[typing]
Now before we get to talking about today's game itself,
it'd be a good idea to
get a little bit of context to understand the significance
of what it is
that I am actually reviewing.
And that means that we've gotta talk about Descent.
Descent was a huge hit when Interplay launched it in late 1994.
It took elements from flight sims and the rising first-person shooter genre
and added 360-degree exploration and a killer sci-fi aesthetic
and left gamers clamoring for more.
While a sequel was already in the works,
Interplay management decided Descent's engine should be combined
with their shiny new license Dungeons and Dragons.
In fact, these managers had such confidence in the new engine
that they figured they'd have a new D&D game using reworked Descent code
in just six months.
They hired an independent contractor to program it
and assigned various Interplay veterans to the project
and told them to get it done fast.
Without hesitation, they got the marketing hype train started,
and began teasing the first "true" 3D D&D game
coming soon!
Of course, these weren't game developers calling the shots,
but what could go wrong with turning Descent into an RPG?
Ah, you know, only everything.
Fast-forward to three years later, and the project is in ruins,
with a budget that had ballooned to six times the original plan,
and multiple devs having come and gone.
They still had mutliplayer to finish
and single player to get running properly,
but 1998 was a mere handful of weeks away
and they'd already spent so much on the project,
so Interplay said screw it,
scrapped the multiplayer and just released what was left of single player without notice.
The result was Descent to Undermountain,
developed by a bunch of people under the Interplay banner
and published by Interplay Entertainment for Christmas of 1997.
And hey, at least it has some stellar artwork on the front cover
by none other that fantasy artist extraordinaire Clyde Caldwell.
Too bad it's got nothing to do with the game at all
and was already used for another D&D video game years earlier,
Order of the Griffon.
Yep. Interplay was scrounging around for scraps even for the box art,
but is that really surprising?
Now this is the German release of the game
and while I don't speak German, I can figure out that it states you get
"multiplayer action with modem or network options for four players."
Yeez. Seems that someone didn't get the memo
and now we have glaring false advertising. Just lovely.
Inside of "Deceit of Undermountain,"
you get the game inside a jewel case,
as well as the manual, which is quite substantial
as you might expect for a D&D title.
Well, a normal D&D title at least,
because knowing how this one came together,
I would not have been surprised to see this inside instead.
Descent to Undermountain begins with an intro video.
Er, I think it does,
but I'm not sure because I've never actually seen it load
since it just freezes every time.
I'll just assume it's a masterpiece and move onto the splash screen,
which is, uh...
Well, it's a piece of something all right.
Once it's done loading,
you get possibly the cheapest-looking menu I think I've ever seen
in a supposed big-budget game.
Oh, and you may or may not have sound or music,
depending on your sound card,
since it only supports the Creative Sound Blaster.
Like, that's it.
No clones or compatibles allowed.
They even had to patch in Sound Blaster Pro support
because the base game didn't have it
and I wish I was kidding.
Start a new game and you can pick either a male or female from six different races:
Human, Elf, Half-elf,
Drow, Dwarf and Halfling.
Then you get to choose up to two classes:
Fighter, Cleric, Mage or Thief.
And yeah, that means a lot of the staples are missing,
like Paladin, Bard, Ranger and so on,
but hey, at least you get four.
It could have been like, not... four.
Next up, it's time to roll your Advanced Dungeons & Dragons stats,
then assign them and some bonus points
to Strength, Dexterity, Constitution,
Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
Then name your character and choose from a variety of
bizarre, colorful and creatively strange portraits.
Some of these practically write their own biographies. They're great!
You can also choose whatever moral and ethical alignment you like,
as long as you don't like evil,
because there is no evil allowed in Undermountain,
only lollipops and rainbows.
Now as you might have guessed,
the Descent to Undermountain is so-named
for its usage of the Descent engine,
but it's also a double meaning due to its premise.
It's based on the AD&D Forgotten Realms campaign,
specifically descending into the depths
of the infamous dungeon of Undermountain,
beneath the streets of Waterdeep.
Your job as a noob is to help the High Mage, Khelben Blackstaff,
clean up the waste of Undermountain
and in the process become rich,
legendary and legendarily rich.
Once you finish bothering Blackstaff with your finger,
it's time to exit his tower
and enter Yawning Portal Inn
and wander around inside.
You can chat up the barflies,
barge into people's rooms,
get stuck on level geometry,
and have everyone try to murder you.
