LGR - Descent To Undermountain - DOS PC Game Review
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Date: 2022-04-14
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Comments and reviews: 9
Cephalopod51
Even though Descent to Undermountain suffered from bad development and unresolved bugs, I'm already intrigued by the game based on your review. The decision to use Descent's engine for DtU sounds inspired, and I really like the visuals and graphics for this game. It's looks and plays like a Descent version of Ultima Underworld. But as you said, the game was incomplete, and that numerous bugs ruined the experience. I don't know if it can be fixed by patches, or if it can only work if remade on a different engine. I'm surprised that the D&D game developers didn't try to license engines like Quake and Unreal for potential games in the late 90s. I sometimes wish there were D&D games that used Hexen, Half-Life, and Deus Ex as templates. Even Dungeon Keeper would've made a good base for a D&D game. Still, I think DtU could inspire potential modders a game designers to do a better executed combination of D&D and Descent.
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Even though Descent to Undermountain suffered from bad development and unresolved bugs, I'm already intrigued by the game based on your review. The decision to use Descent's engine for DtU sounds inspired, and I really like the visuals and graphics for this game. It's looks and plays like a Descent version of Ultima Underworld. But as you said, the game was incomplete, and that numerous bugs ruined the experience. I don't know if it can be fixed by patches, or if it can only work if remade on a different engine. I'm surprised that the D&D game developers didn't try to license engines like Quake and Unreal for potential games in the late 90s. I sometimes wish there were D&D games that used Hexen, Half-Life, and Deus Ex as templates. Even Dungeon Keeper would've made a good base for a D&D game. Still, I think DtU could inspire potential modders a game designers to do a better executed combination of D&D and Descent.
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Talking
I remember getting this game just because of the multiplayer info on the box. yeah.
I actually beat the game, despite its mountain of flaws; it was such a disappointment when I first fought the drow mages, they literally had no spells programmed on them, they just stood there floating while I cut them down.
There was, though, this amazing moment when I entered the temple of Nerull (if I remember correctly, and he spoke directly to your character, promising death for trespassing into the temple; that was creepy, in a sort of ominously pixelated way.
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I remember getting this game just because of the multiplayer info on the box. yeah.
I actually beat the game, despite its mountain of flaws; it was such a disappointment when I first fought the drow mages, they literally had no spells programmed on them, they just stood there floating while I cut them down.
There was, though, this amazing moment when I entered the temple of Nerull (if I remember correctly, and he spoke directly to your character, promising death for trespassing into the temple; that was creepy, in a sort of ominously pixelated way.
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Jayce
Even Order of the Griffon re-used that Clyde Caldwell art piece. It had already been used as the cover art for at least one Forgotten Realms AD&D product (one of the booklets inside the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting boxed set, the 1987 novel Spellfire, and I believe it was also used in one of the Forgotten Realms calendars that TSR used to release annually in the late 80s/early 90s. By the time Descent to Undermountain was released the box art was well over a decade old and this marked the fourth or fifth time it was used in a product.
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Even Order of the Griffon re-used that Clyde Caldwell art piece. It had already been used as the cover art for at least one Forgotten Realms AD&D product (one of the booklets inside the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting boxed set, the 1987 novel Spellfire, and I believe it was also used in one of the Forgotten Realms calendars that TSR used to release annually in the late 80s/early 90s. By the time Descent to Undermountain was released the box art was well over a decade old and this marked the fourth or fifth time it was used in a product.
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kilroy987
I had an interview at Outrage Entertainment while they were developing Descent 3. I asked them if they had anything to do with Descent into Undermountain and the two devs put their hands up and said, -We don't have anything to do with that! - That was kinda funny. This is a great example of a game where someone really needed to think about the tech available and what a fun game made with it would feel and seem like, and aim for that instead of just satisfying the spec requirements without regular evaluation of fun value.
