Swords and Sorcery: Underworld Impressions

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Written by BuckGB on July 8th, 2010

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While it embraces the retro-hardcore western RPG style with a vengeance, the (bailout) function isn't the only concession it makes to modern audiences. Like Bard's Tale and the early Might & Magic games, the streets of the starting city are not safe for newbie adventurers. However, unlike the frustratingly challenging early game of Bard's Tale, early encounters aren't quite as likely to prove immediately lethal to your fledgling characters. A game mechanic I really like is that characters get a (second chance) when otherwise fatally wounded. Another hit while they are thus disabled will kill them fer real, but a quick healing spell can come in handy to save the day. This really helps make death a bit less random, but fights remain challenging and dangerous.

I also like that the game features a colorful automap. While there's a part of me that fondly remembers my careful use of pencil and graph paper to play the old games, I can't say that it was a part of the old-school experience I'd like to see return.

And so far as I can tell Underworld is Big. It's not something you are going to conquer in a couple of days. I'm not many hours into it, and I feel like I've just barely scratched the surface (though I have played through a bit of the beginning twice now). Besides lots of combat, there is a liberal assortment of puzzles and quests to make sure it's an interesting time. Charles' game really is a response to those folks (like me) who complain about how they don't make .m like they used to, and those old games were fun, dangnabbit. It's an impressive freshman effort; I'd really like to see more of this. But not right away I've still got many, many hours of dungeon-delving to do in this one first.

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