That’s the part of the story we haven’t really heard yet, why they pitched a direct sequel to Ultima Underworld and delivered, well, this.
What killed my interest in UA wasn’t the general bugginess (though that certainly didn’t help), but rather the almost complete lack of any attempt whatsoever to immerse the player in the game’s world. To this day I can still, for example, play even the most trivial Thief fan mission and have a good time, because it automatically brings with it everything that Thief established-- Garrett, the City, the Hammerites, etc. I can fire up Fallout 3 and just faff about, sightseeing and bapping random monsters, because the setting has so etched itself into my memory. The experience is more than what’s on the screen-- it’s the Capital Wasteland, and I’m the Lone Wanderer. Ditto for many other games that established a strong sense of place. Deus Ex, Myst, Anachronox, Bloodlines, etc. They’re almost like real places in my memory, that I occasionally enjoy revisiting long after all the quests are done.
Underworld Ascendant, on the other hand, presents itself as little more than the set of a game show, with your host Cabirus and color commentary by Typhon. We’re summoned to the game’s world and immediately sent off to the quest factory. There’s no sense of discovery, no mystery, nothing to draw us into the world, no sense that anyone ever lived here, no characters, no emotional investment in anything. Thus, the actual gameplay feels supremely pointless. Every moment is dominated by wondering why I’m even bothering with this. Who am I? Nobody. Where am I? Nowhere. What am I struggling for? Nothing. There’s a reason Valve invested so much effort in the writing of Portal 1 & 2, because they understood that memorable characters and settings, even when they don’t mechanically affect gameplay in any way, are vital to anchoring players in the game fiction. UA entirely lacks this.
The damning thing is that, from a technical perspective, this sort of thing can be almost free. You just need good writing and good pacing. But they barely even tried. We get an informed threat to the world, cryptic scrawls on rocks, and that’s basically it. Otherside is made up of industry veterans who worked on some of the most immersive games ever made, yet somehow they completely forgot to make their game immersive. This, more than almost anything else, is what needs fixing, yet is probably also the least fixable.
Just checking, Zylon. Did you mean UA?
Whoops, yes, I was referencing Underworld Ascendant, not the original Ultima Underworld. Fixed.
UA update 3 is out with some pretty major improvements, and they’re starting to talk about an update 4. Maybe that will be the time to finally play it.
I’ve only returned three games in my Steam history, and two of those were UA :) It looks like they still don’t support ultrawides (3440x1440). That’s enough to keep me from trying again.
It is interesting that they’re still working on this.
The game was just updated with what’s likely to be the final patch:
I have to hand it to the developers that was a decent level of post release support. Time to give this one a whirl :)
I noticed this is coming out on PS4 this week. So presumably it’s done enough for a console launch.
First response to the patch notes “3) you are almost always hungry (pls add a option to turn hunger off)” immediately made me go “nah”.
I played it for a while. From the beginning until recently. Then I uninstalled it. Is this a reason to play it again? I choose no, thanks.
Thanks for taking one for the team, and be sure to report back!
-Tom
Did they tighten up the graphics? I’m on mobile so I can’t properly gauge the quality but it seems a little sharper than on release.
This is why I stopped playing a while ago. If it’s still the same I see no reason to go back.
Available on PS4, apparently.
I get it. But my eyesight isn’t that great lately. If I have to raise the gamma to a level that everything is washed out, it’s a no go for me.
They just released UW:A on consoles. Not uncommon to layoff following a big release in the gaming industry unfortunately.
What an exploitive, shite industry.
It’s the opposite of the “reward for hard work = more hard work” military cliché.
“The reward for hard work in the game industry is FUCK YOU, YOU’RE FIRED LOL”
I agree, that’s why they should organize.