Preview: “Underworld ascentant” – What to wait?

The next month, the release of “Underworld ascentant”, the ideological heir to Ultima Underworld, will take place from Honored Masters of the Genre Immersve Sim. A non -standard and original project, offering the player a lot of interesting gameplay opportunities and the maximum immersion in the atmosphere of the underground world of the Stygian abyss. What is it and what it is eaten with? We understand the detailed preview together!

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You know, the “Underworld ascentant” was very undeservedly deprived of the attention of the masses of players in the fall of this year. Yes, and about its creators, whose contribution to the game industry is still notorious for a wide audience to put in a couple of words for a long time. Therefore, a detailed preview of the upcoming game in half with a conversation about the process of its development by the notorious participants of the Otherside Enterteinment team will definitely not hurt anyone.

The legendary headless from the original Ultima Underworld.
And in order to figure out what kind of beast it is and why it is worth paying attention to this project, for starters we will have to transfer more than a quarter century to the past. During the publication of the original “Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss”. Sign Danzhen-Kronuler RPG from Blue Sky Productions created under the License of Origin Systems and Richard Herriot himself. She grew out of the technical demo of the neurat floor, she became a real pioneer who tried with the help of the first -person prospects, in real time, the interactiveness of the environment and the story of the plot in which the player himself is directly involved, to completely immerse him on the screen on the screen. Not just wander along the endless labyrinths of “Wizardry”, as it was before or shoot packs of Nazis and monsters in Wolfenstein 3D and the first “doom”, whose release took place after. But use the real three -dimensional environment of the character and multiple gameplay mechanics for the maximum feeling of identifying a player with him. A somewhat more detailed story of Ultima Underworld and the emergence of the Immersive Sima concept, which in the future has received a tangible development that lives and flourishes you can still find in release of “industry visionaries” dedicated to Warren to the spector. But if in a nutshell, then one way or another its own genealogy from Ultima Underworld (as a direct development of ideas or one of the main inspirers) is a huge number of popular series. “The Elder Scrolls”, “System Shock”, “Deus Ex”, “Bioshock”, “Arx Fatalis”, “Half-Life” and even “Vampire: The Masquerade-BloodLines”. However, as is usually the case, which is largely ahead of its time, “Ultima Underworld” was not sold in huge circulations. But without embellishment, she set new genres, earned the highest grades of the relevant press and of course players, and in the future more than once fell into numerous lists of the best in history.

The sequel to the Labyrinth of Worlds subtitle did not take long. By that time, the semi -dependent “Blue Sky Productions”, which worked under the wing “Origin Systems”, finally turned into “Loking Glass”, and the bone of the team consisting of neurat, Daga, Warren Spector, Tim Stellmak and Austin Grossman, Tverdo knew what they werethey want how to achieve this. Therefore, the purchase of “Origin” by the giant “Electronic Arts” or the harsh development periods indicated by the new owners of rights did not prevent them from correctly developing the original beginnings in the new game. In just ten months of stubborn labors, they managed to achieve impressive progress in all directions. The second Ultima Underworld turned out to be even more technological and beautiful. With fitting the quality of textures, animations, three -dimensional objects and significantly increased dungeons. And even despite the fact that she no longer made the effect of a revolutionary jump forward and something hitherto unheard, the overall level of performance and the freshness of the idea that did not have time to lose its attractiveness in one year, again allowed the creation of the “Looking Glass” to get extremely approving reviews of the press, not to mention the fanbasis of the series. Nevertheless, sales of Labyrinth of Worlds, together with its predecessor, barely exceeded half a million copies. And having his idea of ​​the future of recently acquired intellectual property “EA” as it turned out was not interested in developing a third part. For which by Paul Neurat and his team a lot was already prepared and the tricel was planned as another breakthrough project in the genre. But all these ideas had to be put down in a long box, and the Looking Glass itself took up another project, which later found no less cult status – the first System Shock ”.

