Ultima™ Underworld 1+2

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!

Despite how the interface may first appear, this game can be played quite comfortably with a mouse and keyboard in tandem. Right-click and drag on stuff to interact universally, bypassing the archaic verb commands. Compared to other PC games of the time (excluding Doom, which is almost timeless), it has aged fine. The beginning of the immersive sim (see System Shock, Thief, Deus Ex), and a terrific showing for first-person RPGs if you are willing to look past the visual limitations and awkward jumping (use shift-J). The first game has a great atmosphere I wish more games tried, and the second ties more into the main Ultima series and has greater diversity and story. They definitely ask you to take notes yourself (which you can do on the map) and check every nook and cranny, so be prepared to take it slow and use the reference card/manual. This game gives the player a huge amount of freedom, but you can hang yourself with all that rope if you don't pay attention. Personally, I recommend having good magic stats for the utility over limited potions, but neglecting other stats can be deadly. Prepare for a great and challenging dungeon-crawling experience!

I loved both of those games back when they came out. I got slightly bored with the first one so I stopped playing slightly past half of the game. I played through the second one however and only got stuck somewhere near the end (and those were the times when you wouldn't have gamehack or similar tools easily available). I loved both of those games, contrary to the "original" Ultimas which somehow didn't resonate with me that well. But unfortunately, age shows with older 3D games. Not even because the graphics "suck" compared to today standards. It's that during the years of early 3D games you wouldn't have a "standard" interface habits, you wouldn't expect anything particular from the game behaviour so you'd accept anything the devs come up with. It doesn't work that way with today's games - you expect the game to let you redefine controls, you expect to have mouse-look and few other typical UI mechanisms. And if the game has a different approach to user interaction it gets quickly annoying. That's the same reason I couldn't bear MDK or Daggerfall. It's simply too "weird" in terms of controls. Too bad, because the games themselves are still fairly well written, quite decent graphicaly for its time and could give you much fun... if you can bear the weirdness of the controls.

By far the best set of games to come out of the EA deal so far. Excellent gameplay and graphics for 1992, way ahead of games like Wolfenstein and DOOM. Solid RPG mechanics coupled with a good story in both games. Instant buy!