Ultima The Ultima Underworld I & II Thread

[agris]

I've never played an Ultima, but I'm going to change that with UU1.

Does anyone have some recommendations before I dive into the game? Unofficial fixes or files I should know about, or just fire up dosbox and play? Should I look up tips and tricks? Sometimes these old games have really obscure quirks that were well known at the time, but for someone in 2016 playing for the first time, would be completely unknown. I don't want spoilers or power builds or anything though.

Infinitron cuz I know you love your Ultimas.

edit: I'll RTFM first, of course. and consult any maps that would have been in the box.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

First, of course, RTFM. Goes without saying for games released before the year 2000.

Second, you'll need the DOSBox SVN Daum-build to play the Underworld games properly. IIRC it's so you get the audio right.

Third, you'll need to keep your own notes. Pen 'n' paper will do, but you can use pages of the in-game automap as well.

Fourth, avoid reading tips online, they will probably spoil your fun. Ask us here instead after reading the manual if you want answers to how specific skills or attributes work.

Otherwise you're making a good choice with UUW1 as a starting point for Ultima. It only introduces you to the philosophy of the game, not the Big Story and all the characters. If you like what you see here, then go for the others. Note that UUW2 is not a direct sequel to UUW1, but more of a sequel to Ultima 7 that uses the Underworld engine.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Read the manuals. Other than that make sure you have sound set up correctly. I prefer SBPro audio but my experience is that people prefer it as they first played it. I found the MIDI music really loud and not nearly as atmospheric as SBPro. Maybe try them both a bit and decide for yourself.

Enjoy man. You are in for a real treat.

 

[agris]

I prefer SBPro audio but my experience is that people prefer it as they first played it. I found the MIDI music really loud and not nearly as atmospheric as SBPro.

How do I toggle between the two?

 

[Kahr]

Playing it first time too and it's amazing and all, but from the situation i'm in now (level 7) i can give you following two tips:
-taking a character with more strength makes the game less annoying (i've got a bard with ondly 16Str) because you will have to carry a lot of stuff later on
-there are items which seem not important, but get latter on, so remember where you put anything or the game get's more annoying later on

Real spoiler for the game:

Spoiler

DAAMN SPIDER SILK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!....

Read the manuals. Other than that make sure you have sound set up correctly. I prefer SBPro audio but my experience is that people prefer it as they first played it. I found the MIDI music really loud and not nearly as atmospheric as SBPro. Maybe try them both a bit and decide for yourself.

Enjoy man. You are in for a real treat.

Are there different themes as you progress in the levels or is there just the "normal" music and the combat one?
Found it weird. Expected maybe one theme each 2 levels.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

agris there is a config program for dosbox and one for the game, I think it is uwsound.exe

_____ There maybe a couple of areas where specific tunes are played. Remember this was very early days. The fact it has dynamic music is remarkable.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I prefer SBPro audio but my experience is that people prefer it as they first played it. I found the MIDI music really loud and not nearly as atmospheric as SBPro.

How do I toggle between the two?

The reason why you need the Daum SVN for best music is because it incorporates MT-32 emulation. You can also use other DosBox distributions but you'd need the standalone MUNT MT-32 emulation driver, and manually select that midipath through config, so it's more complicated.

I don't think the FM synth is bad, though. The game is perfectly fine just playing with regular Soundblaster/Adlib music - but if you're going to play UW for the first time, then I'd recommend doing it with MT-32 music.

 

[Siobhan]

Second, you'll need the DOSBox SVN Daum-build to play the Underworld games properly. IIRC it's so you get the audio right.

Unless there is a Windows-specific issue I am unaware of, sound works fine out of the box if you're happy with Soundblaster for audio. But even if you want Roland MT-32 instead, you don't need the SVN build --- any build with the munt/mt32 patch will do. Or just locally running munt as your midi backend. At any rate you'll want to use the CM32L rom for Ultima Underworld, standard mt32 does not support all sounds.

