Ultima Underworld

Name:Ultima Underworld
Number:107
Year:1992
Publisher:Origin
Developer:Blue Sky Software (Looking Glass Studios)
Genre:RPG
Difficulty:2/5
Time:14 hours 45 minutes

What can I say about Ultima Underworld that hasn't already been said? One of the greatest RPGs of all time. A technological marvel and important milestone in gaming history?
Meh.
The reception of the game, which is practically unavoidable, is that the game is flawless save for technical issues owing to the age of the game. A small price to pay for the first...3D Ultima. There's a lot of you had to be there said of the game, which I guess is true, but speaks of a game that has aged more heavily than people frequently give it credit for. And after playing it, I'm not sure that the game would have been flawless even back in the day. First, let's talk about how it aged.

The control scheme of the game has more in common with the games that came out beforehand, even games released one year later are much smoother. We've a quasi-standard control scheme, SZXC moves, W moves forward faster, A & D turn. Its mostly okay, but moving backwards always feels weird. Oddly slow. It works, barely, but its enough to be very noticeable. One nice feature here is that you can only walk off a ledge if you walk forward. Something that does work for both you and the enemies in-game. The real issue is looking up and down, which uses 1 & 3, with 2 to center. Its such an awful selection of keys to use in this case.
Underworld uses a somewhat adventure-style interface, meaning that you have the standard adventure actions of look, use, talk and take, along with options and attack. Which is interesting in theory, but awful in practice. The function keys select these actions, which is the ideal way to use them, but they had a habit of activating twice with each keystroke for me. The menus also worked awkwardly in of themselves, I nearly saved over an old save when I meant to load multiple times.
Also, the whole package is very awkward to use compared to games that came out afterwards. The adventure-style interface is more of a hindrance than a help. Picking up items is a troublesome experience. To say nothing of just how interacting with the environment is a bit tricky. NPCs, like in most RPGs, are fond of walking away when you're trying to talk to them. However, here is a feature I've never seen since, you can just walk into them to get them out of your way. More RPGs needed to take this feature of all things.

One of the first of many platforming sections

We are also regaled with jumping, which uses the J key, and depends on a skill. Jumping is awful. Really, really awful. Part of this is down to the collision physics, which will shoot you back if you hit a wall, and believe me, you have a very unusual collision box that guarantees this. The other part is that the developers designed the platforming parts in the most annoying way possible with this in mind. You will absolutely fall victim to the collision. Its just a question of whether or not you're going to hit the ceiling or the walls.

The slaying of vermin, a common sight in Ultima Underworld

Combat is easier, but suffers from numerous flaws. Underworld has three attacks depending on the mouse location or button you press and you hold down the attack button and then release. At first fun, but it doesn't have much tactical depth, most enemies should be dealt with one particular attack. All attacks have to be held down for at least a second, there's no jabbing. Despite being a RPG, spells and missile weapons are only useful as a self-imposed challenge rather than an actual tactic choice. Further, becoming skilled in a weapon other than a sword is intentionally crippling yourself, but that is more a timeless issue.

Its really hard to get the distortion across in a screenshot, unfortunately

A big issue in this game is the 3d engine itself, which has a constant visual issue at the sides of your view. Walls look weird as you walk past them. Eventually one will get used to it, but its very noticeable and very distracting at first. While you should be using the look action at most walls anyway, most secret doors are supposed to be visible without that, meaning anything other than a thorough search is in danger of missing something important. There are also numerous other visual glitches.

One of many friendly NPCs with a quest for me to solve

However, the worst issue of all is a two-edged one. There are too many quests for a game without a journal. Let us talk about me personally, someone who is generally willing to give a good game a chance. I have in the past made maps for multiple games. I have in the past made notes for the puzzles in a game. I have not, and I do not think I ever will, made a journal for a game. This is ultimately too much effort for what is supposed to be fun; I don't make notes for novels unless I have an important reason, I mostly just make notes for actual information books. This game requires those notes, because by the end of it I had no clue how to find one important plot item despite nearly being done. Its too much like actual work.

Those are all the features that aged poorly, however, I do not think the flaws of this game lie exclusively in the game's age showing. There are some aspects of the game that were always bad.

