Ultima Underworld I - The Stygian Abyss

History: Beginning with Ultima 6, Origin stopped to program a seperate 3D engine for the dungeon logic, until Ultima 9 all games displayed both surface and dungeon locations in bird's eye view. However, the idea of a 3D Ultima still appealed the developer team. At the same time the company Blue Sky which changed the name to Looking Glass later tried to find a distributor for a completely new 3D dungeon game. So both parties met and negotiations were made. The consensus was that the game will be designed as a Spin-Off in the Ultima world and it will be called Ultima Underworld.

For the first time, digitized speech is introduced but only in the introduction movie, not in the rest of the game.

An unwashed goblin. They come in two colors in this game.

Background: The game has never been intended to be an Ultima game, so the developers had to change many monsters and part of the storyline. It is set in the famous dungeon from Ultima 4, the Stygian Abyss. Still it remains a classic "kill-the-princess-and-rescue-the-big-foozle" game and the events are not mentioned in any canonic Ultima game. Further inconsistencies are the appearance of dwarves which have been considered extinct after Ultima 3 and on the other hand the complete absence of gargoyles. There also is a completely different magic system which is based on runestones. You travel alone since the party concept is different to realize in a 3D game.

Near the edge of a swamp.

A mongbat, these winged monkeys are another "Wizard of Oz" reminescense.

Recommended Version: Ultima Underworld was designed for PCs, I don't know if there exists a console version of the first part.

A hostile Gazer.

On a ledge, overlooking a lava river.

Statistics:

Single-player game
40 different magic spells
A special magic system based on runestones
Dungeons 3D
On-Screen-mapping: Yes

Again standing before the gates of the codex chamber.

Your reward for going through all this. But there is still work to do.

Morale: There is not much morale in the Ultima Underworld games, they are mostly treasure hunting games with a lot of action. The story of Sir Cabirus and his broken dreams to build a civilized settlement in the Abyss is rather interesting.

Britannia