Back to the future with Underworld: Ascendant
Every now and then a project comes a long that catches my imagination in such a way, as to return me to my early childhood. Back to the days when technology limited the ways that games were able to express themselves, but allowed me to project my imagination onto the game and thoroughly emerge myself within the world the developers had created.
So when such a project comes along, that is headed by developers who not only worked on those very games, but worked on some of the most influential games of the time, I find it difficult to not be more than a little excited.
In July of 2014, a new development studio was formed, Otherside Entertainment, by none other than Paul Neurath. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, these titles may; Ultima Underworld: The Stygian abyss, Ultima Underworld 2: Labyrinth of Worlds, Thief: The Dark Project, Thief Gold, Thief II: The Metal Age, System Shock 2, Arx Fatalis and Never Winter Nights, just to name a few.
Neurath returns to the adventure RPG genre with his new title Underworld: Ascendant, an experience promising dynamic relations with NPC factions that can be influenced by the players interaction with the world around them. For example stemming the flow of a river may increase your standing with one faction who proffer a dry area to inhabit while another may not appreciate your efforts quite as much.
Dynamic methods are available to complete chosen objectives, using the environment to assist in battling monsters or indeed using skills to avoid the fight completely and influence the monsters to assist you rather than hinder.
The idea behind such a system harks back to the early days of pen and paper RPG’s. Not in a mechanical sense but strangely enough a social sense. Pen and Paper RPG’s didn’t have carefully scripted events for the player to sit and watch. While titles such as The Elder Scrolls claim the ability to play the game as a character they often lack the ability for the player to really play the game in a way that faithfully represents the actions their character would make in the circumstances presented to them. Technology and design confining the player to a set list of skills and abilities and no way to interact with the virtual DM programmed into the game in order to essentially negotiate their way around an obstacle while continuing to be faithful to their characters story and design. This is precisely what Underworld: Ascendant wishes to address.
Events could be crafted by the players and dungeon master themselves, and that is what Otherside Entertainment is trying to achieve. The ability for the player to affect not just the way encounters play out, but the very encounters themselves. If successful, perhaps this will be a refreshing diversion from the ever prominent inclusion of quick time events and linear story arc’s and paths.
The universe of Underworld: Ascendant is touted to provide a set of tools to the character that the world its-self will react to in a logical fashion depending on the methods that the character uses them. Just how Underworld: Ascendant will do this on a large-scale is yet to be seen. How ever, it is my hope that this title might be the breath of fresh air the genre and gaming at large, needs to propel its self into the future.