The first shrine I found...on the second level

For a RPG, the RPG aspect of the game is incredibly weak. While level advancements happen normally, in order to raise a skill you need to find a shrine and find the mantra for the skill. Which is just busywork. I'm not opposed to the idea of a specific location or person being used to train up your skills, its just that Underworld's approach is unnecessarily complicated. The system for this is vague, but that's the least of its problems.
Some of the skills themselves are of questionable use, to some being outright useless. I briefly touched upon it with weapon skills, but there are a lot of utility skills without much point in using. Swimming is a skill, but all the skill governs is how long you can swim without losing health. There's lockpicking and something to do with traps, but every door has another way of opening, even if brute-forcing it, and I don't remember any traps a skill would help with. Bartering skills, but bartering I'll get to in a moment.
Further, there's a level-gating approach in-place. That is, if you aren't at a certain level, enemies are basically invulnerable. Its only in place to prevent players from just steamrolling over everything right away, because most enemies, once you get to that level, aren't much of a problem. I have never seen this used well in a game and here its no different.
While the game supposedly offers a wide variety of classes, because some skills are useless and the game heavily biases you towards melee combat with a sword, there's a clear tier system. Being a primarily spellcasting class cripples you in three ways, there is a minimum range, and while you are faster than enemies, you don't always get enough range to use spells; Mana is limited, and while it does regenerate, that takes time; Finally, there is a level where you are drained of all mana. Ranged weapons are ineffective and utility skills don't help with combat, and there is a ton of combat. And these lead to the magic system feeling heavily underused.

A shot from the intro, where the player is forced into finding the baron's daughter, something that doesn't really affect the game until 7 floors down

In story, there's not really any reason for me to believe him, at least until his dead brother, who has appeared in visions at the start of the game, tells me the whole thing is real. At which point I am to take the eight items of virtue inside the Abyss and cast them into the lava pit the demon is on-top of. Unfortunately, the game failed to spawn one of them, resulting in all life on the planet dying. When I say I'm supposed to take those, I'm also supposed to figure out I'm supposed to use those and the lava in order to win. I also had no reason to find all eight items of virtue until this point. The main story of this game seems embarassing for such a highly acclaimed RPG.
Further, this whole thing leads to a massive pacing issue in the last part of the game where you're finishing up whatever sidequests you left hanging in the hopes it reveals where some important item is, in addition to the final level just being a general slog.

This is the first goblin you see, you cannot be friends with him

This is one inside the settlements, as hinted by banners, he is always friendly unless you stab him, like most NPCs in RPGs

Something that sort of is a complaint more about what people say about the game, but there's a certain infamous magazine review where someone dissing Doom in favor of this complains that you can't become friends with the monsters. I want to point out it isn't true here either. While some of the friendly NPCs are indeed more standard monster races, you can't just talk to a random goblin and become his friend. There's no diplomacy or anything, enemies are always enemies. Its basically your standard RPG except some NPCs are ogres.

I used this system so seldom that I used a screenshot from repairing a plot item instead of actual bartering!

There is a bartering system, but there's no real reason to get very good at this system. With skills or actually thinking about things. There are enough spare items hanging around that any item you really need from someone is easy enough to trade for. One of the early characters makes a big deal about items and survival, but that's simply not true. Further, you have a limited carrying capacity governed by your starting strength stat and carrying around all those trade goods, or even gold, takes up quite a bit of it. So quickly the ideal way to barter is to ignore all the gold and just carry about some gems in case such a thing is necessary...except that people actually want gold in exchange for some services. Some of which are absolutely vital to solving the game.

Now, with all that said, one might ask what is good about this game? Or if you are one who greatly enjoys this game like many do, a moment to cool your jets before going into a rage of some kind.

Origin, the publisher and at the time of development the company that Blue Sky was effectively a division of, used to have the label "We create worlds". It was only the motto of Origin, but a strong undercurrent of this went on throughout the '90s. While it is annoying that they spent so much time on the backstory and not the main story, it does create a pretty nice atmosphere to the game. There's a distinct feeling when the game begins that you are being thrust into a strange world. That you are just one player among many with their own goals and objectives. It doesn't quite live up to that opening feeling, of course, but it keeps the illusion going for longer than most games.
For instance, on the 3rd floor there is a NPC who is mad and deeply afraid of the dark. So he is someone who trades for light sources and food. Being that at this point you probably have plenty of food and a magic spell that creates light, well, he isn't really worth trading too. One floor down another NPC mentions that the crazy NPC went into their camp and stole everything he could, including a candle that never stops working and is one of the plot items you're looking for. There's the distinct feeling that most NPCs are actually important to the game itself since so many turn out to be vital later.

A screenshot I took of the map fairly early on

The dungeon design itself is wonderful for the first 6 levels. While the motivation for exploring is a hollow one, I don't feel cheated here. Exploration feels rewarding here, you even get XP for it. There are enough nooks and crannies filled with treasure or plot coupons that it all feels worth it. Even scouring the walls for secret doors. I can't say that much about most actual FPS games.
And while I do criticize those last two levels, its because of decisions that affect part of the level. Level 7 has three mazes in it and a good chunk of the level just moves awkwardly; Level 8 comes after killing the villain you came to the dungeon to defeat, when you're at the final character level. It shoves you against an absolute swarm of enemies, which at this point just feels like busywork. If the game situated the game's main villain here as opposed to the level above it, this section would be more tolerable.

