Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds

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. The player uses a freely movable mouse cursor to interact with the game's world and to manipulate the heads-up display (HUD) interface. Icons on the HUD allow the player to examine objects closely, to converse with non-player characters (NPCs) and to ready the player character's weapon, among other things. During the game, the player collects items and stores them in an inventory on the HUD. Because it uses the same engine as its predecessor, Ultima Underworld II shares many of that game's features. For example, it allows the player character to jump and swim, and it contains an automap. The player begins by creating a character, for whom traits such as gender, character class and skills may be selected. Skills range from diplomacy and lockpicking to blacksmithing. The game starts in the castle of Lord British, through which the player accesses other dimensions. The player character gains experience points by fighting, completing quests and exploring. During combat, the player attacks by clicking the screen: more damage is dealt when the player presses and holds the attack button. Depending on where the player clicks, different types of attacks—such as thrusts and slashes—occur. The player may cast spells by using an appropriate combination of "runestones", which are collected throughout the game. When enough experience points have been accumulated, the player character levels up and gains hit points. Experience points also grant "skill points", which allow the character to increase skill proficiency. Unlike in Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, skills are not improved at shrines; rather, they are increased by training with NPCs at the castle or in other dimensions. As with its predecessor, Ultima Underworld II was designed to generate emergent gameplay through the interplay of simulated systems. The developers attempted to combine role-playing elements with "a sophisticated three-dimensional simulation of a sensible and believable world". For example, torches burn out, items wear over time and the player character must eat. Many items in the game are useless but were included for the sake of realism. The game is nonlinear, in that players must "visit and revisit" areas as the character gains abilities and becomes stronger, instead of "clearing each square foot as they go". Many situations and puzzles in the game have multiple solutions. ==Plot==

Setting and characters Ultima Underworld II is set in the fantasy world of the Ultima franchise. It takes place across multiple parallel dimensions, the first being Britannia, the traditional setting of Ultima games. 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, but the Avatar destroys and replaces the sole reproductive Talorid to free the race. The Avatar completes a series of tests at Scintillus Academy, a mage school whose staff was killed by the Guardian. Afterwards, the player travels to the Pits of Carnage, a subterranean prison on a world where the Guardian trains soldiers to attack other dimensions; and to the Tomb of Praecor Loth, where a king killed in a war with the Guardian is buried. Finally, the Avatar visits the Ethereal Void, a strange world with floating, glowing pathways and no map. Eventually, the Avatar discovers that Mayor Patterson is the traitor and destroys the blackrock dome. ==Development==

Looking Glass Technologies began to develop Ultima Underworld II in April 1992. 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. Technology 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". ==Reception==

According to Paul Neurath, Ultima Underworld II and its predecessor together sold half a million units. 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". Jim Trunzo reviewed Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds in White Wolf #36 (1993), rating it a 5 out of 5 and stated that "Ultima Underworld II is a true gaming experience. If you haven't tried this type of adventure, you can rest assured that it is well worth the money. Take a break from group adventures seen from an overhead perspective. Get a new outlook on fantasy gaming and check out the view in Ultima II." Legacy In a 2004 retrospective review, PC Gamer UK's John Walker stated that Ultima Underworld II "was new and exciting in half a dozen areas at once, not just one. Somehow, no game has quite achieved that since". PC Gamer has included Ultima Underworld II in several lists of the best computer games of all time: the game placed 5th in 1994, 18th in 1998, 54th in 2001, 39th in 2007, and 98th in 2011. One writer for the magazine wrote, "Like Ultima Underworld but again and better. No, that won't do. Ultima Underworld [II] needs to be hailed from the roof-tops for being one of the best dungeon-based adventure RPGs of all illustrious gaming history." 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. ==References==