One of the most restrained people in the industry is Paul Neurat.
However, as it turned out, the floor did not leave the Universe of Underworld to return and visited the Electronic Arts office for about every two to three years offering to make a new game. The usual response to his initiative was excuses from the series that at the moment it is not planned to revive Ultima Underworld, but in general the company is interested in possible cooperation on this basis in the future. As a result, only after almost twenty years in 2014, when the EA simply had almost none of the employees left that they worked there in the nineties, they went to meet him. Apparently, it was at that time that the publisher finally realized that he could not independently achieve anything sensible from a whole pack of old game series. To which they own all the rights and which have long been gathering dust on their shelf. At the same time, the purchased “System Shock” “System Shock” with its modified versions for new systems and the first part of the first part of the first part surfaced. Paul Neurat received a green light from Electronic Arts to develop the ideological heir to the original “Underworld”, though without mentioning in the name of the Ultima trademark. In fact, he was allowed to use the universe, setting and any characters of the first two games, limiting only a prohibition of mentioning the name of the legendary series. Considering that the “Stygian Abyss” and “Labyrinth of the Worlds” frankly never were particularly closely connected with the main line of “Ultima”, this has not become such a big problem. Having called for help as a co -founder of Warren Spector, who was not employed in other projects, the Otherside Enterteinment studio immediately founded, whose first brainchild was to be the long -awaited continuation of “Underworld”.

Already in February, the fifteenth project, having received an https://nongambancasinos.co.uk/ subtitle of Ascentant, acquired a fundraising campaign in the Kickstarter service. With a minimum necessary for its production by a bar of six hundred thousand dollars. This should have been enough for a small team of only six people, which, in addition to the gender of the neurat, included several of his old acquaintances since the time of work in Looking Glass. The leading designer of the first two parts of the Thief series Tim Stellmak. Working with him on the second “thief” Steve Pirsal. The artist of the original System Shock and all Bioshock ’OV Robb Waters. The ideological father of “Deus EX” Warren Spector and participating in the creation of a galaxy of projects of the genre Immersive Simmersve Simmersve Grossman took on the role of “Ascentant” consultants. Periodically visiting the studio to solve important issues. All of them have long known the strengths and weaknesses of each other, they used to work together and find a common language. Therefore, no problems with communication and distribution of roles were foreseen, and the organization of labor was planned the same as in previous years. It was decided to turn the small size of the studio for the benefit, thanks to the cohesion of the team and the constant, continuous contact of the participants in the process. In addition, understanding perfectly well that the audience of projects demanding on the player has never been and will not be truly massive, they decided not to inflate the budget. Hoping to succeed in his own niche, mainly counting on gamers interested in the games of a similar genre.

Early Prototype “Underworld ascentant”. Location with treasures protected by a giant octopus.
To everything else, Paul never considered an expensive and realistic graphics, which is in our time of considerable costs or even the VR popular in recent years, key to maximum immersion in the game. The reaction of the world to the activity of the player and the interaction with the environment has always been much more important and gave what was happening much more likely. Like the rest of the Looking Glass team, he understood this in the process of working on the first Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and of course, “thief” with its deepest immersion. Regardless of any graphic tricks, Gamer immediately feels the difference, and no beautiful picture can change this. However, in order to achieve this very effect of presence, the developers have to work hard, constructing a complex system from various gameplayed mechanics and interactions, modeling physics, design levets, and lots of other factors. Forcing the resulting world to seem alive and completely open. So that players can freely improvise, interacting with it. Getting a unique individual experience, changing the style of passing to your needs and tastes right in the middle of the process. It is the high degree of reiglabiness and orientation of “ascentant” to choose a gamer that became the main idea of ​​the project. To achieve a maximum from the concept of the Immersive Sim and make the game as highly role -playing directly through the gameplay, circumventing without pre -prescribed classes and other restrictions inherent in the inheritance of DND. And this involvement in the process found its embodiment, even at the financing stage of Underworld on Kickstarter. From the very first days, Otherside Enterteinment began to actively discuss the future project with their potential players, inviting them to choose his content. In addition to standard goals of different scale, depending on the funds raised, the developers arranged polls and votes, represented new participants in the team and formulated a clear vision of the future game. As a result, “Ascentant” managed to get $ 860,000 and a ticket to life. About sixty thousand more were later collected through donations through PayPal, the final amount came close to a million, and the work started.