And if you have the GOG version, you might have to unbork it because as shipped you'll hear piano sounds for foot steps and other oddities because they misconfigured the sound. Their version also does not come with uwsound.exe if I remember correctly, so you'll have to edit text files manually to change the sound config. They might have fixed those things by now, but the fact that they shipped it so badly broken... potatoes, potatoes never change.

I prefer SBPro audio but my experience is that people prefer it as they first played it.

I played the game for my first time a few years ago and tried both. Bottom line: neither one is perfect. MT-32 does sound better, but the music completely overpowers the sound effects. SB felt more balanced in that respect.

If anyone cares, here's my dosbox config for vanilla dosbox with mt-32 patch on Linux; completely forgot that I have switched to Dugachen's build, the config below is for that

Spoiler

# System-wide dosbox config, partially overridden by game-specific configs;
# support for mt-32, fluidsynth, GUS, and DOS32A

# This is the configuration file for DOSBox SVN. (Please use the latest version of DOSBox)
# Lines starting with a # are comment lines and are ignored by DOSBox.
# They are used to (briefly) document the effect of each option.

[sdl]
# fullscreen: Start dosbox directly in fullscreen. (Press ALT-Enter to go back)
# fulldouble: Use double buffering in fullscreen. It can reduce screen flickering, but it can also result in a slow DOSBox.
# fullresolution: What resolution to use for fullscreen: original, desktop or a fixed size (e.g. 1024x768).
# Using your monitor's native resolution with aspect=true might give the best results.
# If you end up with small window on a large screen, try an output different from surface.
# windowresolution: Scale the window to this size IF the output device supports hardware scaling.
# (output=surface does not!)
# output: What video system to use for output.
# Possible values: surface, overlay, opengl, openglnb.
# autolock: Mouse will automatically lock, if you click on the screen. (Press CTRL-F10 to unlock)
# sensitivity: Mouse sensitivity.
# waitonerror: Wait before closing the console if dosbox has an error.
# priority: Priority levels for dosbox. Second entry behind the comma is for when dosbox is not focused/minimized.
# pause is only valid for the second entry.
# Possible values: lowest, lower, normal, higher, highest, pause.
# mapperfile: File used to load/save the key/event mappings from. Resetmapper only works with the default value.
# usescancodes: Avoid usage of symkeys, might not work on all operating systems.

fullscreen=false
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=desktop
windowresolution=1600x1200
output=openglnb
autolock=true
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
priority=higher,normal
mapperfile=mapper.map
usescancodes=true

[dosbox]
# language: Select another language file.
# machine: The type of machine DOSBox tries to emulate.
# Possible values: hercules, cga, tandy, pcjr, ega, vgaonly, svga_s3, svga_et3000, svga_et4000, svga_paradise, vesa_nolfb, vesa_oldvbe.
# captures: Directory where things like wave, midi, screenshot get captured.
# memsize: Amount of memory DOSBox has in megabytes.
# This value is best left at its default to avoid problems with some games,
# though few games might require a higher value.
# There is generally no speed advantage when raising this value.

language=
machine=svga_s3
captures=capture
memsize=16

[render]
# frameskip: How many frames DOSBox skips before drawing one.
# aspect: Do aspect correction, if your output method doesn't support scaling this can slow things down!.
# scaler: Scaler used to enlarge/enhance low resolution modes. If 'forced' is appended,
# then the scaler will be used even if the result might not be desired.
# Possible values: none, normal2x, normal3x, advmame2x, advmame3x, advinterp2x, advinterp3x, hq2x, hq3x, 2xsai, super2xsai, supereagle, tv2x, tv3x, rgb2x, rgb3x, scan2x, scan3x.