This is possibly the first enemy in the game, and you have to attack him first

While the controls have aged poorly, even in comparison to other games of its control scheme, there's no denying they set it up in such a way that even a rank amateur should be able to get used to them. Even discounting that the manual contains a tutorial designed to introduce people who didn't even use mouses to the game, the game is just designed in such a way that allows players to easily get used to the game. Not just an area free of monsters, but an area with all sorts of items the player has to pick up to get used to the game, and interact with in all ways the game is going to use over the course of the game. I feel like a big flaw all of the games that use this control scheme in 3D afterward do is have enemies start near enough the player that he has no chance of getting used to the game before dying. Something that is incredibly frustrating.
To add to this, the game is also easy compared to those titles. This is not necessarily a bad thing in this case, because the game isn't really built for something hard. This makes it a perfect title for those getting into pre-mouse look RPGs and some FPSes. Assuming, of course, one is even capable of playing a game without mouselook without turning into a blubbering wreck. Hey, I still have trouble keeping planes up in the sky.

Fishing in a dungeon

There are a lot of little things the game does really well in a way that hasn't been replicated much. Being able to push NPCs out of the way as I mentioned. The in-game map, while an inventory item, is one of the smoother ones I've seen, and works incredibly well for 1992. There's a fishing mechanic, where you can get fish via a fishing rod you find on the 4th floor. Unlike many other games, where this would result in a poorly thought out fishing mini-game, this just gives you the fish or it doesn't.

Ultimately, Ultima Underworld is unique. (except for its sequel) For all my comparisons to various games over the course of my playthrough, it isn't any of those. They're only like this game in one aspect or via obvious technological heritage. None of them ever fully got the appeal of the original game. I don't think its ever possible to get that appeal ever again. Even today nobody's gotten a real successor to it, despite many chances to do so. I think that of itself makes it worth playing.

Weapons:
Like usual with RPGs, the different weapons weren't very different from each other, although there was a noticeable power difference between end-game weapons and skills and starting weapons and skills. Ranged weapons and magic are more or less in utility roles and are not effective for actual combat. 1/10

Enemies:
A limited variety of your standard fantasy enemies. Very few are unusual or require special tactics. A big problem here is the readability of characters, you have to use the look command to see if an NPC is hostile or just wait until they decide to attack you. 3/10

Non-Enemies:
While a great source of information, they don't contribute anything to combat, and indeed get in one's way. At least the developers realized this and allowed you to move them out of the way by running into them. 2/10

Levels:
The first 6 are incredible, a true masterpiece of level design. Then we get level 7, which is constant mazes, and then level 8, which just feels tacked on. 8/10

Player Agency:
While I am more open to the combo of the keyboard doing all the movement and the cursor doing every action, this tested even me. There was a distinct habit of the game to have button presses and mouse clicks happen twice, often enough that I suspect it was the game's fault rather than my keyboard and mouse. The adventure-style interface also hindered rather than helped the gameplay. 4/10

Interactivity:
Despite the adventure game interface there isn't a lot to do. A small selection of scenery items are actually interactable, though anything can be destroyed with a fireball. Otherwise, items work like they usually do in RPGs, though you can throw items in lava and water to destroy them, something useful if you're playing the original version, but nothing terribly exciting. There are puzzles, but the only difficulty is in determining that you are actually in front of a puzzle, since most are straight-forward or something you need to find a solution for elsewhere. 3/10

Atmosphere:
The game does a good job of making you feel like you're trapped in a desolate dungeon, moreso than it actually succeeds in making you trapped in a desolate dungeon. The short draw distance, the somber music and the way all the NPCs speak of the past in nostalgic ways all contribute to this. I particularly liked one NPC, longing over her lost love, stares wistfully out at a river of lava, because that is the best she can do. 9/10

Graphics:
I know I've said its hard to do dungeon graphics in a way that doesn't look boring, but something doesn't sit right with me about this game. Its not just that the engine basically forces a fisheye lens on you, the whole thing looks lifeless. Character sprites look flat and just about everything feels like it was someone's first attempt at making VGA graphics. 3/10

Story:
For a game that has such a rich and complicated backstory, very little effort was put into the actual story. 3/10

Sound/Music:
Everything is done via sound card, including sounds. While I used a Roland MT-32, which had the better music, sounds were...not great, since they were just musical notes. That said, despite being very obviously limited, music was very nice. The much vaunted dynamic music simply amounted to the music changing depending on if I was walking around, had a weapon out or was in combat. 5/10

That's 41, but minus one point for having so many game-breaking bugs, so 40.

The obvious comparisons are to Dungeon Master and Shadowcaster. And I would say, of the three, Ultima Underworld is my personal least favorite. On a regular 5/5 scale I would give Dungeon Master a 5, even if it would be lacking on any genre-encompassing scale. It is just absolutely amazing as a dungeon crawler. Shadowcaster is a game I grew up with, but in several ways it works better. It controls better, combat is more interesting, and while it has worse level design, the atmosphere is still top-notch.

