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.
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