Ultimate Underworld: The Stygian Abyss

Play it on: PC (Available on GOG)
Current goal: Finally beat it after over 30 years

Each summer, the big online PC storefronts offer colossal sales that have thousands of gamers flocking to buy titles for 75 or 90 percent off, deals so good we can’t pass them up, even though, if we’re honest with ourselves, we may never get around to playing half of the games we buy in our mad shopping frenzy. And this year, it wasn’t Steam’s legendary summer sale that had me lusting to expand my library, but the one over at GOG.com. For whatever reason, lately I’ve been feeling the itch to experience older PC classics I missed out on when they first released, or to return to ones I never finished, and so this summer saw my GOG library expand to the tune of dozens of games, all picked up on the cheap.

And right now, the game in my GOG library that’s calling to me like no other is Ultima Underworld, the absolutely remarkable 1992 first-person role-playing game that made you feel immersed in its environments like no game had before. Considered by some the first example of an immersive sim, Ultima Underworld has had a level of influence and impact on the medium that few games can match. And although, of course, by today’s standards it all looks and feels pretty basic, for me there’s something really compelling about it all—the charm of its interface, with that gargoyle sneering over the gameplay window; the way the jagged, pixel-y graphics just make the stones of the dungeon look that more rough-hewn; the Sound Blaster-ass music, which adapts on the fly to the kind of situation you’re in. If you’ve never played it and you consider yourself someone with an interest in game history, I highly recommend delving into the Stygian Abyss one of these days, and experiencing the Origin (™) of one of the great gaming genres.— Carolyn Petit