Review Ultima 6 Project Review

[Sceptic]

You want to see unplayable? Try playing UW1.

UW1 is perfectly playable

In fact I restarted it a few months ago "just to get the feel again". Ended up playing for several hours. Awesome game.

 

[mindx2]

You want to see unplayable? Try playing UW1.

UW1 is perfectly playable

In fact I restarted it a few months ago "just to get the feel again". Ended up playing for several hours. Awesome game.

WOW Elzair! I like your Ultima Let's Play and think it's awsome but to say UW1 is "unplayable" is down right . I totally agree with Sceptic. It is still the one game that felt the most immersive before that term became warped by the industry hype machine. It's one of the few games I install and play through at least once a year. I've never had an issue with the controls, interface, magic system, etc.

I kinda felt like you were the "Codex Ultima Man" but that one quote puts a serious question mark to that claim.

 

[Serious_Business]

Isshh. The start doesn't give a good impression. I remember in Lazarus you had a nice little movie with slides that set up the mood. Now we have a genuine 3d movie - this is the new shit - but then the scene with the gargoyles is just bad, and then you get tossed into Lord British's castle "HELLO AVATARD HERE IS UR ITEMS GO SOLVE PROBLEM". I guess it was that was in the original U6 too, but damn... I'm not feeling it. I think I might just replay Lazarus over this, or U7 or something, for my Ultima fix.

 

[Jaesun]

Isshh. The start doesn't give a good impression. I remember in Lazarus you had a nice little movie with slides that set up the mood. Now we have a genuine 3d movie - this is the new shit - but then the scene with the gargoyles is just bad, and then you get tossed into Lord British's castle "HELLO AVATARD HERE IS UR ITEMS GO SOLVE PROBLEM". I guess it was that was in the original U6 too, but damn... I'm not feeling it. I think I might just replay Lazarus over this, or U7 or something, for my Ultima fix.

Keep playing, I think you might be surprised. The game opens up once you do Geoffries quest.

And yes "HELLO AVATARD HERE IS UR ITEMS GO SOLVE PROBLEM" was exactly like the original. Once you see some of the new quests and dialogues I give it a thumbs up so far (I've cleared 6 shrines so far).

 

[Silellak]

Elzair, your Ultima LP makes me , but your UW1 hate makes me

 

[SCO]

Bullshit! U4 has excellent content and is still very playable. You want to see unplayable? Try playing UW1.

Derp.

Though i wish, that mok or whoever did the system shock 1 mouselook mod looked at UW1 && UW2 that use a predecessor of the system shock engine.

Mouse wheel support would be nice too (for something).
Edit: i sent out a suggestion on the board the guy is at.

 

[Tramboi]

What we need is a total reimplementation of Underworld with mouselook and bilinear filtering, à la Exult.
Much much work though, if I was a fucking student with to much time on my arms, I'd warm up my IDA Pro and begin disassembling it myself.
First step, code a map viewer with 3D rendering. This will probably attract other people to the project as UW is a popular game. Then spend 3 more years reimplementing the rest of the game in C++.

 

[Jaesun]

I hate to admit it, but I am a quitter. I spent well over 40+ hours so far in U6P, loving every minute of it, and then the game turned into DESTARD - THE GAME! I really really really wanted to finish this and write up a big long review because it (the first 40 hours) were just fantastic and Team Archon did an utterly fantastic job on the new journal/quests/maps/ and a TON of new functionality and options that I WISH were in Lazarus. My hats off to them.

Seriously, after 40 fucking hours suddenly you are FORCED to go through this one gigantic fucking dungeon that will take you well over 8 fucking hours or more. After 8 hours and STILL not finding one simple fucking quest item, I turned the game off and uninstalled. I honestly got to the point I was ignoring gigantic huge treasure piles just to find the fucking way to the next level. I just didn't care anymore. The original dungeon was never this ridiculous (and I recently replayed through Ultima VI just so I would have the old game in mind).

After placing my 100+ bread crumb (they are basically Map Markers that will show up when you use a peering gem, which is the map view) my sanity finally broke:

Basically, take the DA Derpa Roads, make is massively resource intensive (arrows, reagents) and make it even longer. The dungeon it's self was AWESOME, but I don't want to to be forced to play a 8 hour dungeon crawl. In Lazarus this was to be expected, because the Underworld was a hellish fucking nightmarish maze. And you were forced to go through it, as you need 3 certain items.

Team Archon did a FANTASTIC job with U6P. The new journal and the new "quests" involving the shrines were a joy to experience, and In my opinion well done. But the gigantic derpa roads dump on me ended the love. I just cannot force myself to play through this so sorry, I won't be doing a review.

 

[zephyrjs]

@Jaesun, FYI, we are streamlining the dungeons for 1.1. The maps will be in much more sensible places, and the dungeons that are on the extreme side will be toned down. This is really embarrassing to us and we are going to do something about it. Seeing posts like this, honestly, just makes me cringe.

Anyway, I don't know what else to say, so I think I'll take my comments off the air.

 

[Jaesun]

@Jaesun, FYI, we are streamlining the dungeons for 1.1. The maps will be in much more sensible places, and the dungeons that are on the extreme side will be toned down. This is really embarrassing to us and we are going to do something about it. Seeing posts like this, honestly, just makes me cringe.

Anyway, I don't know what else to say, so I think I'll take my comments off the air.

Thank you for posting on here zephyrjs, and nice to hear the extreme side of the dungeons will be addressed. I didn't mean for this post to make you feel embarrassed or cringe, it was just my feedback after 40+ hours. I had 40+ hours of absolute wonderful fun then... destard. I just want back to my story, not an epic dungeon crawl.

Anyways, I'll keep an eye open for Version 1.1 an perhaps then I'll give it another try. Again you and your team have done a FANTASTIC job, it just needs a bit more tweeks to give this gem a brilliant shine it deserves. Tell your team, they have done an astounding job.

 

[AlaCarcuss]

Like you said, an update to U 4 would be the next logical step. U 6 also had very developed dialog. U 4, in spite of fanboi whinings on here was pretty light on content and is barely playable by today's standards. I don't think I ever finished that one.

It isn't unplayable. Far from it. However, I will concede that U4 (if it can even take on the mechanics for the virtues properly. Remember that U5 had much simpler Virtue mechanics than IV) is 10x more of a contender for a remake that newbies can get into easier, than U6.

I wouldn't say unplayable, just beyond my threshold to complete. If I played when it came out maybe I'd be less spoiled but even 5 I never completely finished and it seemed to be a lot closer to a modern game.

Nothing to be ashamed of. I did play these games when they came out - doesn't make it any easier to go back and play them now.

I can't play the gold box games anymore either, much as I loved them at the time. I'd say my threshold level these days is about Dark Sun level, even that's a bit of a stretch. U4/5 playable now? - not a chance, not for me anymore, so I thank god for these remakes.

Actually, I'd really REALLY like to see a fan remake of UW1 - not sure what modern(ish) engine would be suitable though. Maybe, considering the quality of the Oblivion TC (Nirim?), perhaps that would do? (would need an overhaul to the combat system though).