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I had an interview at Outrage Entertainment while they were developing Descent 3. I asked them if they had anything to do with Descent into Undermountain and the two devs put their hands up and said, -We don't have anything to do with that! - That was kinda funny. This is a great example of a game where someone really needed to think about the tech available and what a fun game made with it would feel and seem like, and aim for that instead of just satisfying the spec requirements without regular evaluation of fun value.
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Ezydenias
False Advertisement is actually illegal in germany. Like just as much as putting the wrong picture to the wrong label, for example selling a asus videocard but putting in a picture of a gigabyte grafics card is false Advertisement, even if it is similar. But only if you give a crap becsause nobody does and the legal way is way to bothersime, so just send it back if it is the wrong card. Which is all the laws just say that now they are legally forced to take it back if you desire so.
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False Advertisement is actually illegal in germany. Like just as much as putting the wrong picture to the wrong label, for example selling a asus videocard but putting in a picture of a gigabyte grafics card is false Advertisement, even if it is similar. But only if you give a crap becsause nobody does and the legal way is way to bothersime, so just send it back if it is the wrong card. Which is all the laws just say that now they are legally forced to take it back if you desire so.
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Trumble
I got this game at a discount computer store in the early 2000's, my dad was buying a new power supply for one of his towers and the box art jumped out at me and I wanted it, it was only like 5$ so he bought it for me. I wanted so bad for it to work, but sadly I thought our IBM Aptiva just wasn't up to the task. I remember staring at that loading screen so many times only for the game to freeze and crash. Now I'm guessing I might've just gotten a bad copy of it.
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I got this game at a discount computer store in the early 2000's, my dad was buying a new power supply for one of his towers and the box art jumped out at me and I wanted it, it was only like 5$ so he bought it for me. I wanted so bad for it to work, but sadly I thought our IBM Aptiva just wasn't up to the task. I remember staring at that loading screen so many times only for the game to freeze and crash. Now I'm guessing I might've just gotten a bad copy of it.
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Brian
It does look like crap, but the illusionary walls thing wasn't exactly new to this game. Pretty much every first person (or proto-first person) CRPG has them and they are often required. Eye of the Beholder has them, Ultima Underworld has them, and Stonekeep has them. Stonekeep is actually pretty fun, even though it's clunky, but it's another Interplay CRPG job. At least Fargo was in the helm for that one.
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It does look like crap, but the illusionary walls thing wasn't exactly new to this game. Pretty much every first person (or proto-first person) CRPG has them and they are often required. Eye of the Beholder has them, Ultima Underworld has them, and Stonekeep has them. Stonekeep is actually pretty fun, even though it's clunky, but it's another Interplay CRPG job. At least Fargo was in the helm for that one.
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Desther
So, a 1st person dungeon crawler that manages to be buggier than an Elder Scrolls game! Also, I guess that was meant to be the same inn and dungeon as that was featured so much better in the Hordes of the Underdark expansion to Neverwinter Nights. There is a CRPG that I would absolutely recommend to anyone, and I hear it has an enhanced release on the way.
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So, a 1st person dungeon crawler that manages to be buggier than an Elder Scrolls game! Also, I guess that was meant to be the same inn and dungeon as that was featured so much better in the Hordes of the Underdark expansion to Neverwinter Nights. There is a CRPG that I would absolutely recommend to anyone, and I hear it has an enhanced release on the way.
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Veraxis
Reminds me a lot of the old Might and Magic games. MM7 was my jam back in the day. It was very fun to play, and while I remember it fondly, I'll be the first to admit that it suffered from the usual complexity and obtuseness that many oldschool PC RPGs suffered from at the time, particularly going into the late game.
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Reminds me a lot of the old Might and Magic games. MM7 was my jam back in the day. It was very fun to play, and while I remember it fondly, I'll be the first to admit that it suffered from the usual complexity and obtuseness that many oldschool PC RPGs suffered from at the time, particularly going into the late game.
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