Maybe I’m behind the times, but I had no idea Kweepa’s Unity Underground even existed until a friend mentioned it in passing. Which is a little embarrassing, because it turns out to be a complete, playable recreation of Ultima Underworld, realized with the Unity engine. Its author has been chipping away at it for over a decade:

I’ve been working on this since 2015, and wouldn’t have been possible without previous hackers’ generosity in sharing their results.

It’s an engine recreation built in Unity, with new 3D models and sounds. Every enemy is fully modelled and animated, as are the inventory and environment objects, and there are new audio and particle effects to go with them. You’ll still need the original game data to play. On first launch you can point it at your GOG installation folder, or let it go looking for the files itself. It runs on Windows, and plays with either an Xbox-style controller or (since a June update) mouse and keyboard.

The devlog has been busy, too. In August, Kweepa added a texture override folder, so you can drop in your own replacements for walls, floors and doors. He’d also consider bundling a good community-made graphics set with the game “if everyone agrees.” A few weeks later, he made the whole thing open source, with the code now on GitHub. A few store-bought assets had to come out first, so the open version won’t look or sound exactly like the release build.

And as of late September, the project is under new management. Massimo (“unbroken75“) has taken up the reins, and has a clear goal in mind:

My current goal is to make Underground more faithful to the original game, while also adding modern features to make it more accessible to new players.

His first release reworks combat and magic to follow the original rules more closely, adds quicksaves and autosaves, makes the Search and Traps skills worth having again, and fixes a long list of bugs. (The changelog also notes that “a specific pouch that was always empty is full again.” Good to know.)

If you were hoping for Ultima Underworld II next, don’t hold your breath. Kweepa reckons the sequel would take about six months of concentrated work, “more than I’m prepared to put in.” He’s also not taking donations, since he doesn’t own the IP.

The current build is free on the game’s itch.io page. It’s about 426 MB, and you’ll need your own copy of Ultima Underworld. I’ve also built a project entry for it here at the Codex, though I’m not mirroring the download at present.