frameskip=0
aspect=true
scaler=normal3x

[cpu]
# core: CPU Core used in emulation. auto will switch to dynamic if available and
# appropriate.
# Possible values: auto, dynamic, normal, simple.
# cputype: CPU Type used in emulation. auto is the fastest choice.
# Possible values: auto, 386, 386_slow, 486_slow, pentium_slow, 386_prefetch.
# cycles: Amount of instructions DOSBox tries to emulate each millisecond.
# Setting this value too high results in sound dropouts and lags.
# Cycles can be set in 3 ways:
# 'auto' tries to guess what a game needs.
# It usually works, but can fail for certain games.
# 'fixed #number' will set a fixed amount of cycles. This is what you usually
# need if 'auto' fails (Example: fixed 4000).
# 'max' will allocate as much cycles as your computer is able to
# handle.
# Possible values: auto, fixed, max.
# cycleup: Amount of cycles to decrease/increase with keycombos.(CTRL-F11/CTRL-F12)
# cycledown: Setting it lower than 100 will be a percentage.

core=auto
cputype=auto
cycles=auto
cycleup=10
cycledown=20

[mixer]
# nosound: Enable silent mode, sound is still emulated though.
# rate: Mixer sample rate, setting any device's rate higher than this will probably lower their sound quality.
# Possible values: 44100, 48000, 32000, 22050, 16000, 11025, 8000, 49716.
# blocksize: Mixer block size, larger blocks might help sound stuttering but sound will also be more lagged.
# Possible values: 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 512, 256.
# prebuffer: How many milliseconds of data to keep on top of the blocksize.

nosound=false
rate=44100
blocksize=1024
prebuffer=20

[midi]
# mpu401: Type of MPU-401 to emulate.
# Possible values: intelligent, uart, none.
# mididevice: Device that will receive the MIDI data from MPU-401.
# Possible values: default, win32, alsa, oss, coreaudio, coremidi, none.
# midiconfig: Special configuration options for the device driver. This is usually the id of the device you want to use.
# or in the case of coreaudio, you can specify a soundfont here.
# When using a Roland MT-32 rev. 0 as midi output device, some games may require a delay in order to prevent 'buffer overflow' issues.
# In that case, add 'delaysysex', for example: midiconfig=2 delaysysex
# See the README/Manual for more details.

mpu401=intelligent
samplerate=44100
mididevice=fluidsynth
midiconfig=
fluid.driver=pulseaudio
fluid.soundfont=~/Games/DOS/System/SGM/SGM-V2.01.sf2
fluid.samplerate=22050
fluid.gain=.6
fluid.polyphony=256
fluid.cores=default
fluid.periods=8
fluid.periodsize=512
fluid.reverb=yes
fluid.chorus=yes
mt32.romdir=/home/MY_USERNAME/Games/DOS/System/CM32L
mt32.reverse.stereo=false
mt32.verbose=false
mt32.thread=false
mt32.chunk=16
mt32.prebuffer=32
mt32.partials=32
mt32.dac=0
mt32.analog=2
mt32.reverb.mode=auto
mt32.reverb.time=5
mt32.reverb.level=3

[sblaster]
# sbtype: Type of Soundblaster to emulate. gb is Gameblaster.
# Possible values: sb1, sb2, sbpro1, sbpro2, sb16, gb, none.
# sbbase: The IO address of the soundblaster.
# Possible values: 220, 240, 260, 280, 2a0, 2c0, 2e0, 300.
# irq: The IRQ number of the soundblaster.
# Possible values: 7, 5, 3, 9, 10, 11, 12.
# dma: The DMA number of the soundblaster.
# Possible values: 1, 5, 0, 3, 6, 7.
# hdma: The High DMA number of the soundblaster.
# Possible values: 1, 5, 0, 3, 6, 7.
# sbmixer: Allow the soundblaster mixer to modify the DOSBox mixer.
# oplmode: Type of OPL emulation. On 'auto' the mode is determined by sblaster type. All OPL modes are Adlib-compatible, except for 'cms'.
# Possible values: auto, cms, opl2, dualopl2, opl3, opl3gold, none.
# oplemu: Provider for the OPL emulation. compat might provide better quality (see oplrate as well).
# Possible values: default, compat, fast.
# oplrate: Sample rate of OPL music emulation. Use 49716 for highest quality (set the mixer rate accordingly).
# Possible values: 44100, 49716, 48000, 32000, 22050, 16000, 11025, 8000.

