Underworld Ascendant

Ultima Underworld’s successor has nice ideas, but they’re not original

- James Davenport

Using a physics engine to throw a box at a skeleton’s head isn’t a particularly exciting or new idea, but it’s being presented as an exemplary expression of player freedom in Underworld Ascendant. You can also put out torches with water arrows to better stay hidden, or build magic bridges out of the weird abundance of boxes lying around the Stygian Abyss.

It’s the same assortment of simple chemistry and physics magic we’ve been performing in games since Half-Life 2 made boxes cool. But for all the talk OtherSide Entertainment’s marketing has generated about how Underworld Ascendant will move the immersivesim genre forward, I was surprised by how dated it feels in practice.