Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss is a cRPG game, where in the fantastic land of Britania we have to save the kidnapped daughter of Lord Britisha. It was the first in history to present a new three-dimensional engine. Great for those times graphics, excellent plot and non-linearity of the action ensured many hours of good fun. A very well solved system of spells and automation, as well as musical and sound setting put her among the cult games.

This is a game that is far ahead of its time. Considering that it was founded in 1992 and is older than the third part of EOB, Lands of Lore or many other excellent titles, it still impresses with its innovativeness and technical solutions not seen at that time.

Its greatest advantages were non-linearity, excellent storyline and great atmosphere, which was skillfully raised by really good music and sound effects for those times. We could move through the corridors and explore the levels in any order (provided that we coped with the monsters appearing in a given place, of course). Most of the characters we met were neutral and it depended only on our decision how to act and what kind of dialogue option to choose, which could help in obtaining very important information, or even lead to a fight. It was not enough to fly with a sword and cut everything that moves into the trunk, but sometimes you had to think a lot about various riddles.

However, not everyone can be delighted, she also had some shortcomings. Quite annoying control and the inability to define their own keyboard layout were very annoying. But its biggest drawback was that it ended too quickly. She dragged a man into the whirlwind of action, addictive and suddenly after several dozen hours of play the end. It was a really unpleasant feeling and there was nothing else to do but to start it again.

by Adamus

Please let us know if you have any comments or suggestions regarding this description.

Last updated on August 14, 2015