Complex Bafflingly Lists Ultima Underworld 2 As Only the 40th Best Game of All Time
Contra Time’s reasonably decent list (apart from that whole public voting fiasco), Complex’s list of the 50 greatest games of all time is rather disappointing. It list Ultima Online at #8, but the only other Ultima mention on the list is Ultima Underworld 2 at #40.
Their description is brief:
Pulled together in nine months, Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds offered players a huge update to the original with a newly 3D designed environment and a tighter plot. The game’s non-linear design also made it possible to go back to already explored areas to level-up characters. This made UU2 a welcomed addition to PC gaming’s extensive catalog.
Make of it what you will. I honestly don’t get it. And how is EVE Online in the #1 spot?
I think people forget that Ultima Underworld was one of the first real 3D games ever. It predated Doom and had a more complex/feature-rich engine.
Ok, I was going to do a typical rage post about this list… but… Starcraft 2 is rank 11 and Starcraft 1 is rank 2. So I guess this list is pretty objective. Starcraft 1 should be first and SC2 should be second though. Objective fact: Starcraft is obviously the best RTS ever made.
Who knew Beyond Good and Evil, a 9 hour long game, because I took my time, was one of the bet PC games ever.
BG&E is a very interesting game, especially conceptually. (And it’s soundtrack is killer.) Short, yes, but innovative over that tiny span. (See also: Bastion.)
The list isn’t terrible, but the inclusion of only Underworld 2 is odd. Yes, pace Enderandrew, it had a very ahead-of-its-time 3D engine, but the tech ultimately went nowhere…the pseudo-3D of Wolfenstein & Doom won out.
And it’s arguable that Ultima 4, 6, or 7 should be on the list ahead of Underworld 2 anyway, since they made much more relevant and lasting contributions to concepts like ethics & morality as a storytelling vehicle, the RPG as something other than a hack-n-slash romp, and open world/ sandbox gameplay design.
I will agree about Starcraft. I think I prefer Earth 2150 slightly, but Starcraft is still the only Blizzard game I enjoy…which is saying quite a lot.
I agree, at the very least Ultima 4,6, and/or 7 should be listed. And Starcraft is also the only Blizzard game I like.
Recently I’ve been thinking about it this way: EA makes a lot of niche games people love. Blizzard makes a few games a lot of people love and then patches them to perfection. It’s like, they know the more people play RTS, the more they’ll come to Starcraft, because it’s the pinnacle.
BG&E was a fun 9 hours, or, the dungeons were fun at least. To my memory it was innovative in the fact that it was one of the first very short games. Mostly mele weapons, platformer game. To my memory, Bastion was an npc… he did something with farting? Maybe you could jump higher because of him in certain areas? I know he was a nonplayable character. I don’t remember it very well. I remember taking pictures… like pokemon snap… which I barely did any of.
Insofar as innovation goes, I wish I had my Psychonauts save, the Milk Man level, the whole game was amazing!