Ultima™ Underworld 1+2

I have very romantic feelings towards this game, since it was the first RPG which could portray the environment in true 3D. Before that I played Eye of the Beholder etc. UW was truly immersive. But besides the atmospheric aspect it also is a great RPG in its own respect. Rune magic, lots of things to discover, factions, consequences of own decisions, etc. I liked also UW1 more than UW2. Why? UW1 feels more consistent in it's setting, more simple yet complex enough. It is also not burdened by the Ultima universe. Also I like the more abstract comic like sprites in UW1 more than the trying to be more realistic ones in UW2. It simply matches better with the graphic capabilities of the engine which in my opinion still holds up well nowadays.

I just recently played this game for the first time thanks to GOG. and from a modern perspective I have to say that this game not only holds up, but is still better then most action rpgs made today. I had so much fun with this game. My only complaint is that the story can be difficult to follow and the hints for the clues can be obtuse at times. all in all Both games are ridiculously engaging.

There is a very short barrier of entry to enjoy these games (movement controls are unique but well designed, combat is a dice roll system so you wont always connect your hits), there are vast things to enjoy about these games. I played almost to the end of Ultima Underworld 1, but I couldn't complete the final boss because I didn't get all of the Talismen. If u wanna see the end credits, you need to get all the talismen. But no matter because I sunk like 30 hours into that game and enjoye every second of it. All the fun interactions with fantasy races, great vibes, awesome feeling of progression. Such fun and well written dialogue! The Stygian Abyss is a joy to explore, an entire world in it of itself. Full of communities and tons of wonderful intentional design, memorable alcoves and areas that I can recall a year after playing, and fun emergent interactions. I've started playing UU 2 and am enjoying it much the same. Its more UU afterall! Although I think i prefer the sprite work in UU 1. Its awesome to see how they expanded the game, there are a lot more kinds of interactions you can have. The game is seriously ahead of its time. Extremely polished. I think I enjoy the combat in these games better than I enjoy Morrowind's combat. Once I'm done sinking enough time into UU 2, hopefully beating it tho, I'm gonna move on to System Shock 1 & 2. Long Live the Immersive Sim!

If I had to rank all the games I've ever played, these two (Ultima Underworld I and II) would be numbers one and two at the top. Simple as it its: go get 'em!

This review is for Ultima Underworld 1, but any review I did for UW2 would have just as much praise. Quite simply, this is close to the best CRPG/dungeon crawler of all time. This game was revolutionary for its time and I spent many a long night playing this in the early 90s. It's old and it creaks, but its gameplay, story and immersion are rarely rivalled, even 30 years on. Not all is perfect though. Jumping is still a drama, and you get caught on walls and ledges a lot, but there are mods out there that make these things easier. But why is the GOG version of this game bundled in a Windows wrapper? To play it on Linux requires you to unrar the .gog file and run the installer that way - why was this even bundled as an .iso to begin with? It's not difficult to deal with, but it's annoying you have to at all.