OtherSide and 505 Games drop the first trailer for Warren Spector’s Underworld Ascendant, an immersive sim set in the Stygian Abyss.
Warren Spector knows a thing or two about immersive sims. But the man best-known for his hand in System Shock, Deus Ex and the Thief series also has a history with RPGs; specifically, the Ultima series, where he produced Ultima: Underworld and Underworld II, among others.
Now, in what can only be seen as the most literal case of going back to the well, Spector’s latest project combines the setting of Ultima’s Underworld with the immersive sim gameplay of games like Thief and Deus Ex. It’s also set in a big hole in the ground – the Stygian Abyss – which is kind of like a really big, really evil well.
Developed by Spector’s OtherSide Entertainment and published by 505 Games, Underworld Ascendant throws the player to the bottom of said abyss and – based on the name, we’d wager – tasks them with ascending from said abyss and escaping.
Underworld Ascendant promises to bring the dynamism and changeability of the immersive sim and root it in Ultima’s Underworld lore. A cross between Thief and the massive dungeon crawling segments of Skyrim would probably be closest, if you’re struggling to picture it.
Hopefully the indoor, subterranean setting will serve it better than Battlespire, the Elder Scrolls game which entirely missed out on all the charm and appeal of the series by setting it entirely in one big dungeon, earning it a big fat last place on our ranking of the series.
Underworld Ascendant is currently set to release some time in 2018; we’ll keep you posted with details as they come in.
