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KickStarter Underworld Ascendant is a disaster

Mortmal

Arcane
Joined
Jun 15, 2009
Messages
9,158
Yeah, I even got Ultima 6 on C64! In hindsight, it never should have been released on that system, though (also in hindsight) its extremely impressive for what it is.
U6 on C64? Now i am watching it on YouTube, its truly impressive . I completely missed that, i played on the amiga and it was floppy hell already, although that was graphically as good as pc version with better soundtrack.
 

Metro

Arcane
Beg Auditor
Joined
Aug 27, 2009
Messages
27,792
To be honest, it is not too much of a stretch to believe that while they have failed to produce a decent game they have learnt a lot from their mistakes. Their next game is bound to be much better should they be able to complete it.
They were working on this for four plus years. You'd think they would have learned during that time-span and helped to correct the project they were actively producing instead of marking it down for future endeavors. I don't know who would back another Kickstarter from these guys so I suspect it's a moot point.
 
Joined
Feb 3, 2014
Messages
514
Location
In a ship with cooked grenade
So I was very optimistic about this right until the release. I believed they can make it work. I believed they know what they are doing. I did not really follow their forums so I had no idea how many things they left out from original pitch.

Then the release, streams and Steam reviews happened.

Bugs or UI done in 2 minutes are the least of problems. Overpromising and underdelivering is. And they also "badly communicated, that it was supposed to be more of Dark Messiah than Underworld." Wow, I have no words. This was only Kickstarter I was interested in and was about to back.

They did not take it as men and did not apologize for making fools of people. So it deservers all the shit it gets. Let it burn and move on.

Monomyth is already better game and it's not even released.
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2010
Messages
3,212
Location
Vostroya
I remember seeing the ads for Ultima Underworld and thinking it was step-based, but then one day seeing a demo running in the window of my local computer game store and having my mind blown. It just seemed so real. I only had a C64 then (I was very behind the times then), and when I finally got a PC later on, I couldn't find UU anywhere for sale, and eventually had to call up Origin on the phone and order it straight from them. Getting that in the mail was an amazing day indeed.

Underworld Ascendant was like, instead of getting a truly awesome game in the mail, I got a bag of aids infected shit instead.
C64 still , so east sovietic block ?
Don't know about the whole block, but in the Soviet Union in late 80s - early 90s there were mostly Spectrum clones, and then DOS PCs. Spectrum clones were way more affordable for the general population. PCs back than got into household were either from work, or if the kid managed to fool their unsuspecting parents to buy him or her a PC so he would became a programmer (hah!). Even then PCs were usually bought secondhand. We almost never had any Macs here until the late 90s, and even then they were rare. We had some Amiga enthusiasts, but they were very few in number. C64 were even rarer than Amigas.

As for UU, I got into it late, in 1996. There were already more impressive games graphically, but I remember the atmosphere, the gameplay's freedom, and my utter bewilderment, because it differed from a few RPGs I had managed to play back then. Sadly, I had a pirated copy with some glitches, don't even remember now if they were tied to copy protection or not. So I ever finished the first one and haven't played the second. Still, it's a damn shame what has happened after that hopeful and optimistic kickstarter. Even then I sort of felt that they promise too much so I haven't backed it, but I couldn't even imagine what a disaster this game will turn out to be. I wonder if Shaker would've funded, would it had been worse? Or maybe they would've just run with the money.
 

adddeed

Arcane
Possibly Retarded
Joined
May 27, 2012
Messages
1,473
Looking over at the kickstarter page and campaign, its hilarious. Especially the intro video where at the end it says they would reinvent the fantasy RPG genre.
Also the video where they explain the 3 D graphics, with a couple of autusts trying to to seem intelligent while showing clips of moving blocks around like its 2004 again.
Allof you deserve losing money on this as it was painfully obvious that it was going to be garbage.
 

newtmonkey

Arcane
Joined
Aug 22, 2013
Messages
1,725
Location
Goblin Lair
U6 on C64? Now i am watching it on YouTube, its truly impressive . I completely missed that, i played on the amiga and it was floppy hell already, although that was graphically as good as pc version with better soundtrack.
The floppy changes and loading on C64 rendered it unplayable basically haha. I mean, I was even used to swapping floppies and loading when playing Pool of Radiance, but U6 was on a whole other level. I remember you had to swap floppies every time you entered conversation. I was never able to seriously play the game on that, just would load it up, watch the intro with glorious SID tune, and then run around exploring until I died haha.
 