I do recommend Ultima Underworld, however, be aware of its flaws. Many people say this is one of the greatest games of all time. I don't think it quite lives up to that. It occupies an awkward middle ground between better action RPGs and better "role-playing" RPGs. As of now it is in the top 10 of all the games I've played on this blog, but that's something that will very easily change, since I'm still firmly stuck in the 88-93 period.

This is one game that could stand a remake. Unlike with other games that had significant issues but mostly solid gameplay, the part of this that is great is the dungeon itself. A transplant into a completely different engine with some changes to gameplay, akin to the early attempts with Blood or some attempts with various Elder Scrolls titles, would do wonders for the game.

Ultima Underworld: Lost

Changing out my boots for something sweet

On my way back down to the seventh floor, I meet with both the tailor and the magician, in the hopes that the items they're building for me are done. Seems like if its taking this much time its probably important. I swing by for the boots first. Yep, done, have enough food. They're lava-proof too. Okay, I next head towards the ring room. Okay, I remember the sequence. NW, SE, NE, and then SW.
Uh...nothing happened. I try it again. I reset it and then try it again. I continue this for several more fruitless attempts. Is this a glitch? Its not mentioned anywhere. Did I get the wrong sequence? No. Wait, I have a ring in one of my backpacks, maybe this is it? I should throw it into the lava to see if its the one. And it sunk. Is that not it? No, its a ring of jumping. Well, I could do a couple of things that would take a very long time and not actually solve my problems, or I could cheat...if that were possible. Sadly, it doesn't look like the work for that is done, despite there existing several level editors for the game. How one doesn't exist for such a beloved title, I do not know. I just have to hope that resetting it and then leaving the area and returning will work.

More useless yellow rocks

Back up, I feel motivated to explore the sections near the empty bits of the map. How did the lever to open that one area work, just use the wall until something's different? Okay, and secret door inside the secret door. The ultimate sign of what kind of game you're playing is the reaction you have upon doing that, and its necessary to win, disgust or joy. Only this doesn't actually give me anything, there's a door here next to two switches, undoubtedly a puzzle I have no answer for yet. And a pile of money, but who cares?

I never did figure out what this was for

Returning to the ring place, and no, it doesn't work. Either I have to wait longer or the game is screwed. I did have a ring on me, but its a jumping ring, not a special ring. But I found a flute, which means I can be tought the song by the one ghoul. I guess that'll come in handy soon. Continuing my downward descend, I look throughout the lava river on level 6. I can see an area up beyond my reach that just so happens to be near an area I didn't think there was anything in. After a search later, I have the Book of Honesty. Seems like I may have gone out of order slightly, but whatever, now I only have two items left.
Finally back at level 7 I'm not too sure where I can go. Oh, sure, I'm clearing out enemies, but I don't have a path forward that isn't the previous trap I fell into or the steps downward. Well, I can try the waterways, but the poison lurkers are a pain to fight and kill. One poisoning, even at full health, will kill me if I don't make it back to the fountain on the 3rd floor, the nearest fountain there is. And I have to wait out the poison, something that makes Shadowcaster's wait times look paltry.
I guess I missed something in the lava rivers down on the 8th floor then? No, I actually did explore everything that I could. What else is there? There's a key I don't know if I tried on every locked door in the northern section of this level, but that doesn't work either. I try sleeping in the trap room, but nothing happens. Time to look it up in a walkthrough.
Okay, the walkthrough isn't quite clear on how to proceed, but I get enough to advance. They all assume you're going to be sneaky and use the medallion, then bribe the guard who talks to you after entering the trap. Rather than engaging in brute force. I admit, I wouldn't have thought to bribe him without checking the walkthrough, because money has been useless outside of one time. Now its been useful twice, but this case is more brutal because you can easily screw yourself over.

Dead things turn out to be even more vermin

Inside the prison are a lot of locked doors I have to break open. Good thing the Sword of Justice doesn't wear down or I'd be forced to punch all these doors. Prisoners, more talking. Oh, great. The important part is that there's an escape route out of the dungeon; A dwarf gives me a crystal that does something in the tombs of the dead. I think dwarven tombs of the dead, not the ones I saw earlier.

Lava's coming from somewhere

The escape route is over a lava river. I suspect I would be dead by now if I didn't have the lava boots or the jumping ring. I spend some time exploring the lava part, finding a map of an area that's full of traps. After finishing up down there I just walk into an area with an obvious secret door, that leads back to before the final goblin checkpoint. I guess so the player isn't stuck, because this is also where the locked door leads.
I have a bit more of the area to explore from here. There's a temple-looking room that seems impressive, but really only has a stairs down and a troll.

