Ultima Underworld II: Әлемдер Лабиринті

1993 first person role playing video game

Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds is a 1993 first person role playing video game developed by LookingGlass Technologies and published by Origin Systems. As the sequel to Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, the game is set in the Ultima fantasy universe. Players assume the role of the Avatar—the protagonist of the Ultima series—and adventure through multiple dimensions while seeking to prevent the evil Guardian from achieving world domination. Progression is largely nonlinear and the game allows for emergent gameplay. Ultima Underworld II began production in April 1992, shortly after the completion of Ultima Underworld; and it was developed in nine months. The team sought to improve upon the foundation laid by the game's predecessor, particularly by increasing the size and interactivity of the game world. The team reused and improved the first game's engine. Development was impeded by insufficient staffing and extensive playtesting, and the rapid production cycle led to burnout on the team. Most critics gave Ultima Underworld II positive reviews and lauded its graphics, design and nonlinearity. Complaints focused on its high system requirements and unrefined pacing. It has been placed on numerous hall of fame lists since its release. In reaction to the game's difficult development, Looking Glass altered its design approach: they streamlined ideas from the Ultima Underworld series to create System Shock. The team pitched a sequel to Ultima Underworld II multiple times, but Origin Systems rejected the idea. Arkane Studios' Arx Fatalis (2002) is a spiritual successor to the franchise originally pitched as a sequel. OtherSide Entertainment's Underworld Ascendant is the first officially licensed entry in the series in over 23 years.

Ultima Underworld II is a role playing video game that takes place from a character's eye view in a three dimensional (3D) graphical environment. The player's goal is to adventure through dungeon like indoor environments across eight parallel dimensions, while completing quests to help the inhabitants of each world. Chronologically, the events of the game occur directly after those of Ultima VII: The Black Gate, rather than those of the original Ultima Underworld. Searching the sewers beneath the castle, Back at the castle, the player gives a small blackrock gem obtained in the prison tower to Nystul, who enchants it to disrupt the portal in the sewers. Next, the player visits Killorn Keep, a floating fortress in a different dimension. Altara, a sorceress in Killorn Keep who is allied with Bishop, warns the Avatar that the Guardian has hidden a magical spy beneath the castle in Britannia. She provides a special dagger with which to kill it. After removing the spy, the Avatar visits a dimension of ice caves: the remnants of a civilization destroyed by the Guardian, now ruled by a ghost named Beatrice. The next dimension is Talorus, a world inhabited by energy beings called "Talorids" that each serve a single purpose, such as knowing only the past or producing runestones. Talorids are created to serve the Guardian, The team's goal was to build upon the foundation laid by the game's predecessor, Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss. The Tomb of Praecor Loth was largely created by lead writer Austin Grossman, who took inspiration from the Dungeons & Dragons module Tomb of Horrors. The additional designers allowed Looking Glass to more carefully revise levels in Ultima Underworld II, so that players would have "interesting stuff" to see and do each time they explored an area. The team attempted to fine tune the role playing mechanics of Ultima Underworld, such as by making certain skills more powerful in the sequel. As a result of the art team's distance from Looking Glass, Church had to phone "nine different area codes every couple days to check up on things". He recalled the challenge of describing the enemy designs by phone. The music system from the original Ultima Underworld was retained with only minor alterations, It was originally slated for a February 1993 release, According to Church, the testing phase took more time than expected because of complaints from playtesters and the presence of numerous bugs.

Ultima Underworld II was built with an improved version of the game engine used for its predecessor. The team enhanced its visual capabilities: they broadened the first person view by 30%, expanded the color palette, added more 3D objects, increased the size and animation of character sprites and wrote a new texture mapping algorithm. Director Paul Neurath commented that Ultima Underworlds texture mapping had failed to "look quite as good as we had hoped", and that the new system realized their vision. The game's code is roughly 30% larger than that of Ultima Underworld—bloat that Church attributed to "second project syndrome". | PCZone = 94 out of 100 PC Zones David McCandless wrote, "Nothing can completely prepare you for the freedom the game gives you It's about as close to Virtual Reality as you are ever likely to get from your mouse driver." He praised the game's atmospheric sound and called its graphics "stunning": on a high end computer, he found that "dungeons can move like a film". Partly because of the game's large size, he felt that Ultima Underworld II was looser and less involving than its predecessor, but he concluded that players would still "sit there, dribble slightly, and say 'blimey' every eight to ten minutes." The Toronto Stars William Burrill called it "the best fantasy role playing game in this (or any parallel) world." He praised its automap and noted its increased graphical fidelity. However, he found that the control system took time to learn, and he stated, "This is not a game you can master quickly or play in a night. It has its frustrations and its flaws, despite its brilliance of design". He summarized that "those who are patient will be richly rewarded with a game like no other." Computer Gaming Worlds Doug Sencat enjoyed the game's graphics and praised the plot, conversations and 3D world for giving a sense of "being there". However, he noted that the game's movement controls were "a pain" and that navigating the environment was initially "frustrating". Sencat was unfavorable toward the linearity of the plot and dialogue trees, and toward NPCs' inability to take actions independent of the player. He described the game as "a long and grueling quest" that often "seems more frustrating than enjoyable". Although Semcat called it "a relatively high quality game", he finished, "By the time I finally saw daylight again, emerging from the Labyrinth, I must admit that it wasn't exultation I felt, but sheer relief." The magazine's Scorpia was more positive, calling the game "a good follow up to the previous entry".

According to Church, Looking Glass found Ultima Underworld IIs long playtesting phase extremely stressful. Near the end of development, the company decided that it "had done too many dungeon games", and it began to consider a project with a similar design philosophy but without a fantasy setting. After brainstorming sessions by Church, Spector, Grossman and Neurath, Looking Glass began development of System Shock. In 2014, Neurath and his company OtherSide Entertainment announced Underworld Ascension, another spiritual successor to the Ultima Underworld series. In 2015 the game was renamed to Underworld Ascendant and a Kickstarter campaign was launched and successfully funded.