MMORPG.de Interviews Paul Neurath About Underworld Ascension
MMORPG.de conducted an interview with Other Side Entertainment’s Paul Neurath, which of course was about Underworld Ascension (although Ultima Underworld gets mentioned a few times, and screenshots from that game grace the article). It’s all in German, so if that isn’t one of the lingilies you spreckenzie, you’re basically out of luck. Unless someone wants to take on the task of translating the interview, of course.
I just used Google translate… it was good enough to know that, like RSI, Paul seems to understand the true value of his IP. He seems to know that people want a continuation of the experience and feature set that only tweaks the mechanics to bring them up to modern standards, rather than things being dropped, dumbed down, made ‘social, etc. I am QUITE happy.
Take for example, his response to the interviewer’s loaded question on food. He actually confirms they want to try to keep it in there, and even expands the discussion to ‘resources’ (which i presume means light!). Excellent… one of the things modern games have neglected is that a true dungeon crawl experience needs fear and darkness (I am looking at you, Skyrim).
That’s promising.
That’s good news. I agree about the food thing. Like anything else, there’s the much-loathed incorrect way, like in the early Ultimas, then the right way, where yes you need to eat but it’s not a perpetual dark cloud souring every step of your play experience. I just hope they don’t try to do too much, but stay focused on what made UU great. Otherwise it’ll turn into another TES game, where you can indeed do EVERYTHING, but any one thing is usually a bit “meh”.