Tim Stellmak and Saft Comes in the process of working on the game.
As it became clear from the first updates and great interviews, despite the fact that Underworld does not have the mention of Ultima and it, of course, cannot be a direct sequel of the original, the game will nevertheless become a real continuation and development of the meanings of the cult series. True, this time, her story and narrative will be tried to make it better, modern and deep. As Paul Neurat rightly remarked, it would hardly be, even Richard Herriot himself would now develop the next game of the series on the patterns of past years. And to attract a new audience to make the threshold of entry unjustifiably high would be frankly stupid. The orientation of the studio on innovation from the very beginning was one of the important components of the future project. These included new horizons and experiments with all the components of the game, which were planned to be implemented for the third Ultima Underworld, as well as developing members of the collective and ideas that their heads have been sighted for all these years. Nevertheless, old fans should not worry, because they will also no doubt feel like at home. They will find the echoes of the events of the past, will be able to meet familiar characters, visit their favorite locations, and of course they will again plunge into the atmosphere of the Stygian abyss. All the same huge underground world, filled with frightening monsters and secrets, located on the island of Avatar appeared in the original series. After the dramatic events of the sixth part of the Ultima, who received the blessing of Lord British, the knight Cabirus with his faithful associates decided to elevate the fortress of eight virtues in her bowels – a safe settlement, a kind of utopia, uniting all the people inhabiting the abyss in the world. He practically succeeded in this difficult matter and for many years everything went well. But the efforts of the Cabirus nevertheless went to dust when he died, not having time to complete the dungeons he had begun and torn by the conflict of fractions was again taken by darkness.

Representatives of the three races inhabiting the underground world of the Stegian abyss.
The player, as before, has to try on the role of Avatar – who passed through the magical lunar gate of the legendary hero from our world, called up to Britain to save the kingdom. He will again have to go down to the abyss, learn to survive in its depths and resist another threat hanging over the dungeons. Where among the fragments of the same utopia, numerous peoples and races still live with which the avatar will need to closely interact. The gloomy world “Ascentant” is inhabited by a completely motley company. Surviving cabirus followers;dark elves who escaped from enslavement with the black magician;dwarves who have lived here for many centuries, which have rebuilt most of the local architecture;rational, gigantic mushrooms of chambers, considering themselves the keepers of the abyss and even ominous people. Also, in the labyrinths of the dungeons, you can meet various kinds of apostates and adventurers who descended into their bowels for profit. One of them is a charismatic girl named Aelita will become a player’s intermediary in affairs with factions of the abyss and at first will teach him the wisdom of survival in this harsh place. Not at all superior, given that the relationship developed by the Avatar with the peoples inhabiting the world “Underworld” will be the key engine of the plot of the game. The establishment of connections with one race can easily harm relations with another, so the player will have to balance on the verge, given all the consequences of his decisions. Naturally, each fraction has its advantages and interests. They want to get their benefits from Avatar and can reward it in their own way. Nevertheless, the choice of one side or another can affect the global balance of forces in the abyss and all of them will have significant consequences that can affect, even on the finale, not to mention the exacerbation of relations with different races during the game. For example, frequent use of fire will cause dissatisfaction with chambers who are afraid for the fate of the world of the Flora of the Dungeons. And the gnomes are clearly not happy to destroy their buildings and buildings. As a result, the player will open or close the quest branches of different fractions, limit access to certain locations and equipment, and in the very development of history, this will directly affect. Nevertheless, with regard to the intricacies of the plot, the connection of “Ascentant” with previous games and what the elections on the path of Avatar will lead to a secret will lead to. Unless Sir Cabirus in thoughts, who appears from time to time to the player and his ghost appearing in the dungeons, vaguely hint at the close connection of history with the original “Ultima Underworld”. The knight voiced, by the way, the old Garrett himself, or rather Stephen Russell, who gave a thief from the series of the same name, his recognizable voice. Also in “Ascentant”, among the actors of the voicing, Terry R and Terry was the most known for the role of Victoria in the same “Thief” and the sinister artificial intelligence of Shodan in the “System Shock” dilogy.

But on the other hand, against the backdrop of a small amount of information about the plot of the game “Otherside Enterteinment”, from the earliest stages of its production, they willingly shared everything that concerns other aspects of the project. And one of the most discussed of them was the capabilities of the player in the framework of the world of the abyss. The developers decisively abandoned the presence of any numerical parameters and pre-limited classes in advance. Providing the player with maximum freedom in the formation of his own hero, suitable for his needs and desire. In addition, the entire gameplay of “Ascentant” has always been, there is and will be a variety of interaction with the world around the character. And all his abilities and skills should be considered more likely as tools for this than the usual styles of passage. In “Underworld” the hero has three huge branches of pumped skills, divided into conditional directions of stealth, magic and battles. However, unlike classic RPGs, here the player will be free to select them on his own creating his unique class, sharpened under his tastes and the game manner. Thus, avoiding problems with the excessive force of warriors and the worthlessness of magicians at the beginning of passage, turning out in the finale with their first excessive power of the second. Skills as a way to influence the environment and benefits of enemies, individual mixed classes and lack of frames in the form of indicators – these are the main postulates on which the role -playing system “Ascentant” is based.