sbtype=sb16
sbbase=220
irq=7
dma=1
hdma=5
sbmixer=true
oplmode=auto
oplemu=default
oplrate=44100

[gus]
# gus: Enable the Gravis Ultrasound emulation.
# gusrate: Sample rate of Ultrasound emulation.
# Possible values: 44100, 48000, 32000, 22050, 16000, 11025, 8000, 49716.
# gusbase: The IO base address of the Gravis Ultrasound.
# Possible values: 240, 220, 260, 280, 2a0, 2c0, 2e0, 300.
# gusirq: The IRQ number of the Gravis Ultrasound.
# Possible values: 5, 3, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12.
# gusdma: The DMA channel of the Gravis Ultrasound.
# Possible values: 3, 0, 1, 5, 6, 7.
# ultradir: Path to Ultrasound directory. In this directory
# there should be a MIDI directory that contains
# the patch files for GUS playback. Patch sets used
# with Timidity should work fine.

gus=true
gusrate=44100
gusbase=240
gusirq=5
gusdma=3
ultradir=X:\

[speaker]
# pcspeaker: Enable PC-Speaker emulation.
# pcrate: Sample rate of the PC-Speaker sound generation.
# Possible values: 44100, 48000, 32000, 22050, 16000, 11025, 8000, 49716.
# tandy: Enable Tandy Sound System emulation. For 'auto', emulation is present only if machine is set to 'tandy'.
# Possible values: auto, on, off.
# tandyrate: Sample rate of the Tandy 3-Voice generation.
# Possible values: 44100, 48000, 32000, 22050, 16000, 11025, 8000, 49716.
# disney: Enable Disney Sound Source emulation. (Covox Voice Master and Speech Thing compatible).

pcspeaker=true
pcrate=44100
tandy=auto
tandyrate=44100
disney=true

[joystick]
# joysticktype: Type of joystick to emulate: auto (default), none,
# 2axis (supports two joysticks),
# 4axis (supports one joystick, first joystick used),
# 4axis_2 (supports one joystick, second joystick used),
# fcs (Thrustmaster), ch (CH Flightstick).
# none disables joystick emulation.
# auto chooses emulation depending on real joystick(s).
# (Remember to reset dosbox's mapperfile if you saved it earlier)
# Possible values: auto, 2axis, 4axis, 4axis_2, fcs, ch, none.
# timed: enable timed intervals for axis. Experiment with this option, if your joystick drifts (away).
# autofire: continuously fires as long as you keep the button pressed.
# swap34: swap the 3rd and the 4th axis. can be useful for certain joysticks.
# buttonwrap: enable button wrapping at the number of emulated buttons.

joysticktype=auto
timed=true
autofire=false
swap34=false
buttonwrap=false

[serial]
# serial1: set type of device connected to com port.
# Can be disabled, dummy, modem, nullmodem, directserial.
# Additional parameters must be in the same line in the form of
# parameter:value. Parameter for all types is irq (optional).
# for directserial: realport (required), rxdelay (optional).
# (realport:COM1 realport:ttyS0).
# for modem: listenport (optional).
# for nullmodem: server, rxdelay, txdelay, telnet, usedtr,
# transparent, port, inhsocket (all optional).
# Example: serial1=modem listenport:5000
# Possible values: dummy, disabled, modem, nullmodem, directserial.
# serial2: see serial1
# Possible values: dummy, disabled, modem, nullmodem, directserial.
# serial3: see serial1
# Possible values: dummy, disabled, modem, nullmodem, directserial.
# serial4: see serial1
# Possible values: dummy, disabled, modem, nullmodem, directserial.

