Final Thoughts
Home › Forums › Current Game: Ultima Underworld › Final Thoughts
- This topic has 8 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 1 week ago by Pix.
-
December 16, 2024 at 12:18 pm #9258
I’ve played through UW1 & 2 over the last couple of weeks. They remain among my favourite DOS games still, the 15 year gap since the last time has done nothing to put me off. You clearly had to play them at the time to really appreciate them but they pushed gameplay forward as well as just having the fancy 3D engine and still hold up for me. If you compare these to Eye Of The Beholder which was the nearest competition at the time, they just aren’t in the same ballpark. The dialog and simulation aspects add so much to the formula. Blobbers would still carry on appearing for years after as well – Dungeon Master didn’t even get a PC release until a year or two after UW1.
The first game is more cohesive with quite an oppressive atmosphere to fit the dungeon theme. It’s probably my favourite of the two but the second improves many aspects with the more varied worlds, better graphics, bigger view window, closer Ultima story ties and more fleshed out characters. I don’t like the music as much which is important when you spend so much time listening to it, and while the worlds add variety, they are a little random. It’s possibly a little too big and sprawling.
What does strike me with these games is how easy it is to get them in an unwinnable state and how subtle and easy to miss some of the clues you’ll need to beat it are, especially in the first one. Beating it on your first attempt with no outside help would be very tricky I suspect. The extra couple of months we’re getting is probably a good thing if any new players and going to get to the end.
Since we have 3 months, I’ll have a bit of a break then I’m going to try my hand at the PlayStation port now it’s got an English translation.
jefklakParticipantDecember 18, 2024 at 1:04 pm #9260Woah it’s just past half December and you’ve finished both games? Nice job!
I’m a first-time player and How Long To Beat says I should be done in 20 hours, but it feels more like 30 to me. I keep a personal (analog) journal, as it’s clear to me that without scribbling down all notes the game is indeed unwinnable.
There are so many useless items/skills in this game! And so many items that are needed like 6 levels down and if you throw them in the water you’ll never be able to finish it 🤣My nearly-final thoughts: it’s amazing that this game came out a month before Wolf3D. Not just because of the engine. I wish I discovered this sooner. It’s an amazing experience and yes there’s a lot of jank or bullshit stuff (platforming? endless dead ends in lvl7? etc) but that doesn’t overshadow the greatness of it in my view.
December 18, 2024 at 5:45 pm #9262If you know what you are doing it’s nothing like 20 hours. I remembered most of it and finished in maybe 5-6, not skipping anything. I’m sure I’ve seen speedrunners polish it off in about 15 minutes.
You have the right idea scribbling down notes I think. It’s the possibility of discarding an item which proves to be vital later on that gets me. That stew recipe for one – you can’t mix your stew without it even if you have the right ingredients! It’s very true to Ultima in this sense and the same thing is in most of the games. There are some real leaps of intuition required at times as well – e.g. how you get the cup of wonder. That does make it all the more rewarding when you figure them out though.
The platforming I don’t mind too much. You can use Shift-J for a standing jump which helps a ton – hopefully you’ve found that already.
jefklakParticipantDecember 19, 2024 at 7:21 pm #9264Yeah the standing jump helps. Sometimes 😅
I did a playthrough report on Mastodon and gathered my thoughts here in case anyone is interested; https://jefklakscodex.com/games/pc/ultima-underworld/
fastwinstondoomParticipantJanuary 3, 2025 at 12:03 pm #9280Been playing the first game over christmas(for the first time in 20+ years) and I am quite amazed at how well it holds up for me. Will give the second game a go this month or in february but I don’t remember enjoying that as much as the first.
There’s just something about the atmosphere of UU1 that really does it for me. Going down into the depths, exploring new levels as you go. The tension of not knowing what you’ll run into in the dark and the relief when you find a banner with an Ankh on it and know that you’ve reached a safe area where you can trade and talk to npcs.
The combat is bit janky, the jumping and swimming likewise. I really enjoy the magic system, I have handwritten notes on my desk with spell combos just like I had all those years ago.
And the map is glorious. Having it be an item in your inventory that you can write notes on feels like a perfect fit.
It all adds to the IMMERSION, I guess we can say!
edit: also, my world of warcraft-injured brain is endlessly amused by the abbreviation of the spell I used the most. The 1st lvl protection spell Bet In Sanct… it truly was best in slot for me 😛
patrick_wdParticipantJanuary 3, 2025 at 7:36 pm #9285I’d heard of Ultima Underworld and vaguely knew what it was, but had never played it before now. I thought I knew what to expect from this game, and dungeon crawlers aren’t usually my thing, but my actual experience turned out quite different.
At first it felt like a survival game, just gathering food and light sources, but once I discovered the goblin settlements I started to suspect this game was more than it seemed. There are FAR more NPCs than I was expecting, with a reputation system and detailed dialog trees. Luckily, around this point I was tipped off that this game is easily soft-lockable. I went looking for a guide to make sure I wouldn’t make any fatal mistakes, but what I saw was a very long and detailed document filled with elaborate quests and puzzles that I was not expecting to see.
I avoided reading too much (at first), but seeing that was the point where my idea of what this game is started to shift. I was expecting “fight your way to the bottom floor and kill the bad guy.” Turns out this game is also a complex linear puzzle adventure game. More specifically, it has subtle “riddle” puzzles that involve gathering clues and making an intuitive leap about some obscure action you can take to make progress. I actually LOVE this kind of puzzle and am a huge fan of games like La-Mulana with similar puzzle design, but I struggled a bit with it in this game because I realized too late what kind of game this actually is and hadn’t kept detailed enough track of the things I had done or seen.