Secrets are getting hard, but not impossible to find

Since that's a dead end I start going back through the maze, I absent-mindedly check every wall. Because this game does pull an actual secret off at times, and the Wolfenstein method of pressing space on every wall is still important. Naturally, this reveals a secret...graveyard. Can't people put these in a normal place? What the hell? There's nothing of interest inside, but there is a secret door out. And I need to find where I dropped a rock hammer, because a giant rock fell on the path back in.
The remaining length of the lava river's no good, its just swarming with fire elementasl, so I guess the other stairs down is the way to go. After some more monster clearing, I find another stairs up. Seems like these last two levels are very interconnected, because there's nothing here really, beyond these two stairs up. I hope this means I'm close to being done.

Was this the party the baron sent?

This leads to a small enclosed area where a man died with a key. A key to a different one than the one locked next to him. Something about the evil dead. Another secret graveyard, or is it just a locked one? Well, its not impenetrable to my sword, and the ghosts inside aren't either. After I clear that out and start exploring the other side, I notice my health is very low despite not having taken any hits...and then I die. Huh, I guess I shouldn't go through there. I decide to check if the door near the start is unlocked by the key I just got. It works. This seems to be the area the map is for. Maybe I triggered a trap? Not quite, there's another maze that also has traps in it and I didn't even notice at first. Doesn't even seem to lead anywhere I can do anything in.

Endless fun

Guess that means I have to clear out the fire elementals. And you better believe these things are packed densely, usually two are visible at a time. Their melee attack isn't much, but their ranged attacks are murder. Funny thing is they're guarding some random door down here. Its locked, but that key works, and wouldn't you know it, but it contains another set of stairs down. How many are there? Game has been starving me of these things and now all of a sudden there are four of them. And oh look, its another small room with a set of stairs up.

The grey part will kill you pretty quickly

Here I meet a talking imp. At least the game tells me its an imp. He tells me in rhymes that he's a thief who stole a magical crown from the evil wizard. He tells of a crown that is smaller than the others and I need one eye to see it. At first I think he's talking about a red jeweled crown, but only one crown here is unique, so I take that one. The golems nearby don't attack me so I must have gotten it right. So...what's special about it? Hmm, secret door, which leads right to that maze.

I dunno, if I made it here chances are I'm no joke in the combat department

Ah, it leads me through the maze. Directly to Tyball. Uh...that was fast. He needed the baron's daughter because he needed an innocent to sacrifice. Muahaha, he's going to kill me. Anyway, I kill him and a cutscene happens.

Didn't you bring me here?

He needed the girl because he needed to put a great evil, The Slasher of Veils, into an innocent body. Why he's decided to tell me this after I've kill him is a sign this guy is incredibly stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. All life will be wiped out, yatta, yatta, yatta. If someone could have been bothered to tell me this before I fighting me maybe we could all have been alive right now. Well, there is no telling that I would have believed him, because every generic bad guy says that he's actually doing the world a favor. He drops a couple of keys, another medallion and some thread.

By waving my sword around until my problems are over? I don't think that's wise

With the orb rock I picked up from downstairs I can destroy the orb, restoring my magic. With one of the keys, I can open the door the princess...wait, I thought she was a baron's daughter. Anyway, she tells me she's going to inform her father, since she has an "Amulet of Free Travel" and that I have to save the world somehow. With that, she disappears and I have to figure out what to do. Does it involve the eight artifacts of virtue?

Probably some kind of humor I don't get

Entering the dead wizard's study I see a lot of stuff that sounds important. Lots of scrolls and books that seem like they're of value to someone earlier or just important for this quest. More worryingly, I see a book on resurrection and a scroll from Tybell saying he'll resurrect someone. Uh-oh, don't tell me I have to pull this kind of crap? Rounding out his quarters is a secret passage into the southern maze.

Yes, the rat is in the lava, and yes, it did burn alive. This game can be clever at times

Finding a path downstairs, it is for once not a small detour. In fact, its a big, monster-infested dungeon. The question I have to ask at this point is...why? Why did the game need this? Not the whole surprise final boss bit, but that too. Why scores of monsters this late in the game? There is no way I could make it this far and not be at level 16, have great equipment, and know how to deal with enemies. This is just busywork because they made 8 levels.

I am curious about the logic of putting the Slasher into a maiden, but I don't think the man was too smart

Naturally, at some point I get hurt enough to want to retreat upstairs. Well, that's through a maze and basically four levels. Its becoming quite the journey. So I take a gamble and rest...this results in a vision from the guy seen in the intro. He's Tybell's brother? Huh. Anyway, I need to find his bones in the mines somewhere. More cleaning out of enemies, and a lot of bones. Just so many bones. None of which are labeled. All right, better look up the answer; The bones are nameless but don't stack up with other bones. Right, did that.

This does raise some questions about the ghosts I killed earlier

I take him up to the graveyard on level 5, since I figure that one's actually important. Takes a while but I find it. And then he becomes a ghost. That raises some questions I don't want to answer. He says we need to figure out some way to channel power to open a portal to take care of the Slasher, something pure, something connected to Britannica. I have to tell him what. Oh, the eight talismans. One of which I can't get.
Well, I guess I've lost. I'm not about to restart the game considering how much of a slog this last section has been. That was a disappointing experience.

