Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss Retrospective

PC Gamer is offering a retrospective article for the seminal and extremely influential Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, the first-person Ultima spin-off that would later inspire classics such as Thief, System Shock and Deus Ex.

Here’s a snippet:

It’s difficult to overestimate just how many innovations Underworld brought to the genre, but it was what I was actually doing in the game that hooked me. Even at a time when complex, massive RPGs were the norm, it was exceptionally engrossing. I still have my notebook; it says things like ‘˜Sir Cabirus: eight talismans’, ‘˜Ironwit wants blueprints SE of his complex?’ and ‘˜Uus Por: large jumps’, along with translations of a lizardman language and other long-forgotten reminders to myself.

‘˜Uus Por’ was a spell I’d discovered: in Underworld, you cast spells by collecting individual rune stones you find in the dungeon, then arranging them on your rune rack. Some of these spells you can find written down, others have to be discovered through experimentation.

Each of the eight levels of Underworld is artfully designed. As you descend deeper, you’re introduced to more and more factions. There are the goblins, of mutually hostile green and grey varieties; the lizardmen, with their seemingly impenetrable language; an order of knights described by the strategy guide as ‘˜depressingly virtuous’; and the usual ogres, trolls, ghouls, mages, bats and more.

They all have stories that intertwine in mini and major quests, with goals often covering multiple levels, so it’s vital to keep track of what’s going on. There’s no quest list, no XP, no levelling up, no choosing new skills every now and then; just a coherent, contiguous, living world and whatever you can find in it to survive.

For me, then, Underworld is almost the perfect RPG control issues notwithstanding. It has influenced, directly and indirectly, the Elder Scrolls series, the Deus Ex games, Half-Life 2, System Shock (Warren Spector was the game’s later producer), BioShock, Tomb Raider and frankly just about every 3D RPG that has since appeared.

Thanks, RPG Watch.