Curratum

Guest
mHUrItt.png


I had no idea what the award text was before I nominated. Good show, Steam, good show.
 

BEvers

I'm forever blowing
Joined
Aug 14, 2018
Messages
808
It's getting more reviews than I'd expected.

Underworld Ascendant Review

I went into this game expecting great things. It’s 2018 and we were just given a new Ultima-inspired game with the promise of bringing the amazing classics from Ultima Underworld into the era with upgraded graphics and mechanics. I was super excited. That is until I played it. Ladies and Gentlemen, strap in and prepare yourselves, this is our Underworld Ascendant review.

Underworld Ascendant is being marketed as a direct sequel to the Ultima Underworld series: Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss and Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds. It was supposed to be the amazing Ultima Underworld games (which were amazing btw) but brought to the new era of gaming with awesome graphics and gameplay. Yet once I got into the game, I was wishing I hadn’t stepped for onto this boat. Give me my old games back, you’ve ruined the series.

Underworld Ascendant is nothing more than a generic dungeon crawler with a big name behind it being marketed at fans of an old series. In my opinion it’s a cash grab using the acclaimed history of the Ultima Underworld series as it’s selling point. Being marketed as a non-linear RPG is a bit much, the game is largely linear in nature. Sure, you can “choose” which quest you want to take, but the dungeons themselves are straight forward and linear. There’s generally only one direction to go, with many side openings to explore that are shallow and empty for the most part. I expected to find many monsters in my way as I explore, only to have stealth shoved into my face and barely any monsters to speak of.

Let me give a little insight for you guys so you can follow my thought process a little better. Ultima Underworld, the series, was developed by the same company. That company was named Looking Glass Studios, and was founded by Paul Neurath. That company was also responsible for the amazing Thief series, among others. Back in May of 2000 that company closed down due to financial issues. Would you guess that the company behind Underworld Ascendant was named OtherSide Entertainment, founded by none other than Paul Neurath himself? The company was founded in 2013 with no other games in development. It would appear that the company was created for the sole purpose of making Underworld Ascendant, a so called direct sequel to the Ultima Underworld series.

The most popular games developed by Looking Glass Studios by far was the Thief series alongside Ultima Underworld. So it’s hard to be surprised by the fact that many of the core mechanics from Thief are in this game. So much, in fact, I thought I was playing a Thief game, not an Ultima game. What do I mean by that you may ask, let me explain it for you. The primary objective of Thief was to navigate through each level utilizing stealth. Combat was an afterthought. I’m talking about Thief Gold, Thief II, for examples, not the recently released Thief game, the originals. Much like these games, combat seems to have been an afterthought, with much emphasis on stealth to get through each dungeon.

Combat is dull and unamusing. It’s more annoying than anything. Your primary foe are skeletons, which are extremely overpowered. It’s really no wonder they basically force you to use stealth. Going toe to toe with these skeletons is a very bad idea. Some are easy, but most are extremely difficult. They block your hits and knock half of your health out with one swing. Try to put distance between you and they pull out bows that do just as much damage. It’s insane. So you’re basically stuck to using stealth to get around each dungeon, which isn’t what Ultima was about. Not everything about this game is bad. These mechanics would have worked great for a Thief game. But for a dungeon crawler RPG they simply don’t fit.
Did I mention there is magic? Wouldn’t be an Ultima game if it didn’t have some kind of magic. You get runes and wands that let you use different types of magic, like forming a fire ball you can pick up and throw, or to heal yourself. They are useful for the most part and have meaningful purpose. There’s a wand, for example, that allows you to “pull” wooden objects to you, which you must do to open certain doors sometimes. Then you’ve got wooden doors that are locked with no key, throw a fireball at them and watch them burn! The game scores you at the end of a quest based upon how you completed it. You can utilize the environment to your advantage by shooting the torches out with water arrows, or setting giant slugs on fire by lighting their trail of ooze on fire. It’s a nice addition, but not enough to pull you away from the overreaching feeling that it’s a Thief game.