serial1=dummy
serial2=dummy
serial3=disabled
serial4=disabled

[dos]
# xms: Enable XMS support.
# ems: Enable EMS support. The default (=true) provides the best
# compatibility but certain applications may run better with
# other choices, or require EMS support to be disabled (=false)
# to work at all.
# Possible values: true, emsboard, emm386, false.
# umb: Enable UMB support.
# keyboardlayout: Language code of the keyboard layout (or none).

xms=true
ems=true
umb=true
keyboardlayout=auto

[ipx]
# ipx: Enable ipx over UDP/IP emulation.

ipx=false

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
# You can put your MOUNT lines here.

# Define separator in paths (UNIX vs Windows)
set PATHSEP=/

# Define variable for path to DOS folder
set ROOTDIR=~/Games/DOS/

# Mount GUS soundfont, loaded above
mount x "%ROOTDIR%System%PATHSEP%Gravis Ultrasound%PATHSEP%ULTRASNDPPL161"

# Mount DOS32A, add its bin-subfolder to PATH -->
# use sb /r anywhere to replace embedded dos4gw in EXEs
mount y "%ROOTDIR%System%PATHSEP%DOS32A"
set dos32a=Y:\
PATH=%PATH%;Y:\BINW

Spoiler

# Game-specific config for UUW1

[cpu]
core=auto
cycles=max
cycleup=1000
cycledown=1000

[mixer]
nosound=false
rate=22050
blocksize=2048

[midi]
mididevice=mt32

[autoexec]
mount c "%ROOTDIR%Ultima Underworld 1"
c:
imgmount d "game.gog" -t iso -fs iso
d:
cls
uw.bat
exit

Edit: partially ninja-ed

 

[agris]

Siobhan perfect, I was hoping to find a config file.

Unfortunately I do have the GOG release. For anyone else reading this, here's the piano footsteps fix (from here)

    Go to DATA in the installation folder.
    Edit UW.CFG
    Replace 6 -1 -1 -1 sound with 2 7 220 1 sound
    Save your changes.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Re: the discrepancy in volume with MT-32 music, you can adjust the midi volume in dosbox with the 'mixer' command line parameter (i.e. mixer MT-32 85/85 - 100 is the baseline, and the two numbers refer to left and right channels).

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I've never played an Ultima, but I'm going to change that with UU1.

Does anyone have some recommendations before I dive into the game? Unofficial fixes or files I should know about, or just fire up dosbox and play? Should I look up tips and tricks? Sometimes these old games have really obscure quirks that were well known at the time, but for someone in 2016 playing for the first time, would be completely unknown. I don't want spoilers or power builds or anything though.
.

Underworld: The Stygian Abyss is the best Ultima game but at the same time it isn't really an Ultima, with only tenuous connections to the setting and plotlines of the other games and with gameplay completely different from all other Ultimas except its sequel (which was firmly placed in the Ultima setting, starting you out in Lord British's castle).

You should avoid spoilers about the dungeon levels, but definitely look up information on creating a character as there are some 'trap' skills that are more or less useless, and strength determines your carrying capacity. There are also various items that are essential to completing the game, and some others that are extremely helpful, but learning which items are valuable is part of the process of playing this kind of game; the Stygian Abyss was made at a time when it wasn't yet expected to be able to complete such a game on your first try.

 

[agris]

Thanks Zed Duke of Banville

What are the trap skills/builds? I don't want to look elsewhere for this info, as I'll inevitably get spoilers.

 

[octavius]

STR is the most important stat. Low STR will be frustrating due to low carry capacity.
Druid is a good class, that can get max STR and good INT, as well as useful skills. DEX is the least useful stat, and the "rogue" skills are generally rather useless. Missile combat is rather poorly implemented compared to melee and magic.

Roland MT 32 sound is needed to get the best sound effects. The default Soundblaster ones are very weak and "wishy washy". Personally I don't care about the music. It breaks the immersion of a FPP game IMO, and I always turn it off.

