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Preview Underworld Ascendant Update #34: Vertical Slice Screenshots

Aenra

Guest
*throws glove on ground at Aenra's feet*

/throws a rose and humbly calls it a day. Not here to argue. Really :)

(Exci calls me a retard about twice a week, lol, we still 'talk' just fine. I only mind when people switch my words into something else. Can't have a discussion like that.)
 

Max Heap

Arcane
Joined
Jul 21, 2011
Messages
617
I like it.
I also like that it's colorful.

I only played UU for the first time recently and I think it really fits that style well.
UU was never all that gritty. Perhaps UU2 was, with its realistic faces and characters - but UU1 never seemed like it tried to deliver a super realistic visual rendition. It seemed a lot like early D&D illustrations.
You had marble floor tiles and goofy monsters and a lot of pretty diverse, colorful textures. In fact every floor had a very clear, recognizable color scheme. So from a visual perspective I'm absolutely down with what I see here tbh.
Maybe break up the blue & orange a bit. Bring in some more distinguishable color schemes and I have basically nothing to complain about.
 

Aenra

Guest
UU1 was like.. revelation to me. First time ever a monster was actually coming towards me! It, UU2, they're the ones that hooked me. Ever since, first person was the way to go. Sadly, excluding 4 more games, that just never happened. Been waiting for a fifth since 2002, lol

I'm gonna be so butthurt with this one.. just no fucking way they'll come close, i just know it :negative:
 
Self-Ejected

Excidium II

Self-Ejected
Joined
Jun 21, 2015
Messages
1,866,227
Location
Third World
I like it.
I also like that it's colorful.

I only played UU for the first time recently and I think it really fits that style well.
UUW doesn't look like fucking play-doh, shut the fuck up. I like how the tryhards suddenly turned this entirely about the color palette because it's the only argument they can make.
 

DeepOcean

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2012
Messages
7,394
Don't like this art style they going with, everything looks like it was made of clay with some low resolution filter over it.
 

DeepOcean

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2012
Messages
7,394
Well, this is how I feel, the art style isn't that impressive especially when you have indie games like Legends of Grimrock 1 and 2 that look better than this.
 

Max Heap

Arcane
Joined
Jul 21, 2011
Messages
617
I like it.
I also like that it's colorful.

I only played UU for the first time recently and I think it really fits that style well.
UUW doesn't look like fucking play-doh, shut the fuck up.

Obviously it didn't.
Equivalently it had some goofy as fuck enemy designs though.

1992_-_Ultima_Underworld_The_Stygian_Abyss.png


That also includes the gazers, the goblins or the zombies.
Don't act as if these were super serious and gritty.
There is an entire area based around a pacman easteregg, filled with blue ghosts for christ's sake.
You can argue that Otherside must improve the roughness of their surfaces, but design wise the visuals seem a-ok to me.
 

Max Heap

Arcane
Joined
Jul 21, 2011
Messages
617
You are pretty dramatic over something as miniscule as shifted smoothness values in Unity's PBR materials.

Either way, you'll have a hard time finding that "crisp" style, that you seem to crave so much, on a game with handpainted textures using normal mapping.
On the other hand you'll have a hard time finding normal mapping and most other lighting related shenanigans in those old crisp games (unless you use some kind of mod like the graphics overhaul for Quake 2 - which is technologically impressive but aesthetically looks like garbage)

So... I don't fuckin know.
Who gives a shit man...
 

Inveigh

Novice
Joined
Mar 7, 2016
Messages
10
Location
Australia
I funded this, and I can tell you, with each passing update the taste becomes more bitter. Slow updates, with no substance aside from constantly trying to prove themselves in the graphics department. I couldn't give less of a fuck about the justification of their art direction. Show us something else, already.
 

I ASK INANE QUESTIONS

ITZ NEVER STOPS COOOMING
Patron
Joined
May 8, 2009
Messages
318
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
It looks very mediocre. Whoever made this tried his best to make something inspired but failed because he lacked experience. Also, going for a stylized look was a huge and terrible milkshake.
Also, ban Excidium II.
 
Joined
Sep 18, 2013
Messages
1,258
Some of the details in the art direction reminds me of Oblivion/Skyrim but I still like the look of it. It does capture some of that tabletop miniatures / clay / early fantasy look for me. I am just worried that their emphasis on game systems might follow a limited and repetitive pattern like those of Ubisoft games.
 
Joined
Jun 6, 2010
Messages
2,261
Location
Milan, Italy
Speaking strictly about the visuals, I don't necessarily dislike how this looks.
Well, how the scenario looks, actually. I'm fully expecting these lizardmen (and everything else) to have dreadful animations, going by these woody models lifted directly from 2004.

When it comes to mechanics, all we have is dozen of previous blogs stressing the game will entirely rely on dynamic systems... Which is a great pitch, assuming they'll be able to deliver on that.
 

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