Ultima Ultima Underworld II is a fine game

[Drunken Irishman]

Been playing UU2 lately... and, damn it's a fine game.

1. It's just good fantasy. I'm not saying the dialogues are on par with Chris Avellone's work, but damn the ideas themselves and the worldbuilding is just so imaginative and creative. Talorus, Ice Caverns, Praecor Lloth are simply great fantasy... I want to use the word story, but it's more like System Shock where you uncover the real situation, except that you actually talk with people. It's not story in the classical sense, but damn... it tells many good stories.
   
   
2. It's fun to play. WAD keys and mouse, it almost plays like a modern game. And you can interact with the environment, or use it for your gain... like pushing your enemies into the water. It also has multiple ways to solve situations. For example: you can kill all the goblins in prison tower yourself, or you can pretend to be a collaborator and grab the item you need and leave, or you can let the troll kill them all. It's always a good design if the game manages to create an environment where the player can come with his own solutions to the problems (or at least make him feel that he used his own creativity to solve a problem).
   
   
3. The ideas behind the worlds, the appearance of the worlds themselves, the level design, the surprises like stumbling into a 1980 dungeon crawler... it's a playful and clever game. The game balances finely between guiding the player and letting him figure things out on his own. Then again, Looking Glass Studios and good level design are almost synonyms.
   
   
4. It's a good template that you have a base, with core characters who react (because of scripted events) to your accomplishments. It makes the world feel alive.
   
   
5. It's the only Ultima game that makes the Guardian an interesting villain. He's like an interdimensional CIA military-industrial complex operator, destabilizing foreign states either by humanitarian projects, fueling up civil wars or just plain conquest, with the sole purpose of robbing those states of their resources in the most efficient way possible. Each world is like a small tragedy, with plenty of blame to go around at it's local leaders for it's demise.
   
   
   And in Ultima 9 he's retconned into the Avatar's evil little brother.... who turns people evil with big evil pillars. It hurts to think about it... the difference between the skill and scope of Ultima Underworld II and Ultima 9...

Bottom Line: Ultima Underworld II is a game that should be in any game designer's vocabulary. You will make better games.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I’ve never actually finished it, although I’ve gotten very close multiple times. For some reason I just lose interest before the end. I do think the first game has superior level-design and tone, but I also don’t have much attachment to Ultima as a series (only played VII, SI, and part of IV). UU2 is still pretty good though.

 

[Drunken Irishman]

I find the level design of UU2 to be more consistent in quality. The levels in UU1 were designed by different people, the first level was very good masterclass level design, but some of the middle ones were not on par. They were good, but some levels dragged on too long. It was also imposed by design... you have only 8 levels and they should be similar enough in size and challenge. Whereas in UU2, the idea is that you're not exploring dungeon levels but worlds, so some worlds can be multiple short levels and some one long level. There's more variety and more virtuosity.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I disagree that UU2 is more uniform in design quality. I think Talorus is probably the weakest location from either game in terms of design, and it always feels like a slog going through it. I don’t think the Ice Caverns are particularly great either. The rest of the game is quite good though.

 

[Oremus]

Incidentally, 1 + 2 are free right now on GOG.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Do the ice caverns use the slip n slide physics that various boomers use or say SMB2?

I still think UU1 is the best and I curse that RG's Origin company dissolved. (Or EA ever happened). Perhaps we would have had more UU games. Then again, he admitted he disliked using old engines and seeked to innovate each time. Hard to believe UO originally had a superb ecosystem but mmo players exploited it to its death.

And even though u8 annoyed me I would have liked its Lost Vale expansion to have been released. Extra lore!

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

UU1&2 were made by Blue Sky (later rebranded as Looking Glass), not Origin. Origin just gave them the license.

 

[Infinitron]

The remarkable thing about Ultima Underworld 2 is that they made it in nine months.

 

[curds]

I want to use the word story, but it's more like System Shock where you uncover the real situation

This is how storytelling should work in video games, full stop. You, the player, pieces it together on your own (or doesn't bother) via gameplay. Walls of text and cutscenes are a waste of the medium.

 

[Contagium]

If only there was a spiritual successor to Ultima Underworld , made by seasoned veterans that kept the spirit of the original alive, while sporting modern graphics and gameplay. Now THAT would be an awesome game. One that someone clearly couldn't fuck up.

 

[Drunken Irishman]

I disagree that UU2 is more uniform in design quality. I think Talorus is probably the weakest location from either game in terms of design, and it always feels like a slog going through it. I don’t think the Ice Caverns are particularly great either. The rest of the game is quite good though.

Talorus is an example of wild creativity that you don't really see in modern games.

"Ok, guys. We need worlds. We got only 9 months finish this baby. Anyone?"

That dude that is always silent, "I've got an idea."

Back then, nerds still had a broad horizon, through old Twilight Zone episodes or whatever, stuff that still had more literacy. Now writers possess already regurgitated ideas, that they regurgitate again, only adding their own particular brand of identity angst and sex fetish.

I enjoyed it's more sci-fi nature, the Talorans look like something out of Star Trek TNG, the ideas are high-concept. These are truly alien creatures, with the ability to perceive time and space in a non-linear manner, and in a quest to be most efficient, they've been turned into mass producing assembly workers. Even death has been made efficient.

I suspect that you can also skip all the talking with talorids, by casting Flame Shield and going directly for the blackrock gem. In future playthroughs, that should take only a couple of minutes.

 

[vota DC]

In UU2 there were too many mazes with lot of jumping

 

[mkultra]

I sometimes do miss this type of unrealistic low poly/maze-like level design, like everything is carved out of stone.. Loved it to death when it came out, really cool atmosphere overall. Never played the first one, for some reason.