Third, you'll need to keep your own notes. Pen 'n' paper will do, but you can use pages of the in-game automap as well.

With DOSBox you can easily make screenshots by pressing ALT-F5, which I personally find much more convenient than taking notes. At least I don't have to worry about transcribing things correctly, or be worried about being able to read it later.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Thanks Zed Duke of Banville

What are the trap skills/builds? I don't want to look elsewhere for this info, as I'll inevitably get spoilers.

I might be wrong on some of these, as more points improves your chances of success in a skill, but I think that

Spoiler

traps, appropriately enough, is completely useless, and the appraise, charm, sneak, swimming, and track skills should also be avoided.

picklock and repair are arguable as to being traps or not.

As you probably expect, you only need one weapon skill (sword is easiest); note that the attack skill is a separate thing from the weapon skills.

Although the Stygian Abyss is a great game overall, the skill system is a bit of a mess.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Re: the discrepancy in volume with MT-32 music, you can adjust the midi volume in dosbox with the 'mixer' command line parameter (i.e. mixer MT-32 85/85 - 100 is the baseline, and the two numbers refer to left and right channels).

The problem with the MT32 music is the mix is all wrong. There is zero subtlety to it. The SBPro music is quite atmospheric. Of course there is always differing views in this point. That is why I recommend he try both and decide for himself.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Yes as mentioned by others, focus on desired combat skills and attributes.

Also be warned that focusing entirely on magic will lead to a difficult time at a specific time during the late game. A balanced character is a good way to go.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Data dump on how skills work

I'll just print a page from the Cluebook:

Here you can see behind the scenes of the character creation process, and should be a one-point reference.

Like attributes, skills can have a score from 1-30. However, certain classes have a cap on their max skill score, which is dependant upon their attributes. Fighters can only have a max Casting skill of 25, for example.

As for the skills, a few words on most of them:

Acrobat helps reduce damage taken from falling and colliding into walls. Placing just a few skillpoints here (10 at the max) helps you so don't be afraid to do so, especially early on.
Appraise helps with bartering, but is unfortunately kinda useless.
Casting affects your chance of successfully casting a spell, so any build relying upon magic needs this skill. The chance of success is drastically reduced in UUW2, so keep that in mind for the sequel.
Charm is supposed to help with critter interaction, but I've never seen anyone even mention it having an effect anywhere, which makes it the most useless skill in the game.
Lore is quite useful, but it works in a strange way.
Picklock can come in handy sometimes, but most doors have alternate means of opening them.
Repair allows you to repair your own gear, but both games provide alternate repair methods, so you can safely skip this skill.
Search is essential, but you don't need to invest many skillpoints in it for it to do its job, 10 should do.
Sneak is sadly useless.
Swimming is like Search, essential but only for a few skillpoints.
Track is a clever but useless idea. Press the F9 key at any time to send out a "ping" of sorts, and if you have this skill trained up you may get information on if/what monsters are near. This even goes through walls!
Traps allows you to detect and disarm traps that can be found. Unfortunately most traps do little damage, and the ones that do great damage can't be disarmed.

May this be of no use.

EDIT: Broken link fixed.

 

[Arrowgrab]

Your link to the description of how Lore works is broken, here it is correctly.

[feels useful]

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Don't forget to leave some impressions and experiences here agris I always dig hearing about people's first time playing UW.

Oh by the he way, make sure you learn and use the modeless mouse technique, it makes the controls much easier to manage.

 

[agris]

Will do.

 

[Infinitron]

modeless mouse technique

What is this?

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

modeless mouse technique

What is this?

It's in the manual but it seems not everyone is aware of or uses it. You don't need to use the action icons or modes at all... All can be done via the mouse in a 'modeless' way.

Right click to describe any item in the viewport.

Right click and drag to 'use' any item in the viewport. Open,talk to, activate, etc.

