Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[TripJack]

Paul Neurath and some other bros from the glory days of Looking Glass Studios have rejoined and are making a sequel to the old Ultima Underworld games called Underworld Ascendant.

In 1992, Ultima Underworld changed the rules of what a fantasy RPG could be. It introduced the concept of 3D immersion, a player-authored experience, and a richly dynamic world to explore. Its influence led to a whole generation of games such as Thief, Deus Ex, BioShock, Skyrim, and Dragon Age.

Underworld has been hidden away in the deepest vaults of its publisher for two decades. Only now have the original creators unchained the franchise, freeing it to innovate yet again.

Backing the game grants you unprecedented front row access to the creation of the next epoch of this storied masterpiece, Underworld Ascendant. With your help, here's a glimpse at what we can together build:

    Exquisitely Realized Underworld – Plunge into The Stygian Abyss: dark, ripe with dangers, full of ancient secrets to discover. A vast subterranean fantasy world made startlingly real and alive.
    Dynamic Factions – Become embroiled in an epic plot, as rival factions vie for dominance in struggles that ebb and flow across The Stygian Abyss. Your choices will alter the outcome in subtle and dramatic ways.
    Improvisation Engine – Delight in player-authored gameplay taken to a whole new level, with a suite of technologies that empower you to solve challenges with astonishing ingenuity. Be the ‘MacGyver’ of a fantasy world.
    Hero to Call Your Own – Jump right in as a Fighter, Thief or Mage. Then as your Avatar grows, freely mix and match across any skills to develop a unique hero, tailored to your style of play.
    Pushing Boundaries – Stretch Goals will innovate on co-op play with a friend; letting you build your own corner of The Stygian Abyss; and more.

The Kickstarter, ending March 6th: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/othersidegames/underworld-ascendant . There's still a couple thousand spots in the basic $20 digital copy tier.

[nenjin]

Was confusing this with Shroud of the Avatar. I was like "Wait, didn't Ultima already run a kickstarter?"

[Scripten]

This sounds like a lot of Kickstarter-esque name-dropping, but if these are the people I think they are and the design goals are legit... yeah, this could be a modern classic in the making.

[jocan2003]

To be honest i am a bit scared about that, i am no attorney or anything, but doesnt EA hold the IP as in setting, lore, maps, location stuff like that? Also what made the best Ultima games was Richard Garriot ( AkA Lord British ) being behind the scene. Dont get me wrong i really hope it pans out but i have a sceptical mind about the legitimacy of the project. I just hope its not a quick cash grab using a famous name because i tired of seing that happening.

Duke Nukem anyone?

[TripJack]

they have permission from EA, they just can't use the Ultima name

[Sonlirain]

Amazing how in the interent society of today is the golden age for nostalgia. So many reboots (usually reasnonably good) happned recently. (thinks of shadow warrior and Wasteland 2).
I remember playing underworld some years ago in dosbox... didn't stick ot it too much personally but i can't deny that it was one of the first real fluid 3D RPG out there with good graphics.

[Scoops Novel]

Amazing how in the interent society of today is the golden age for nostalgia.

Not just games, is it? I wonder if it was the same in the great depression, but i doubt it. Maybe it's because the youth culture today is pretty quiet?

[ScottP]

Looks solid. I wonder what engine they are using. It looks a bit like unity?

[ejseto]

Nostalgia's a strong selling point; it's easier to cash in on than innovation.

Cashing in on nostalgia is a lot less shameless than cashing in on someone else's innovation. I'd rather have a game that Warren Spector is working on than another 2D-Minecraft-in-space. Don't put your faith in franchises, put it in the people working on them.

A game doesn't have to be innovative to be good or worthwhile, but one cashing in on nostalgia is a lot more likely to be good than one cashing in on someone else's innovation as the former is very likely to be a labor of love, no matter how opportunistic it might seem to the cynical observer.

[Beggars` Sect]

Looking Glass Studios and Microprose were two most important studios in gaming history. These guys were ahead of their time and bent minds with every released title - and we`re talking AAA games here. Playing them "back then" was intoxicating - I remember thinking "sweet Jaysis, if this is what is happening now, what will be possible 10-20 years in the future?"

Unfortunately what was possible never materialised. Instead, mainstream gaming slowly went down the streamlined, easy-street drain and the foundations these studios laid were left abandoned. Thankfully, the resurgence of bedroom coding and resilience of roguelike genre saves the (gaming) day for me, but still, every now and then I still yearn for a proper "big title" and what could`ve been.

As for this Kickstarter  though, my expectations are very low. Two reasons: I don`t rate any of the "nostalgia" projects released over last few years. Shadowrun was more of a ShallowRun, Wasteland 2 full of smoke & mirrors (typical Fargo, eh), Dead State a complete mess and so on (I still have some hope for Avellone`s game thou). The recurring theme seems to be the almighty $$$ - after Double Fine`s moneybags success all these guys seemed to pop out of woodwork and say, "Hey, we can do it too!", only to later on deliver some placeholders & broken/unfulfilled promises. I know this will sound rather harsh to many people who seem to enjoy these titles, but I did have very - and I mean very- high hopes too only to be sorely disappointed. 

So maybe this one will be different but the pattern is against them.

Second reason is the money goal - I don`t see how you can make a game of the scope they promise for 600K. Unless these promises are - once again - just rough sketches and wishful thinking. So, you can change the environment? Dynamic world? Multiple puzzle solutions? Only too often this has been promised and later reneged on, with only token mechanics in place. Personally, I don`t want another Shadowrun - I`d rather replay the old classics once again.

Hopefully I`m wrong, and all this is just skeptical blackmongering. I backed it (thanks to the OP for the heads up) but more for the sake of old times than the promise of the new game. We`ll see in 2 years - at least that date is kinda realistic ;)