Underworld Ascendant

Watched their intro movie: "We don't know exactly how it is going to come out, but it is going to be a blast!". Opportunity missed to declare "This is gonna rock!" and win the hearts and minds of...tens of people.

I'm still on the fence about backing this project but I did love the first two games, perhaps as they show more details.

I have to say though that I despise large companies that get the rights to popular IP's and then just sit on them for decades, or worse run them into the ground with shoddy shovelware games before sitting on them.

There's been a ton of "indie" attempts at this and the only one to make it was Arx Fatalis.

The whole genre of dungeon-crawler turned into "massive boring overland to walk and walk and walk and walk and sometimes run into things" with the success of Morrowind but maybe Dark Souls has helped turned things back the other way.

From what I've seen of the Witcher 3 it looks like it's doing the overland bit quite well.

Though the problem with the whole dungeon crawler genre is that games focus so much on the overland that the dungeons just feel tacked on. You don't really get a long satisfying dungeon crawl experience and instead get a couple zones tacked on and then pop back out after one boss.

Ultima Underworld is fantastic. 2..not so much.

I am excited as hell for this, even though I know there is almost zero chance I won't be disappointed. Ultima Underworld is one of a handful of monumental games from my childhood/teen years. I had the same sense of awe the first time I played that game as the first time I saw Super Mario Brothers on a NES, or Sonic on a Sega Genesis. It was a monumental leap forward in gameplay. Such a great game. No way this new one lives up to my rose-colored view of the original.

Vvoid_sl said:

I knew I responded about this somewhere:Underworld Ascendant kickstarter

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yeah, Obviously I had thoughts others mentioned.
My first reaction was like Sumi said.

"We don't know exactly how it is going to come out, but it is going to be a blast!"

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That's worrisome. that does not reek of having a master plan.

Ultima Underworld was revolutionary.
Back in 1992....
But the design changes it SPARKED happened already.

Don't tell me you made UU, and want to make it again.
We already have Skyrim/Oblivion, Majora's mask, Dark Souls, Deux ex, etc, etc.
Tell me how THOSE games took parts of it, but are not COMBINING them.

If you are making an Underworld game, I expect revolution, or at least major progression. Not a nostalgia trip. Its not like a Divinity: OS, or a Grimrock, etc, where that entire genre is dead. and bringing back the genre itself is enough.

the pedigree of the creators seems decent.
But I'm not going to support this KS.
There doesn't seem to be a strong direction for the game.
And I don't really see any promises of what is going to be made, that TES isn't already doing.

It sounds great, but which KS project doesn't ? The fact that they couldn't showcase any of the choice beyond some simple storyboards is worrying. New team, new game and it's supposed to be out in less than 2 years ? So far it sounds like Skyrim in a cave and I already played that, it was called Blackreach and it blew my mind. Nothing they are showing makes me think they can match that.

Right off the bat they have to ask "Do we re-use the original fuckawful controls just because nostalgia?"

Kreugen_sl said:

Right off the bat they have to ask "Do we re-use the original fuckawful controls just because nostalgia?"

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Weapon swinging was problematic.

Kreugen_sl said:

Right off the bat they have to ask "Do we re-use the original fuckawful controls just because nostalgia?"

Click to expand...

Weapon swinging was problematic.

I remember getting the demo disk for Ultima Underworld and being absolutely blown away. Keep in mind that it was released before Wolfenstein 3D.

I had to throw them a few bucks for nostalgia's sake.

I am broke right now so I didn't kick any in, but it motivated me to fire up Underworld. I've finished all of the main-line Ultimas (1-9), but I never finished savage empires, martian dreams, or either of the underworlds. So far it is really fun, but I'm only down on the second level.

You finished Ultima 9? You are a better man than I. Played all of 1-7 (7 and the Serpent Isle expansion still might be my favorite RPGs ever), but 8 was disappointing(lost interest in it) and then 9 was a big bag of puke that released about 5 years before any PC could run it well.

Serpent isle and silver seed were great, probably my fave too.

I actually really really got into 8, and played it on a 386/33 and the performance was so terrible. I finished it before the patch I was so into it. But it wasn't a good ultima by any stretch. I spent so much time looking for the birthplace of Moriens haha. It had some powerful moments though.

9 had some good moments too. Hearing my former roomate's voice come booming out of a statue was awesome. Mostly it was a letdown though I'll agree. If you could go back in time and hand them a modern game engine I think it might have been allright (quite a few of the same folk are on shroud of the avatar).

I got to see 9 in ... I think it was 98, and it actually seemed like a better game back then. It had a top down view back then and looked pretty good.

The only Ultima I never finished was 5 and the 2 "world's of" games.

7 was fantastic. Both parts of it. They were simply amazing.

8 was a pile of crap. It's referred to as "Super Avatar Brothers" for a reason.

I didn't mind 9's gameplay but the story was an abomination and the complete Guardian Retcon was stupid as shit.

What did you think of the "worlds of" games? I want to get to them someday. I did play the martian one and I remember getting very killed by wandering monsters.