Ultima Underworld - Interview @ PC Gamer

PC Gamer had the chance to interview Paul Neurath in a new video to discuss the old Ultima Underworld games, and his new game Underworld Ascension.

Paul Neurath, the designer of Ultima Underworld, spends an hour talking about the making of this groundbreaking first-person 3D RPG. Neurath is working on an Ultima Underworld revival called Underworld Ascension.

More information.

The first UU was one of my favourite games of all time. Not sure though how an updated version would differ, in a good way, from the rash of single character open world games that have appeared since then.

So it's likely it wont be a proper RPG, i take it that it will be based on ""immersion"", like BioShock was compared to System Shock who had "unnecessary RPG elements" (if you would believe people like Ken Levine and, it seems, Paul Neurath). Meh.

I didn't get that from his words, really. Unless, by proper, you mean needlessly elaborate because of tradition.

He said they could have focused on immersion instead of having superfluous RPG elements that served no purpose, like the pointless character generation in Ultima Underworld.

Reading between the lines, I think he's about immersion and emergent gameplay first - which doesn't exclude deep or complex mechanics.

But Bioshock came out as a pure shooter for 100% financial reasons.

I very much doubt this game will be a streamlined shooter, but it doesn't have to be a complex RPG, either.

If we get System Shock in a dungeon environment, I'll be one happy camper.

As for the interview, I guess I never followed the story too closely in UU - as I'd forgotten that it was a fallen Utopia.

Seems to me almost every thing Levine did with the first Bioshock was taken directly from UU and SS, and made inferior.

I actually thought the Utopia gone bad concept of Rapture was one of the few things that came from Levine's mind - but even that he took from UU….

We all know that the company went from UUW to Thief which was a good game but not an RPG. Needles to say they're probably focusing on a more streamlined experience, probably more so than Thief. With the success of Bioshock and Dishonored, it's likely it will be something very similar to that. I'll gladly eat my words if not though

"If we get System Shock in a dungeon environment, I'll be one happy camper."

Totally agree.

Originally Posted by vurt
We all know that the company went from UUW to Thief which was a good game but not an RPG. Needles to say they're probably focusing on a more streamlined experience, probably more so than Thief. With the success of Bioshock and Dishonored, it's likely it will be something very similar to that. I'll gladly eat my words if not though

This isn't "the company" - and System Shock 2 came after Thief.

I'm going by his words in that interview, though - as I don't think looking at whatever they happened to do last after they had a major struggle making SS2 a minor success with EA as a publisher is a rational or wise way to guage the true intentions of one person on the team 15 years later.

That would be a pretty doomsaying attitude, but whatever floats your boat

AFAIK, there's no publisher announced yet. Maybe it'll be more akin to a crowdfunded game? If so, it could be a quite a hit before it's even released.

When he said that, I felt the same kind of concern. I just remember Matt Findley of inXile saying something very similar when they were promoting Demon's Forge. Which I don't even see advertised on their company website anymore. They've backtracked pretty hard with Torment and Wasteland 2.

So I'm hoping he's just saying that the character creation process was given more attention than it was due. In UU, the numbers and stats were more of a background thing anyway. They were always there, doing their magic, and you could tell the difference as the game progressed and your character improved - which is the important thing. But they didn't need to be front and center.

Missed this news when it was announced a few days ago. It's awesome, can't wait to see what they come up with. It's raining RPGs.

Yup, I'm ready to toss cash at this. UU kept me quite busy for several months back in the 90's, nothing but good memories associated with both titles for me. This is the kind of stuff I like to see making a comeback.

A fascinating interview, thanks for posting Couch. I'm not going to needlessly prognosticate based upon the information we have so far, but I do share Mr Coyote's hopeful sentiment regarding what Paul had to say about stats and character creation. Can't wait to hear more conceptual stuff on interactivity and the nature of the setting.