Seriously, I died before I even got into the dungeon
because it glitchily decided the bartender hated me as soon as I entered.
Boom! You lose! Instant skeleton on a pillow.
Well, anyway if you can get past the–
Aw, come on! Seriously?!
All right, let's try this again.
You can talk to some folks
but they're possessed by the spirits of bad programming.
Aahhh, so ignore them
and head up the main attraction,
the entrance to Undermountain.
Enter the well in the middle of the building
and you'll be taken down to the first hub of the game,
which features multiple dungeon entrances.
The more you play, the more you'll unlock,
and the more hubs you'll find,
so there's no sense in wasting time,
especially when the game could crash at any moment.
Undermountain plays more or less like other first-person CRPGs of its day,
so expect to find all the complex keyboard commands
and hotkeys you could ask for.
However, it also includes mouse controls
that allow you to look around with total freedom.
The manual refers to this as "immersive mode,"
and this means that you can interact with the environment
just like you would in a first-person shooter.
And, man, I'm glad it's here
because without it, I wouldn't be immersed,
and that would be non-immersive.
So, yeah, you can play whatever role you want,
which in this case means that you've got the same story arc as everyone else,
but it's up to you as to how to spend your hard-earned experience points.
And the primary way of earning XP
is to swat down monsters and assorted baddies.
Click on them 'til they die, basically.
If you've got magic, use spells.
If you've got religion, use God.
If you've got muscles, use cutlery.
And if you've got kleptomania,
sneak around and die too easily.
Of course, if you chose a mixed class,
then you can classily mix things up a bit, but you get the idea.
You navigate a labyrinth until you find something interesting
and something is probably already there that wants you dead,
so you kill it, you move onto the next interesting thing.
And if you don't find anything interesting,
you traipse around and hate yourself for being so stupid
until you find out what the game wants.
And in Undermountain,
the game usually wants you to be as anal-retentive as possible,
because often the only way forward
is through an obscure sequence of events.
What I mean is, you'll run into switch puzzles and hidden passageways
like they're going out of style.
And that kind of did go out of style, thank goodness,
but you know what I mean.
The game relies heavily on flipping switches
and illusionary walls for its progression,
and while I can understand the former,
the latter just bothers me.
Illusionary walls?
These are walls that look exactly like normal walls,
except they aren't, and you can pass right through them.
There are abilities that help locate some of these,
but most of the time, finding them is down to sheer luck and stubbornness.
Using these walls to hide secret places is one thing,
but constantly using them as vital passageways to even get through a level?
Is that really necessary?
Especially when the rest of the game is so bugged out
and the levels are so repetitively maze-like.
Not to mention the AI being all over the place
and brutally unforgiving.
Nothing quite like surviving a swarm of
powerful zombies or skeletons with full health left,
only to be promptly picked apart by a few rats.
I genuinely don't get it
because half time I could take down a boss with no problem
and then get cut down to size by a malnourished bat.
And then their corpses will float in the air at eye level,
just to taunt and remind me
how much time and health I've wasted on them,
the jerks!
And the rest of the game just isn't compelling enough to be very noteworthy
because while there is some fascinating stuff to do
regarding deeper dungeons and plot points,
it needs more.
WAY more!
Although honestly, I'd settle for less if the thing just worked properly and performed decently.
I was playing this game on a DOS computer four times the recommended speed
and still had constant frame rate issues,
which is inexcusable, seeing how ugly it looks.
It doesn't even support 3D acceleration,
unlike Descent II, which came out a year prior.
Releasing games in this state,
it's no wonder Interplay found themselves in bankruptcy court within a year.
No, as much as I want to like Undermountain,
I just can't recommend it.
I love a good CRPG,
especially those with this license,
and those in first-person because of the extra suspension of disbelief.
And I don't completely hate this one either.
In fact, it's got a strange broken charm about it
and I'm quite impressed that it's not even worse, considering its development.
It just had a horrible childhood
and grew up to be a terrible part of gaming society.
It never grew up at all, really.
It got rushed out the door to recoup corporate losses.
I wanted to find more good in a game like this because it's obviously flawed
and yet the basic premise sounded so awesome.
I mean, come on! Descent meets D&D!
But it's more like awful meets crap.
[grunts]
[madrigal music]
Well, that was disappointing. I really wanted to enjoy that game.
But, you know, whatever. I hope you enjoyed the video nonetheless.
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