Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds

released on Jan 10, 1993

In an attempt to conquer the world, The Guardian encases Castle Britannia and its occupants--including the Avatar--in a giant blackrock gem. The game takes place one year after the events of Ultima 7: The Black Gate. To celebrate the defeat of the Guardian, Lord British invites the Avatar and his companions to his castle. However, in the night of the feast the Guardian attacks again, encasing the castle in a giant gem of blackrock. Deep in the sewers of the castle, another blackrock gem resides, being a teleporter to other worlds controlled by the Guardian. Now you, the Avatar, must travel to these worlds in order to free the castle from the Guardian's spell. This sequel to Ultima Underworld plays exactly as the original, except for a larger game world, a richer storyline and better graphics and sound.


Released on

Genres

RPG


More Info on IGDB


Reviews View More

King's Field is such an underrated hidden gem amirite or amirite my fellow gAmers

Both Ultima Underworld games are two of the most important and revolutionary in the medium’s history. The technological leap that the games had in graphics with the introduction of a refined form of texture mapping for video games and the fact that every developer in North America in the early 90s knew each other would lead to a phone call between Paul Neurath and John Romero that would lead to the creation of Catacomb 3-D and Wolfenstein 3D over at id Software, thus birthing an offshoot of immersive sims that was not simulated or immersive but a massively marketable simplicity of combat mechanics resulting in the birth of the evergreen FPS genre; or for those who only care about gaming through the lens of Japan: the entire creation of FromSoftware who’s King's Field series and later Dark Souls owes much to the level design and simulated lives of characters that Ultima Underworld birthed — even if From’s games, like many other titles that maybe or maybe not are named The Elder Scrolls that Underworld influenced, didn’t further or even utilize any of its more revolutionary gameplay mechanics and seem to be more of a homage consisting of “hey, remember Ultima Underworld? Cool games.” Which, to be fair, they are cool games.

Labyrinth of Worlds is a sequel to The Stygian Abyss in design but in terms of its place in the Ultima franchise overall it is a sequel to Ultima VII, taking place exactly a year after that game ends as Lord British invites the Avatar (that’s you) to his castle for a celebratory feast on the anniversary of the Guardian’s (that’s the bad guy) defeat only for that buzzkill to show up once more and trap the entire castle underneath a mountain of blackstone. The Stygian Abyss’ narrative was not its strong suit, the entire synopsis can be boiled down to a few words on you having to go down deep into a dungeon to rescue a princess. The immersion of its gameplay mechanics is what you’re playing that game for. In Labyrinth of Worlds, the immersive and emergent gameplay systems of its predecessor are dialed up even further as well as having a narrative that while still a normal enough fantasy affair on its surface, is oozing with charm and heart that you can now immerse yourself into as an agent in the world.

The overall level design of Labyrinth of Worlds is much stronger as well, take for example one of the first locations in the game: the prison tower. While a small location made up of eight floors that all seem to be around four square feet, the strength of the level is shown in its possibilities for approach. As per all immersive sims that have come after Ultima Underworld the levels are crafted to be engaged with in an emergent way that you uncover or outright create rather than having its solutions shown to you. The prison tower can be handled like in any other old dungeon crawler: violence. But this is likely to be difficult as Labyrinth of Worlds varies creature levels far more than its predecessor which helps the world feel much more alive and so while it is doable to kill every goblin on the level and free the prisoners to advance the story it would likely prove challenging to most and so there is also a more nuanced approach to take where through certain dialogue choices you can hide your identity as the Avatar and instead impersonate an interrogator which will allow you to procure the keys needed to unlock the prison cells and release a friendly troll who will kill the goblin guards for you, netting you zero experience points and instead experiencing a far more intricate outcome that few games outside the genre can generate. This is just one early example, but fret not over any suspicion that the game peaks in its design philosophy early: every level is like this. Labyrinth of Worlds is expertly crafted, whereas The Stygian Abyss consisted of eight floors to its one massive dungeon its sequel consists of eight planes of a multiverse that you travel to which all vary in size and scope. A lesser game would crumble under this ambition but Labyrinth only forged ahead, much to the credit of the games designers all being attached to one plane rather than all of them at once over the course of its development. This approach makes every plane distinct, a favorite of mine is the two-floored plane of Talorus where you meet the aptly named Talorids, who seem like the genesis for why Looking Glass went down the sci-fi route for their next game as you traverse this world composed of AI robots and teleporters with walls adorned with colorful lights rather than torches.

Every new area in Labyrinth needed to sing because you’re going to spend far more time in its levels than any floor of the Stygian Abyss as Labyrinth takes a non-linear approach to exploration with you constantly unlocking new areas amongst already explored zones as you uncover the connective tissue between all of the worlds through the main story in order to defeat the Guardian. While The Stygian Abyss drags in its pacing occasionally due to its backtracking through areas that often look identical, Labyrinth stays fresh by constantly changing themes and setting that ebb and flow wonderfully into its emergent design and narrative.

Speaking of theme, the character work is far more dynamic as well. The foundations from The Stygian Abyss remain: you don’t have to and should not murder hobo your way through the areas as every character has an emotional spectrum that can be increased or decreased by how you interact with them except for outright hostile mobs who will always attack you on sight. You will come across many NPCs throughout the world but this time the game was written by Austin Grossman (who would go on to be a writer for System Shock, Deus Ex, and the first two Dishonored games) in his first ever writing credit in his now stellar career; the twenty-somethings straight out of MIT that filled Looking Glass’ studio at the time were all rookies when they made this game and it doesn’t show. The NPCs are all more lively and richer in character and theme than in the previous title and as the Avatar you can interact with them more fully as you would in the mainline Ultima games. An early part where this arises is when a group of servants threaten to go on a labor strike unless you tell Lord British to start being class conscious; it is a minor change: you can beat the game no matter what — as per the course with immersive sims your character’s actions are reflections of your agency on said character rather than on the overall narrative. Situations like these are not uncommon in the game, since the game utilizes Lord British’s castle as a hub world that you are constantly returning to, as select characters function as trainers for you to level up your skills (as opposed to Stygian’s Shrine system). This also lets you feel for the cast and interact with them more, Stygian Abyss’ flaw is that when you had talked to the NPCs of a floor once you rarely ever had to again, but your experience would be actively hampered if you were to ignore the inhabitants of the castle in Labyrinth as they are both reactive to what you do throughout the game but also independent actors with their own schedules that converge into various situations that heighten the game's storytelling. These details, with how characters react in response to how you handle situations or even how they interact with each other when you are traversing other planes to combat the Guardian’s foul plot reveal an unparalleled amount of ludonarrative consistency that is nowhere to be found in games before it and only rivaled within the immersive sim genre that it created. Grossman’s writing in this regard pushes the game to a new height of immersion that shows why both Ultima Underworlds created an entirely new genre rather than just being another dungeon crawler with no heart or mind behind it.

While the Ultima Underworld games are sometimes looked back on as being unrefined in comparison to the immersive sims that came after them, saying that should not be a negative. Looking Glass hit it out of the park in these games and even if not as crazy bonkers with simulation as latter games in the genre the increase in ambition and avenues for emergent gameplay to arise from The Stygian Abyss to Labyrinth of Worlds shows and would only continue as seen in their next game which was…oh yeah, System Shock. Few gaming studios are so lucky to have a track record that is not only revolutionary but meaningful, with care and intent dripping from every design choice to make one of gaming’s first wholly consistent experiences that few games have replicated since.