Final Session: 3 hours 30 minutes

Total Time: 14 hours 45 minutes

Ultima Underworld: Problem Solving

I am developing an annoyance towards these guys

This session starts off pretty good. I fight some ghosts and get to level up. Level 13. Kind of weird that it took so little time to level up considering the last one took forever. Nothing much left in the section of the 5th floor I can access from the banquet hall, the only access to the ghouls section requires running across lava. I better go back up and get some fish then.

If only all fishing mini-games were this simple, we wouldn't feel the desire to keep adding them

After getting the fishing pole from the friendly vagabond, I fish. Its boring. Left click on the fishing rod in front of water, then you either get a fish or you don't. Repeat until you have enough fish. Fishing is supposed to be a relaxing thing while you're in-tune with nature. Here you just press a button for a while. Its not good. If it weren't for the fact that this quest is probably not optional, I wouldn't even be doing this. Get ten fish, put down two packs, go down to ghouls, get password, go back up, go to the wizard and give code. There. Now since in order to explore the rest of the floor 5 I'd have to go out of my way, I'll just go down to floor 6.

I like how I just know that its the standard of some people I may not have even met before

Feels pretty good getting this far down. As much as I'm ragging on it, it certainly has a better quality per floor than most games on I've played on this blog. I'm greeted on this level by scads of lava, lava on dirt, and flags of the seer. Clearly, we're getting into the end game here. Oh, a friendly mage, clearly he must have something important to say about my quest.

See, I don't even know what's on this floor

Oh...its something talking about a magical academy? At first I assume its another knight situation, where I get a series of quests to accomplish and a nice title, but no. All he tells me is to check the library, and to be careful since there are monsters. I decide first to check the area behind him. A lot of mage NPCs here, some offering services, others offering quests. Another tells me of a terrible demon who no mortal can kill, and must be defeated some other way. And hey, I get the fire rune for once.

There are worse ways to be immortalized

Things get weird in the southwest section. There's an upset spectre named Warren floating around, which is a reference to one of the developers. Then I walk past him, because you can't talk to him, and I try opening a door. Only for it to start talking to me. I wonder if this influenced the parts of Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines where you talk to inanimate objects as the Malkavian. What the door was guarding was pretty important, a freedom rune and some bottles of port. I think port was what I needed for the worm stew.

I wonder if its actually possible to be in a situation where this isn't an easy fight

More to the point, by doing some of the quests in this area, while I'm not getting them directly, I am getting directions for the items of Virtue. Now, out of game, I can be 90% certain I should be getting these items. In-game I have absolutely no reason to want any of these. Eh, maybe the sword.
The north part of the map tells me that there's danger inside. This doesn't seem true at first, just some skeletons. At this point skeletons are a piece of cake. Even a troll isn't much trouble at full health, unfortunately I'm not at full health when I find and fight a troll.

That seems like such an underwhelming thing to celebrate

With almost all the runes collected I figure now is the time to explore the ledges I can't reach on the 4th floor. First one's just a pit you can fall down, and the other is just a stairs down. Now what about fireballing that one bit of wall? Nothing. Well...drat. Back up to the fountain on second and then back down.

And yet they still buried him

I take the scenic route on the 5th, going through areas I have yet to explore. I see an obvious trap, a sign saying someone evil was buried here and those entering it join him. After killing a dire ghost, I see why, a former knight who was stripped of his title after killing an innocent. I wonder if its possible for that to happen in this game? If any game would do it, it would be this one. Anyway, while there is some useful items in the guy's tomb, there's also no way out afterwards, at least not yet. Maybe I'll come back to it. I keep saying that a lot and it never seems to be very effective. Either there's going to be some considerable backtracking action, or I'm missing something.
What I do get out of this, however, is that there's no stairs down in the southeast part of the map. That is, the section most easily connecting from the previous stairs up. I can however, go down into the other half of the 5th floor quite easily. That does leave the question of what's so special about the stairs down you have to levitate to in order to reach.

Back on the 6th floor, I do some more platforming over lava. I do feel like there's something awful about it, but I can't say I've had any problems with it for a while. But I am feeling that some of the rewards of this platforming are insufficient. Here, east of the northern path from the central area, I had to worry that some flying enemies would attack me, fight some dread spiders and a gazer, all for some random crappy book.

This is a cool-looking room

Only that's not entirely true, there's a sign saying "Domain of Vilus, visitors not welcome", aha, I think, this must be where an evil mage lives. Well, that's greatly underselling it, because this is a big section of the floor. With tons of jumping too, so my statement must have jinxed things, because naturally I miss a few jumps and fall straight into the lava. Ah, lovely. I explore this section quite a bit, and besides a fire elemental, who I can't hurt yet, and an anvil, which would be able to repair my stuff if I had any skills in that, there's nothing much but awful, awkward platforming. Serves me right for doubting the game's awfulness.

