New on GOG: Inherit the Earth
This has nothing whatsoever to do with Ultima; this is just one of those games that I really enjoy much, much more than I should, and thus cannot shut up about.
By which I mean: Inherit the Earth, which was released on GOG today.
It was a Dreamers Guild game, designed primarily by David Joiner (or ‘Talin’, as he goes by). And it was set in a world in which humanity had mysteriously vanished:
In this amazing story, humans are but the stuff of legends, a thing of the past long gone. Animals are the new rulers and they starting to resemble us in many ways, taking on our merits and flaws as a species. There is much uncertainty about the fate of humans and the origins of the animals civilization, and there are many secrets to uncover. One unwilling adventurer will face all the mysteries he wouldn’t even dream of as his quest to clear his good name takes him on an unexpected journey.
The exact fate of humanity is never explained in the game, apart from some tantalizing pieces of information that are included as scenery later in the game. The graphics blend take a slightly different approach to the mid-1990s adventure gaming concept, offering an isometric perspective and large scenes that can be strolled through (in addition to an overland map that is divided into two halves, each of which can be more or less freely explored.
The plot gets a bit contrived in some cases, and the Dreamers Guild weren’t able to make the game as adult-focused as they wanted (e.g. there’s nothing that will result in you getting killed in the game), but for the most part it still tells a tight, intriguing story, and the developers obviously had some fun imagining what roles various species of animals (uplifted to sapience, mind you) might play in a post-human world.
Seriously…check this one out if until now you haven’t. It’s a longer game, to be sure, but enjoyable, and even thought-provoking at times. It’s a pity the sequels never got made.
Oh, and: While you’re at GOG, consider picking up Chaos Overlords. It’s an older strategy game with strong cyberpunk overtones, and it’s surprisingly fun for a game that has you staring at a grid for the most part. For added cool, dig up a copy of the soundtrack to the original Matrix film and play that in the background; it works marvelously well.
I remember this game. The concept was neat (even though FURRIES) but I remember it feeling disjointed and unfinished by the end.
Unfinished, maybe, in the sense that it ends in a way that rather obviously telegraphs the planned sequel. Which of course never materialized.
The furries thing came later…furry subculture didn’t really exist (or wasn’t a big thing) at the time the game shipped, and it was kind of adopted as a furry game after the fact. For obvious reasons, I suppose…but honestly, I think its avenue of speculation was rather intriguing. The whole idea of an extinct humanity leaving the world to uplifted creatures…
Author John C. Wright had some fun around a similar concept earlier this year, albeit with a specifically Easter-minded bent. Great read, that was.
The game was released in ’94 and the first furry convention was held in 1987. The Usenet/NNTP group alt.fan.furry was created in 1990. Normally I wouldn’t take the time to research these things, but I’m fairly frustrated right now so figured said research would be my preamble to smoking a bowl of righteous shit. OpenGL programmers, for the love of whatever people hold dear these days, please hook me up with the programming logic for a freaking billboard with respect to previous modelview matrix transformations.
And Furcadia has some relationship to Ultima, no?