I’m actually fine with aimless wandering in a puzzle game like this while I search for clues, but the controls in this game (while actually quite modern relative to the time) were still a bit clunky and added just enough friction to exploration that retracing my steps constantly became increasingly frustrating over time. Even still, I found many of the puzzles quite enjoyable. Most notably the quest for the knight order where you find the golden plate. It offered just enough clues to keep me on track, and all the pieces fit together neatly. After some doing I managed to find the plate without using a guide at all, which was very satisfying!
The infamous “Cup of Wonder” puzzle was a bit of a different story. Honestly I actually really like the concept of the puzzle and how it’s constructed, but it felt almost like it was in the wrong game. It would fit right in as a mid game La-Mulana puzzle, but here I kept underestimating its complexity because I just wasn’t expecting that kind of thing here.
I managed to find about half of the talismans myself and the other half with the help of the guide, and eventually made my way to the evil wizard and took him out, made my way down to level 8 and got to the final door of the game. Unfortunately, I was stopped dead by a new key that I needed and had no idea what it was or where to look. The dramatic pacing had really pumped me up for a final confrontation, and the sudden screeching halt spiked my already substantial frustration and I just went to follow a guide for the remainder of the game. Turns out the game had the last laugh when I got hit with the object list corruption bug, so I just youtubed the ending. You win this round, UUW.
Even though I didn’t manage to actually finish it myself, and things like inventory management and general movement could be quite annoying at times, there is definitely something special to this game that kept me going for as long as it did. I can easily see how growing up with this game would smooth over the rougher parts and leave a mostly positive memory. Coming into it late with 30 years of hindsight makes it difficult to overlook some of the considerable flaws, but the spirit of the game still shines through I think. This is definitely my second favorite “never played it before” DGC pick after Gateway. Just be prepared to refer to a guide to keep you on track if you’re going in blind; you’ll need it.
jefklakParticipantJanuary 3, 2025 at 7:53 pm #9287This is definitely my second favorite “never played it before” DGC pick after Gateway.
—
Yes, same here!I do find it difficult to review an old game I haven’t played before or form any kind of opinion on it as of course the context we’re in now differs extremely from 1992 so I can’t possibly know how it must have felt like to play back in the day.
For me, the janky jumping mechanics were irritating but doable. The biggest let-down was actually the story I felt they could have done so much more with it. What about those fighting clans? Who cares in the end? Also, 85% of the skills are completely useless so chanting the wrong stuff kind of cripples your character. That’s why for me UW ends up being great but not amazing.
Perhaps I’m being too harsh?January 4, 2025 at 6:15 am #9288I haven’t finished it yet (getting close to half way I think), but I’ve got a few thoughts nonetheless.
This game definitely still adheres to some older design principles where it was expected you wouldn’t beat the game on your first or even second playthrough. This is fine if you’re living in the early 90s with no internet and only a handful of games, especially if you’re a teenager with lots of free time. But as an adult in 2025 I only feel slightly bad about using a walkthrough. For anyone looking for a walkthrough, I’d recommend the one I’m using at sircaribus.com. It’s not a step-by-step guide, and doesn’t give away too many story points – it just has a list of things you need to do on each level in order to not soft-lock yourself.
I agree with the general sentiment on the controls – slightly janky, but shockingly good for the time. I actually sort of LIKE the jankiness – having navigation be so challenging just adds to the oppressive, dangerous atmosphere of the game.
The only thing I hate about the controls is there is no buffer between a click and a drag with your mouse in your inventory. The amount of times I have accidentally thrown my sword or wand away, or put it into a random bag, instead of readying it for combat, is truly maddening!
I’m also going to indulge in a very petty complaint and say I’m not a huge fan of the sprite graphics. All the monsters and character portraits just kind of look blobby and badly proportioned to me. I’m pretty sure they improve this in UWII though.I’m really glad I’m finally playing this game now. It has literally been on my backlog for about 20 years. I bought a compilation CD with UW and UWII in the mid 2000s, but never considered myself “ready” for them. I’ve always been somehow intimidated, thinking it would require too much of a commitment or investment in time and mental effort. But it’s really a lot more approachable than I gave it credit for, apart from a few systemic annoyances that a lot of RPGs of the era suffer from.
Also, I strongly recommend reading the review by the CRPG addict here.
On that note, I think it would be great to get Chester Bolingbroke on the episode!January 12, 2025 at 9:24 pm #9308I played through the PS1 port this weekend. It works surprisingly well on the PS1 once you get used to the myriad of controls. There are some definite improvements with a fullscreen view and keys unlocking doors automatically. The game also keeps track of what you know so you are forced to learn the mantras before you can use them. The 3D monsters it uses are a mixed bag. The bats are much better, the rats are now kind of cute and the reapers look comical as they lurch about. They did a good job modernising the music tracks. I love the MT-32 original but this is arguably better.
One of the biggest changes is that the level cap (if there is one) has been greatly increased. I finished the game at level 21. This makes the game so much fairer if you want to invest in some of the less useful skills or do so by mistake. You can max out your character far more now.
On the downside the framerate is lower than you’d get on the PC, there is no way to split a stack of items without dropping them on the floor first which is a stupid oversight and saving/loading is a lot slower than I’d like.
It’s a worthy port anyway, a lot better than I expected when I went in and deserved a Western release.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Home › Forums › Current Game: Ultima Underworld › Final Thoughts