What a charming fellow

I also find the poison version of the ghouls hanging out around here, called dark ghouls. This puts my exploration of this floor away and forces me to return to the 2nd. Getting more and more annoying. As I'm going back up I decide to give that weird vine wall a second glance. Maybe I missed it the first time, after all hit detection is wonky in this game.

Yeah, this wasn't obnoxious to uncover or anything

No, I was doing it wrong. What I was supposed to do was look at the wall in the right way. This reveals a secret door, and inside a switch, lowering the water in a nearby section. This is where the fountain on this floor is, in addition to a sword blade, undoubtedly the blade of the sword of virtue.
Incidentally, when I finally return to the troll who injured me a while ago, I find that he can't even get out of the room he's in. How the hell did he enter it to begin with then?

Does heaven or hell count?

Continuing my exploration of the 6th floor, I'm finding a lot of areas with lava gaps I don't feel comfortable jumping and my mana is nowhere near high enough for me to want to cast levitation all willy nilly. I do find a library, which seems useless for now. It has among other things, a skill increasing mantra, some in-jokes for the franchise and some things I suspect are hints for later parts of the game.

The second options feels like a very *not* sneaky way of saying I'm a coward

Now that I've cleared up most of the map, I now have to figure out what to do with the rest of it. Because while there's always little bits of the map I'm never quite sure how to deal with. Its especially bad in lavaland because travelling over lava is dangerous. Even jumping over a slightly larger than normal gap is dangerous. Such a jump leads me to the stone golem I've been told about, who offers me the Shield of Valor. This fight is a joke, at this point he's hardly a threat to me.
At this point I decide its a good idea to find most of the items of virtue I can reach as of yet and put them all in a relatively safe place that's not my inventory. And to find all the ingredients for that stew. Its actually really hard to find everything once you've been through the map all the way, because everything is now empty.

Something tells me this particular shrine may be important later

Also, finally found out how to open that one door. Turns out there was a hidden switch, which you naturally have to platform to. This doesn't really seem to get me anything, but the messages on the wall are probably some kind of hint. Anyway, I get the ingredients for the stew, while also collecting the magic candle on the way up from the crazy guy Zak. I get a raw deal in the process, but frankly I don't really care, I just know that I need this stuff.

Oh, I get it now, I was just desperate to put in my inventory

The stew gets me dragon scales, which cause me to hit my weight limit AGAIN. What this game needs is a way to increase strength after the fact. For completionist sake I decide to look through the rest of the knight quarters. Mostly just getting info for areas I've already cleared out, but interestingly I get the location of one of the items by giving the Dwarven gemcutter to a knight worker.

This is more impressive than I give them credit for, it would be years before anyone else would try this kind of thing

So that puzzle in the north east. Well, turns out its much easier than I gave it credit for. See, I've been thinking that the buttons are states, where its either on or off. Because that's how buttons that press or depress work. No, it turns out what it does is increase or lower the height of a block decided by the position of the levers. The top raises, the bottom lowers. Once you figure out that things are indeed moving, the puzzle is child's play.

Yeah, the dialog implies I need to pay now, but it isn't that important

Inside is a graveyard, or at least something like a graveyard in this game. Ghosts, skeletons, and a lot of graves that seem like they might be related to puzzles. Inside, I find a hilt, which I suspect is the one to the sword of virtue. Aha, I must use this, then go back to that mountainman smith and repair it. He can do it, for 20 gold pieces. I haven't had a gold piece in my inventory for practically the entire runtime of the game at this point. Reload, gather gold on the way up, pay him, and I have to pay him an hour rather than on the moment. An actual in-game hour.

This just makes me wish that Origin did an adventure game

Now I've got to figure out what other problems I can currently solve. Hey, I needed to grab a book from the domain of Vilus for one of the mages. I get a nice magic power increase, but nothing necessary. And I guess since one mage was going on about incense I should use it? All this does is show me three nicely drawn images of a cup. Each has two letters written on it. Oh, I get it, its a mantra. Hnsain. I think I need more than that in order to get the cup though.

Not suspicious at all

I guess now all I can do is go downstairs. Literally outside the stairs down is a man who seems to have some kind of plague. He's here to free his brother from a prison. A prison inside a prison? Weird, but whatever. He also wants some port, because what better way to cure the plague than satisfying one's raging alcoholism? Well, after explaining the level, including the knowledge that this level has THE evil wizard I'm trying to find and that I need to find a medallion to get past the guards, he returns to I guess the 1st level. What's interesting is that you can't cast spells on this level. Meaning the spellcasting mechanics, already of somewhat questionable non-utility use, is getting dangerously close to being actually useless.