Left click and drag items in or out of your inventory and the game world. Even throw stuff in the game world right out of your inventory.

Right click and hold + left click and hold to move and steer via mouse.

Really incredibly intuitive for 1992.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

It's in the manual but it seems not everyone is aware of or uses it. You don't need to use the action icons or modes at all... All can be done via the mouse in a 'modeless' way.

Right click to describe any item in the viewport.

Right click and drag to 'use' any item in the viewport. Open,talk to, activate, etc.

Left click and drag items in or out of your inventory and the game world. Even throw stuff in the game world right out of your inventory.

Right click and hold + left click and hold to move and steer via mouse.

Really incredibly intuitive for 1992.

Can't look up or down.

Can't jump.

Probably a couple of other things as well.

Intuitive, yes. Practical, no.

 

[Kahr]

So finally finished it today:
Heavy Spoilers and stuff following.

Spoiler

Amazing game with an incredible sense of exploration. Each level has his own character and they're different enough that you can distinguish them
without using the map. The map btw is a great tool, just making your own annotations is a great idea and they even give you enough space to
write anything in it, so easy, but so elegant.

It's really interesting how advanced it is for 1992. Before Wolfenstein 3d... You can do shit in that one and here a whole world get's
realistically simulated. Even if it was a bit of the top with advanced stuff. I mean for the average gamer 1992 such jumping passage shit might have been fun,
but i don't really want to have it in an RPG... well the rules for gamedesign weren't such stiff back in the days.

With the riddles i feel like in Arx Fatalis again, or even when playing/trying to play semi-old adventures. I'm just to retarded to solve that much
puzzles. Of course i have my success moments but often i'm just plain bad in those.

The story is of course shit; but who cares about story?

I loved the idea with the Lizardmen language that was nice... but i wished that they returned in some later level. It was a very entertaining aspect of the game.

Sad is the balancing between the different skills... most just feel useless. You just need attack/weapons skill and maybe defense (not sure about defense) though.
And then maybe a bit mana and casting to cast heal/heal poison/summon food. All other skills are pretty useless. I can't even imagine how barter or stealth would work.

Also there seems no point in using any armor, becuase of the easy combat and the weight problem (in my case).

Level 8 is pretty boring and not filled with anything. Is it a grinding level? Because i can't think that you're underleveled in this part of the game.

Generally the combat is far too easy. And what's up with killing rats in the 8th level!? Arx Fatalis has that too. What's that about? I think of strong monsters in the last levels.

The work for the Talismans/Keys seemed pretty uneven. Some you get after a lot of work (e.g. Sword), while two of the keys and e.g. book and wine you get almost right away.

And what was the thing with the maze crown? How do you know which is the right one? Because i had the white one, but it seems like it didn't work without identifying the crown
is it necessary? Because it the maze isn't that dangerous all in all. The few parts which kill you can be avoided pretty easy.

What annoyed me the most was the thing with the spider silk for the dragonscale boots. Level 7 just got extremely annoying without them. I guess it's my fault of course, but
i think it's unintuitive to take thread with you. In other games that's something you would sell right away, but here it's just annoying. The same with the stew, but at least you can
kill the ogre to get the scales.

Edit: Also the teleportation orb. That thing is so great. I love it.

All in all an amazing game with some quirks and sometimes hard riddles. Nevertheless great fun and the best game i played in a time.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

So finally finished it today:
Heavy Spoilers and stuff following.

Spoiler

# There's reason to use armor, but not to go for the best one - just something that gives protection without weighing you down. Chainmail fits this role PERFECTLY.

# Level 8 to me feels like a place where you can "cut loose" - put your combat skills to the test, and try out those really damaging spells you were too chicken otherwise to try.

# Re: Maze Crown - if you listened to the Imp and solved his riddle, you would be in possession of the Jewelled Crown of Maze Navigation (that's its true name when identified). As long as you wear it the path is outright revealed. If you didn't see the path, you got the wrong crown!