture footage. If this is indeed the case, that employee apparently survived long enough to contribute a unique action perspective to this eagerly anticipated entry into the growing field of dungeon-style role-playing programs.

the designers of UTSA have replaced the traditional graph-paper design of other dungeon games with an environment that flows past the player in a continuous stream.

In UTSA, however, players may discover that the mouse is barely adequate to accommodate all of the functions assigned to it, much as a good flight combat simulation often demands a more complex input device.

With all of these robotic functions in operation, it is not long before the illusion takes hold that one is actually controlling Britannia’s version of R2D2 in Wonderland.

[christian]

Scorpia's article from the same issue - http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/inde ... ub=2&id=96

3-D is nothing new in dungeons; it was being used as far back as Lord British’s first published game, Akalabeth, more than ten years ago. Since then, a number of companies, especially FTL with Dungeon Master and SSI with Eye of the Beholder, have greatly refined the point-of-view approach. Now comes Ultima Underworld, and 3-D takes on a whole new meaning. The key to this breakthrough is the use of full-range movement. ... Further,walking or running in the dungeon is not always on the usual straight line, nor is it of the ‘click-step, click-step’ variety. Motion is smooth and continuous, and you can shift position as you move, including making a complete turn.

For all that, Ultima Underworld is an impressive first product. The meticulous construction of a real-world dungeon environment is outstanding. Despite a few silly puzzles, the body of the game is substantial, with much to do and to explore. Combat, while difficult to master, is generally well-balanced. Ultima Underworld may be a dungeon trek, but it is certainly the dungeon trek of the future.

[christian]

Dissatisfaction with the conversation system in Underworld directly led to the ghost ship design of System Shock and the eavesdropping design of Thief.

http://gillen.cream.org/wordpress_html/676/doug-church/

Although [the action] was at 2% fidelity, and the rendering at 1% fidelity, the characters and conversation were at 0.001% fidelity. The conversations are just horrible. They’re not about the player — they’re not player centric. They don’t really have any choice. Character interaction is where you most feel games are artificial at the moment. We’re shooting a guy with a gun in a FPS — there’s a limit to what he can say. We should be giving the player more control and more sense of investment and reality in the rest of the game in trying to do those other things. It’s frustrating.

And so they ripped it out. In fact the whole history of Looking Glass since Underworld has been one of selectively removing underdeveloped or obtuse systems from their games. Doug Church describes this process saying, "If you look to Underworld to Shock to Thief, I think you can see a progression of taking out everything that kept you from diving into the world." Of course, if they followed this line of reasoning to its logical conclusion, they'd end up right back at creating arcade shooters like Doom.

An interesting aside: reflected in the development of Wolfenstein 3D is the whole history of Looking Glass games since Underworld.

[christian]

http://www.videogame.it/thief-ii-interv ... -hart.html

The technology that I most look forward to will, alas, probably not happen in my lifetime: natural language parsing. Until some advancement is made in that area, interactive NPC's will always be the weak-link in any sort of simulation.

[christian]

http://www.videogame.it/thief-ii-interv ... -hart.html

Nextgame.it: Wolfenstein 3D and the first Ultima Underworld have been released in the same period. So, why did the industry turn towards simpler and superficial first person perspective games like the 3D Shooters?

Dorian Hart: Ah, if only there were one clear and evident answer to this question. I think the most likely answer would be accessibility. It takes an investment of energy and a commitment of time to play complex CRPG's like Underworld. There is no such investment required in a typical shooter - no story to follow, not much inventory to manage, and no state to maintain between play sessions. It could also be as simple as that more people would rather ride a roller coaster than read a good novel; the adrenaline rush of the shooter is more sought after than the intellectual satisfaction of the RPG.

[christian]

http://www.underworldascendant.com/the-game/quotes.php

I started playing D&D in 1975. My D&D obsession made me largely dismissive of computer RPGs when they appeared – until I played Ultima Underworld. A genuine classic – the daddy of them all – it had huge influence on later classics such as Deus Ex and System Shock, and most other 3D RPGs for that matter. It must have been the reason why the word 'immersive' was first applied to computer games!

[christian]

Ultima Underworld bugs - http://dfan.org/blog/2011/02/21/ultima-underworld-bugs

But the best bug report I remember came from Origin. We rendered the world in true 3D but most of the objects (monsters, objects you could pick up) were 2D sprites. There were a few actual 3D polygonal objects, though, such as boulders. When we added the 3D object capability, we needed something to test it out, and we hadn’t created any ourselves yet, so we used a red sports car from some friends who were developing a game with the Car & Driver license, which we plopped down in the middle of a cavern. Sure enough, you could walk all around it and it looked just like a red sports car.

Then the bug report came in, of course. “On the fifth level, at this particular location, there is a red sports car sitting on the floor.” OK, I guess we could have expected that. What we did not expect was the next sentence: “I should be able to enter it and drive around.”