Perhaps there's a reason the developers tried to avoid adding more combat

Just in the normal course of exploring the level I end up encountering the guards pretty quickly. Gray goblins. I don't really get the option to say I don't have the medallion yet, so they attack me. This turns out incredibly badly...for them. I get more trouble from the collision system running away than I do fighting them. Then another group, even with trolls, aren't too much trouble. My only real concern here is that this is going to screw me out of some important part of the game. I don't mind killing what seems to be a hundred goblins and trolls.

4/10, doesn't hurt you when its dead

I do actually get hurt enough to have to retreat...by a lurker of all things. Not because its actually deadly, but because its poisonous. Nevertheless, this gets me to level 15 and I manage to retreat to a fountain just in time. Then its back to business as usual. I find the medallion in a maze in the southeast, fighting off some gazers and whatever Ultima calls its evil sentient trees. The curious thing is that its impossible to get here WITHOUT killing some of the guards. Clearly they weren't important then.
Interestingly, this floor is very specifically designed so you always have to hit those rivers with lurkers in them. Its strange. Meanwhile, with the medallion, the goblins let me through, but only let me take one path. Curious, and then I walk into a trap set by some wolf spiders. I feel like I've been had. Its just a maze, one that leads to the stairs down. That was fast.

That's how you ask why I'm in this maze?

But further in I find standing alone, a mage, named Naruto...well, that aged like milk left in a trunk in the Sahara desert. He tells me there's a key held by someone deeper in the maze, and that key allows one to enter a "secret place". And he tells me a orb is doing all the magic draining. Hey, wait a minute, this whole level must be a setup from the evil mage then! I think I was had! And oh, look continuing to follow the path leads me into a trap I can't escape from. I can't even turn back. Guess I better reload and take that path down. For some reason my spells are going out at a faster rate, so I frequently run out of light by the time I've killed all the enemies.

Is this better or worse than Dungeon Master?

After clearing up some vermin in the dark, I realize I'm no longer under the effects of the mana drain. I can see. I'm in a lava cave, I probably should be able to see without a light spell, but whatever. I'm in a very tricky spot so I'm not entirely as focused as I should be. But on the bright side, after cautiously dealing with a golem, I'm level 16. Guess there must not be much of the game left. It doesn't even look like you can advance from this area, at least in the brief exploring I could do.
So I return to an earlier save, one back on the 3rd floor, since I didn't feel the need to save much outside of the maze. Well, I guess I deserve that. On my way back down I meet the ghouls again, and one says he's a tailor. He won't fix my leather leggings, but wait, he says to get him animal skin...could the dragon scales...? Yes, I can get boots out of the deal. Not sure what advantage there is to it, but hey, dragonskin boots. For the Jerseyan adventurer. He wants food and it'll take him a half hour.

If this was a modern game I can just feel this would be a metaphor for radiation

I do need to kill some time, so I figure I should clear out the abandoned mine in the southwest. I put in the code in the code machine and I'm teleported into a special maze. I wander around for a bit, killing some ghosts. I figure since I'm already here, even though I didn't tell the outcast mage I would, I'll get all those magic stones for him. Once one is in my inventory the rest collect automatically, and there are these weird teleports in some eastern and western corridors...Wait...
WTF, this is Pac-Man in first-person. In case you don't get why I hate this, its because if you look through early first-person action titles there are an absolute deluge of first-person versions of Pac-Man for some reason. Its been driving me bonkers. Curse you Warren Spector, I swear vengeance.
Anyway, after getting all the metal, I return to the wizard. It turns out he tried, got driven away by Inky, Binky and co, so I have to get them. He offers me a huge gold nugget the likes of which I've never seen before, as if that's going to be useful to me here in this dungeon. Slowly going down, because I have a lot of floor 6 left and I'm sure I missed something. Speaking of floors, I am incredibly annoyed that the game refers to the floors as levels in addition to the usual RPG levels. "I reach level 6" could mean a number of things, even if in context I'm at level 16 and I only know of eight floors.

Hmm, didn't seem to do him any good

Turns out I was right to look around. I notice on my map that there's floor where I can only see a wall. This leads to a teleporter, with emeralds inside. I've been trying to find those! Two buttons, but wait, this is a cross shaped hallway with an area I can jump to above...and again. This leads to four funny looking things in corner spaces. Is this where I was supposed to put the emeralds too? Yes, this gets me another rune. Now I'm only missing one, the "death" rune. It doesn't really seem like great shakes, but whatever.
I finish off this session with a couple of small victories. I can take out fire elementals now, and I finally have the sword. That means the only items of virtue I'm missing are the cup, the book and the ring. The question remains, where are they and how do they relate to the kidnapping of the baron's daughter? So much of this game remains an enigma, and yet, there's no way we're not incredibly close to the end. I sort of got that this place failed in its noble intentions back when I started it, but I really had it hammered home by floor 2. Could we get something of substance on the actual plot, eh, game?

This Session: 3 hours 00 minutes

Total Time: 11 hours 15 minutes