Dirum of pumping the skills of stealth, magic and battles.
And even three areas of character skills are not always realized in it standard. Made in the style of the old games of the “thief” series Stlas, which is one of the key mechanics, as it should be presented to the tangible requirements for the gamer in front of the screen. The degree of illumination, the noise made by boots, is by no means blind enemies, all kinds of bonuses of hidden attacks and other subtleties. Which, in case of failure, smoothly flow into combat clashes, where everything is also not so simple. Character movements and position in space affect the damage caused. It would seem that the opponent’s blow was parked in time can cause the fall into the abyss behind his back, and the flimsy structure, which was covered with a swing sword, will bury the avatar under the wreckage. The choice of long -range weapons, namely onions with several types of arrows, will help to avoid this. In addition to standard attacks, it is also perfectly useful for silently elimination, extinguishing torches, distraction of attention, execution of combustible materials and even dropping enemies of especially heavy objects on the heads of enemies. And it seems that this is no longer enough, but in addition to everything in “Ascentant” there is an extensive runic system of magic, somewhat similar to the original “Ultima Underworld”. The compilation of spells from runes, the meaning of which needs to be known in advance, is essentially a separate language of magic, open for experiments and experiments. Especially if we take into account the fact that the classic spontaneous types of exposure are here, only a small part of a long list, which is more likely designed for all interaction with the world and enemies of the other, more interesting and non -standard way. And of course, spells of various types can be combined with each other and the rest of the character’s skills from two other branches in any proportion. Having multiplied all this on a rather unusual for the genre, the main character’s ability to move freely through the location, using sliding, double jumping, ropes, pulling up on obstacles and the ability to repel from the walls, we get a huge set of tools to solve problems in any situation. In which the player puts the developer, inviting him to choose a method of overcoming them from an almost unlimited list of options.

Garrett’s faithful to the covenants know the price of fertile darkness.
And here it is worth touching in somewhat in more detail that the very world that will surround the player during his immersion in the abyss. Having learned from the mistakes of the past and their comrades in the Otherside Enterteinment workshop, they decided to abandon the huge map of the dungeons and randomly generated locations, focusing on the open but small and not in need of Fast Trevela space, following the example of “Deus Ex” or “Dishonored”. Compact, dense, saturated with events and constantly changing it, firstly, will allow, despite all the freedom of action of the player, to realize certain plot arches in it, without harm to immersion, and secondly, it will really make him feel threatened, dark and gloomy, but living world. So that he feels vulnerable, gradually gaining strength, skills and, most important knowledge of the Stygian abyss, its population and its place in it. By and large, the character and the player himself will grow and develop in parallel, firmly connecting the gameplay experience of one with the intra -game capabilities of the other. Especially when it comes to various tricks and a non -standard approach. Various and very different levels of the abyss, more and more dangerous as they deepen into them have a nonlinear construction, an abundance of verticals and a huge number of possibilities of interacting with them. Everything is limited only by the fantasy of the gamer. You can create an artificial collapse;destroy the bridge to escape from enemies with a spell;Burn the closed door with the help of improvised means or throw the first object in the arm in the hand in a deep cliff, thereby activating the mechanism. No one is in the way of collecting boxes and jugs in a heap with magic of telekinesis to move through them to a hard -to -reach place or neutralize the trap with the adhesive fruit of the representative of the underground flora found nearby. In extreme cases, just grow a mushroom barrier for opponents or altogether a huge carnivorous plant with magic, forcing it to fight on his side. And this is still without taking into account the fact that the very environment and the contents of the locations can radically change when you visit. New structures will appear or old and familiar will disappear, enemies will change and their location. Why manipulating the environment and objects to gain the advantage comes to the forefront and simply memorize the situation, slipping next time everything from memory will not work. Due to this, any correct or incorrect ways to overcome problems in “Ascentant” simply does not exist and any approach has the right to life, even such that it was not provided for by the developers themselves. About the little things like crafting your own traps, food with different effects, poisons, poisoning and much more can be discussed longer. This is the maximum freedom of the gameplay of the game in the genre of immersion Sim, which is “Otherside Enterteinment” and try to achieve.

