Ultima™ Underworld 1+2

UW1 was groundbreaking when it was released. There was absolutely nothing else like it. To this day it is still the most immersive game experience I have ever had. Yes, the contols are clunky, but with a little practice they work just fine. The graphics were state of the art on release but are now quite dated. The openness and immersiveness of this game are what makes it shine. Few games since have come even close to equaling that aspect of UW. If you have not played UW before, then it will give you a view of the birth of first-person gaming.

You read that right! There has never been a game in this subgenre before or since that has been as influential, innovative, or damn good as this title the Ultima series is already very important in the history of ALL RPGs, even JRPGs, but this one is a First Person spinoff that was developed by the team that would go on to make classics such as System Shock and Deus Ex. But, everything that makes those games good is already here, in primordial form! The whole of "immersive sim" and even Arkane's whole shtick begins here. Plus, this is the game that inspired the ENTIRE Elder Scrolls series! They basically just took this games design, and decided to make a massive world out of it(which ends up being less polished and more buggy than this title's contained environments). the 3D engine is also FAR more advanced than Wolfenstein 3D(which came out AFTER), with the ability to look up and down, NPCs to talk to with dialog trees, and rudimentary physics. If you like classic PC RPGs, this one is pretty much ESSENTIAL, and doesn't require much knowledge of Ultima lore to jump into.

These games really taught me the meaning of the "Epic Quest" that so many games these days purport to offer. These are the original "Start with nothing, build yourself up" games that a lot of others owe a great debt to. Highly, highly recommended.

A lot of people seem to prefer first one due to the atmosphere but I personally think second one is better: better graphics, bigger size for the visible game area, more diverse locations. The one thing where I can agree is first game as you went down the level deeper into the abyss felt like it had a nicer progression. This game is a bit all over the place and relies on user's imagination for example what the Goblin tower world or Tarna's desert might look like. It only gives you quick bits and pieces from each world but you're left wanting for more. Overall I think is a great game and highly recommended. For those who have a hard time with the control look up online to Ultima Hacks github repo and look visit the website which allows you to patch the executable to add mouse wheel support and mouse freelook making it a slightly bit more modern experience. If you combine the mouse look with Dosbox-X with scalers for example to make it slightly nicer looking then you can get a bit better experience.

I remember getting this game on disks years ago and then spending two weeks trying to make it work with sound. It was worth the work. This is still my favorite game to date, and I replay the first one every few years. A huge place to explore, puzzles, cool use of runes for magic, NPCs with quests and stories, and an amazing fully 3d experience, including a little flying! No game has ever captured so much in one title before or since.