It’s a huge grind fest. You have to grind quest after quest, picked up from a central hub, to gain coin to purchase gear and earn experience to gain points to put into a huge talent board. It takes a lot of time to do this, for example one piece of gear could cost up to 50,000 coins. The average sell price of items was 1 coin. I wouldn’t mind the grind as much if it was just the grind, but I didn’t enjoy being forced to stealth my way through each dungeon just to get coins to buy gear that I will never use.

Does this mean everyone will hate the game? No, not at all. There are some people who will thoroughly enjoy it, whether it’s simply because it plays like a Thief game, or it’s just a random dungeon crawler. But to me it’s a big letdown. I’ve talked to others that have played it and they agree, which is sad. This could have been a great game, but I seriously feel like it was just a quickly made cash grab.

In summary, Underworld Ascendant brings a whole lot of nothing new to the table. It’s not the Ultima you remember and has its fair share of performance issues and bugs. If you’re looking for a sequel to Ultima Underworld, look elsewhere, this is not the game you were looking for.

Score: 3/10

Pros

  • Magic System
  • Destroying Doors with Fire
Cons

  • Not Fun
  • Combat is horrible
  • Grindy, but not in the fun way
https://www.mmorpg.com/columns/underworld-ascendant-review-1000013220
 

Cael

Arcane
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
20,294
I remember seeing the ads for Ultima Underworld and thinking it was step-based, but then one day seeing a demo running in the window of my local computer game store and having my mind blown. It just seemed so real. I only had a C64 then (I was very behind the times then), and when I finally got a PC later on, I couldn't find UU anywhere for sale, and eventually had to call up Origin on the phone and order it straight from them. Getting that in the mail was an amazing day indeed.

Underworld Ascendant was like, instead of getting a truly awesome game in the mail, I got a bag of aids infected shit instead.
C64 still , so east sovietic block ?
Don't know about the whole block, but in the Soviet Union in late 80s - early 90s there were mostly Spectrum clones, and then DOS PCs. Spectrum clones were way more affordable for the general population. PCs back than got into household were either from work, or if the kid managed to fool their unsuspecting parents to buy him or her a PC so he would became a programmer (hah!). Even then PCs were usually bought secondhand. We almost never had any Macs here until the late 90s, and even then they were rare. We had some Amiga enthusiasts, but they were very few in number. C64 were even rarer than Amigas.

As for UU, I got into it late, in 1996. There were already more impressive games graphically, but I remember the atmosphere, the gameplay's freedom, and my utter bewilderment, because it differed from a few RPGs I had managed to play back then. Sadly, I had a pirated copy with some glitches, don't even remember now if they were tied to copy protection or not. So I ever finished the first one and haven't played the second. Still, it's a damn shame what has happened after that hopeful and optimistic kickstarter. Even then I sort of felt that they promise too much so I haven't backed it, but I couldn't even imagine what a disaster this game will turn out to be. I wonder if Shaker would've funded, would it had been worse? Or maybe they would've just run with the money.
You should play UW2. And bear in mind its age when you do. Slippery floor physics, jump physics, etc. I don't think many first person games had it on that level since.
 

Zed Duke of Banville

Dungeon Master
Patron
Joined
Oct 3, 2015
Messages
11,760
Based on the tutorial, I would say that Underworld Ascendant desperately wants to be Thief: The Stygian Abyss. However, the game seems to freeze after I complete the tutorial, so that put an end to my short-lived attempt at playing it. :happytrollboy:
 

Bastardchops

Augur
Patron
Joined
Nov 4, 2015
Messages
1,918
They really must have been out to lunch. Why not give it another year to fix all this shit, so the game was at least not a reputation destroying embarrassment.
 

Sinatar

Arbiter
Joined
Jan 25, 2014
Messages
569
They really must have been out to lunch. Why not give it another year to fix all this shit, so the game was at least not a reputation destroying embarrassment.

Because paying 10 people a living salary for a year is a lot of money, money they don't have.
 

sk2k

Novice
Joined
Jan 8, 2005
Messages
38
something weird happens when you step in water. Once its ankles deep suddenly your character is no longer able to move properly, slides like if on ice and the only way to get of the puddle is to jump out of it

PHYSICS!
 

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