Improvised bridge built from improvised means using magic.
Freedom, allowing the player without any difficulties to explore the Stygian abyss, interact with the fractions and individual NPCs that immediately respond to his solutions. To receive tasks and instructions, to trade and study the world of the game from the central hub in Marcaul-the settlement of people-people to the most hidden corners and ancient tombs teeming with undead. Moving using the portals system in the “Arx Fatalis” manner of the avatar will always be absolutely free in choosing how, when, in what sequence and taking into account whose interests to fulfill the quests. Furnished in Underworld in a rather old manner, implying not blind and thoughtless follow -up by markers when the game leads you by the handle, but thoughtful and thorough preparation for them. After all, the outcome of some of these instructions and the received reward will directly depend on the chosen style and the method of passing the assignment. The new tricks open by the player, the methods of bypassing trap and cleaning locations in a non -standard way, it will be possible to share with the Saurian community in Marcaul, where they will be entered into the memorial – a voluminous storage of knowledge accumulated by the inhabitants of the dungeons for all times and helping them survive in this eternally dark and dangerous place. Avatara will generously reward for valuable information, why the motivation will experiment even more. And all these wisdom will be useful to him for the final confrontation with ancient evil.

One way to get around the trap and the cunning use of the adhesive fruit of the underground plant.
However, despite the fact that all these plans and ideas look extremely attractive in words, how is everything in practice? It would be simply impossible to implement ideas of this scale with a studio of only six people, so over time, the Otherside Enterteinment team was replenished with several more participants. Veterans Chris Sigel who worked at Looking Glass and Joe Fielder left the Irrational Games after the release of Bioshock Infinite. Several newcomers also appeared, and a couple of employees were hired to temporary contracts for remote work, as a result of which the team grew to almost a dozen people. Due to the fact that the development of the game for all years was as open as possible, anyone could track the path by the studio. “Otherside Enterteinment” constantly published detailed text updates and a lot of finished material, made direct broadcasts of their round tables and listened to the proposals of the players, and later began to produce test buildings for backer’s, receiving a voluminous feedback from them. In August, two thousand seventeenth games acquired the publisher, and the development reached the finish line. The release of “Underworld ascentant” should take place quite soon – in September of this year. Seen in numerous videos, presentations and trailers clearly demonstrates and inspires the hope that the plan will be fully realized. On the other hand, the feedback that tested the recent Alpha players turned out to be somewhat mixed, as well as the reaction of journalists to the test version of the project, demonstrated on E3 at the beginning of summer. Both the media and Backer’s noted not completely honed control, roughness of gameplay and small variability of actions, instead of the declared freedom. In contrast to this praise, visual design, lighting, really interestingly implemented by the capacities of the Unity engine, which actually work, as well as the noticeable potential of the project. It is difficult to make objective conclusions on the basis of such scattered opinions, moreover, do not forget that the alpha published is only a tiny fragment of the game intended to familiarize yourself with its basic functions. Therefore, it is pointless to sound alarm in this case.

The appearance of the game from the latest trailers.
Assess “ascentant” will be most correctly ready after the release. Yes, and you need to approach the assessment of the project with a correct understanding of its genre and what it is for. Outline in general terms “what to expect and how to play in it” and was the main goal of this pre -evidence. The creation of “Otherside Enterteinment” is by no means a quail of the finds of last years of the Looking Glass studio and is pretty much left the concepts of the classic dungeon-krouler of the old school RPG in a completely new direction. Therefore, it is necessary to approach him with the correct expectations. As to the immersion Sim Sendbox with a bunch of gameplay opportunities to study a small but rich world and interaction with it. The basis of the game is the study of dynamically changing locations of the dungeons, the search for non -standard ways to solve problems and a deep immersion in the atmosphere of the Stygian abyss. Where the same situation can be resolved by a dozen ways and thanks to this to get a unique individual experience of passing the whole game. And even if at some points “Ascentant” does not justify hopes and will be less variable and deep than planned initially, it is still worth supporting it and the Otherside Enterteinment studio. Projects of this kind are not so and often come out, moreover, created in fact for a penny by a small studio of Honored Veterans Gamdev. And if you are interested in the games of the Immissive SIM genre, then be sure to pay your closest attention to Underworld ascentant. Rarely falling into the field of view of news blocks of large video game portals, this project of Paul Neurat and Warren Spector, whose path to release was dragged out for twenty -five years, risks not to receive a well -deserved portion of attention, which will be extremely unfair.