Ultima™ Underworld 1+2

The firs thing that should strike you about these games is how well they have aged. The interface is friendly (there is no better automap out there), the graphics are colorful and charming, and the soundtracks are very evocative. The game are addictive like all great games are- you want to keep playing just to explore that one last piece missing on your map, but doing so leads to another area and before you know it hours have passed. Don't let the age of these games fool you!

If anything ever comes out that manages to match the UUW games for immersiveness, depth, and atmosphere, it will never leave my drive. Come to think of it, with very few gaps I've had Ultima Underworld in one form or another on my computer for literally the last 20 years -- that should tell you something.

I know the graphics aren't anything like the cgi in games now...but THIS was groundbreaking when it was released! I played it almost nonstop the first playthrough. Then went back and found so much I'd missed on the first round! For years I have bemoaned the fact that I couldn't play it on current computers.

I was stunned by how advanced this game was when I first played it in 1999, seven years after its release. Since it came out it has been incredibly influential, being a direct influence for The Elder Scrolls, System Shock, Thief, Deus Ex, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Bioshock and even the likes of id software's games, Half Life 2 and Tomb Raider. I only finished it for the first time recently and believe it to be still top of the pile - none of its descendants come close! The game is essentially a real-time, first-person 3d dungeon crawler, and so has elements in common with these. What it brings into the mix is the openness of an Ultima world: you can play it in so many different ways. I think it's possible to be able to complete the game if you kill practically every character... and also if you only kill about two. One of the faster speed runs on youtube clocks in at just over seventeen minutes - the game's so open that you can practically just walk to the end if you know how to get there. Playing if for real will require much conversation, mystery-solving and fighting, making a full play-through more than forty hours long. The fact that this game stands the test of time is a testament to the fact that it wasn't just a tech demo but a masterclass in game design!

Mon meilleur souvenir ludique : Ultima Underworld I Je l'avais acheté au moment de sa sortie et passé mes vacances d'été dessus ...... je pense n'avoir pas vu le soleil pendant prés de 30 jours a cause d'underworld :)