Underworld - Gold Preview @ RPG Codex

Underworld Gold has been previewed in a short article at RPG Codex:

One thing that is new in Underworld Gold are the avatars of your characters. Every combination of race, gender and class has a unique portrait, making it a total of 48 different character sprites. These avatars, together with other overhauled graphical assets, maintain a good standard and are a lot more professional and consistent than the graphical assets used in the old version of the game.

The interface has also been graphically enhanced. It retains the same layout as before and it is still just as keyboard and/or mouse friendly. As you can see in the comparison shots below, the Gold version preserves the ability to assign hotkeys to everything that you can click on. Really handy, I must say.

More information.

You know that you are playing the same game, but the difference is night and day, from graphics to the smoothing out of the UI.

This game looks really good to me. I'm a big fan of Might and Magic games from 3DO.

Demo is here: http://www.classicgamesremade.com/underworld-details

Originally Posted by CoarseDragon
This game looks really good to me. I'm a big fan of Might and Magic games from 3DO.

Demo is here: http://www.classicgamesremade.com/underworld-details

Thanks for the shoutout

Actually it isn't. I released it… sporadically but since it still needs quite a bit of work it isn't on my site yet. Also the version I released got a few bug reports (thanks Santos, and others) so I'd really just recommend waiting a bit longer… If anyone here is still interested after two years and eight builds that is

Also I'll be announcing a sequel shortly after the final UW release. At this stage it has a logo and many, many outdoor & indoor environments done. It soon will have a title page and load bar.

Even the original version was a great game. Anyone who liked the old M&M games should jump on this. Definitely looking forward to 'gold' along with the sequel.

Yep, my review of the original version should still be around here somewhere for those who missed it!!

This looks truly fantastically now, but… Where's the promiscuous tavern-lady gone to?

Originally Posted by Zerotown
This looks truly fantastically now, but… Where's the promiscuous tavern-lady gone to?

I'm striving for a PG rating to appeal to the masses

But, but…

a). PG still allows for well-drawn (yet properly attired) ladies, right?
b). the masses (for this type of game) = mostly male players aged 25-50, I imagine?

I see a lot of reasons to re-introduce tavern-wenches. (Just kidding btw… I understand your reason and will certainly purchace the game when released!)

Good reading, thanks for the link. Waiting for the release with great interest.

However, one thing worries me. I've never been a fan of "blind encounters," where you never see the enemies in the distance and encounters always just pop up on you (you just managed to stumble on a group of orcs/zombies/dragons just like that and Boom! Encounter!). I understand this is how the game works and I'm ready to adjust for that, but if there are frequent encounters even inside friendly towns (as the preview states), I fear it'll quickly become VERY frustrating. I don't care for combat every 3 steps I take. Hopefully there will be a good demo of the game, as I need to test the encounter frequency out before purchasing the game.

There will naturally be a demo and random encounters are set to not happen until at least 8 steps before the previous and at most 30. I don't know if that reassures you, but random encounters are an integral part of the game, contributing to much of the experience (there are also fixed encounters that disregard the 8-30 rule and of course bosses and quests contributing as well).

This game should be on GOG now since they also have indie games in their catalogue.

I thought Underworld was a little too retro for my tastes, but I haven't kept track of Charles' updates. Back when I first played it, it was much more like M&M 1, with all the limitations that entailed. I believe inventory was 5 or 6 slots and there were perhaps 20 spells in the whole game. It may have changed though. I did finish it though, mostly from pure obstinance and I wanted to provide criticism. Hopefully the changes will be welcome. While I would never subject myself to Underworld again, I will look at the 2nd game's demo at least. If Charles upgrades to an MM3 level for his next game, I'll be a very happy camper.

I liked Underworld reasonably well (though I got tired of it before I got too close to finishing it). I do agree with your criticisms though, I love retro and indie games, but in some cases Underworld seemed to be too retro. As well as limitations existing that had no reason to exist in a modern game, at times the interface seemed designed to be intentionally clunky/awkward in order to give the feel of the clunky interfaces we knew and "loved" back in the day.

But if your nostalgic for MM 1, you can't do too much better then Underworld. It will contain many, many familiar elements. Unlike MM1 it also has a little plot too and there is a little extra complexity.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
I thought Underworld was a little too retro for my tastes, but I haven't kept track of Charles' updates. Back when I first played it, it was much more like M&M 1, with all the limitations that entailed. I believe inventory was 5 or 6 slots and there were perhaps 20 spells in the whole game. It may have changed though. I did finish it though, mostly from pure obstinance and I wanted to provide criticism. Hopefully the changes will be welcome. While I would never subject myself to Underworld again, I will look at the 2nd game's demo at least. If Charles upgrades to an MM3 level for his next game, I'll be a very happy camper.

Originally Posted by Dark Savant
This game should be on GOG now since they also have indie games in their catalogue.

Gog turned it down, but I believe they didn't try it (answer came real fast, invoking lack of testing resources and imminent release of the 2012 catalog).

Perhaps the sequel…

Other than that Underworld made it to MM2 combat-wise with the implementation of distance management and the new tactical options build a bit on that foundation (giving both the player and enemy AI control over who is in melee and who isn't). MM3 requires animated mobs (with 100 mobs that is quite a budget), but even beyond that sacrifices distance management and its tactical aspects. The whole party is at the front row, either in hand-to-hand combat at all times, or ranged. It just isn't something I want to emulate. Especially the kiting part. Sorry Nut

I did add inventory slots (9x2 per character) and tons of loot as a direct result of Nut's criticism though. Take some and leave some

Yep, which means that I'll give U2 a looksie. I just wasn't enamored enough of US&S enough to replay. Still, I'll give the U2 demo a look for sure to see what your new vision looks like.