A little late but Chris Avellone was level head for Descent to Undermountain. He would work on Fallout 2 and later on be director (I think) of New Vegas.
@@guguy00 Avellone was a key developer on New Vegas but project director was Josh Sawyer. Chris A DID however direct all the DLC except Honest Hearts which again was J Sawyer.
Did it get less crashy from beta to release, or did it just stay the same? Also, you should totally leak any pre-release materials you have to the Internet.
I broke my foot and now I'm stuck behind my laptop watching RUclips videos. I am so happy with your channel it really gives me great entertainment and makes this way more bearable. Thank you for that LGR! Keep on making awesome content!
5:25 "Hi, I am Zariel, High Priestess of Tymora." Me: *pulls out my DnD books* Hmm, wasn't Zariel...oh, there it is: Zariel is one of the rulers of the Nine Hells, and one of the archdevils.
The text on the box at 2:21 sais: Based on the Engine of the incredibly successfull Descent, the Horror of the chasm, with 3D-Polygon rendering and state of the art graphics that show an alomst terrifying love of detail, is brought back to life. *Advanced Multiplayer Options allow you to risk the lifes of up to three other players* on your way into the ultimate abyss. The 360 Degree motion control does not forgive any ruthless attacks from an ambush. Develop your personalytiy with apprehension. Trust noone. Get a good therapist. May God be with you. *Develop different personalities in over 20 magical dungeon levels *The first AD&D roleplaying action with modem- or network multiplayer for four players *Complete 3D-Action form first person perspective with 360° Motion control and the incredibly successfull engine from descent * Gruesome 3d-monsters await you in greyish(!) detail.
The box art was from a forgotten realms novel called "Spellfire." The novel has nothing to do with the game content but I recognized it right away. I just read it later year and still have it.
im no game developer and know little about game production but i always thought a game where you go to play as a dragon would be tons of fun, flying around and burning down villages or saving them, fighting armies, etc. maybe add a "transformation" mechanic where you can change into a human like in ancient Chinese mythology (or like the show American Dragon) so you could interact with humans. Every once in awhile we get a game like Skyrim where you get to ride a dragon a little bit, but i'd love a full game where you got to BE a dragon.
I still have my copy. I remember working at a software etc store that Christmas of 1997 and returning my copy because I thought it was defective. It was then, on the forums, that I realized it was the game. The official forums were a hellish mess. I remember impersonating Brian Fargo on the boards and apologizing for the game and people believed it too, fooled the board admin, Robin. Good times. Also uploaded the first bit of gameplay of this game on my old channel back in 2007. Then had a bunch of others steal the footage and claim it as their own.
As annoying as hidden walls are, they are kind of thematic for Undermountain, which is supposed to be a labyrinthine dungeon created by a mad wizard. If it wasn't infuriating and confusing, people might think Halaster had lost his edge.
True that. I thought Neverwinter Nights did a pretty good job with Undermountain. At least then the secret doors were optional (if I remember correctly) and marked once you found them.
Yes, hidden passages should have been revealed by character spot checks, as they are in Hordes of the Underdark. This game here was clearly unfinished and possibly just not well thought out to begin with. Probably more of a cash grab than a proper D&D game from the get-go.
@@desther7975 Exactly. If you had a high enough wisdom it should just let your passive perception reveal them, maybe some rules that change the DC like looking directly at it or moving quickly.
this is an old thread but... Undermountain was specifically a trap. The whole damn thing. It was designed to kill. Halaster has issues after he received a part of mystra. Elminister did better. After mystra came back and took that part of her power from him he returned to normal and his paranoia was far less.
Sad. This one looked like it could have been good. LGR, have you ever tried the King's Field series? I believe it is a bit of an ancestor to the incredible Souls series of today. KF carries that similar first-person action with the dark, dungeonesque esthetic.
Ambitious failures are always interesting to see, and often far more interesting and educational than any regular success story. On that note, I'd love to see LGR take on Abomination: The Nemesis Project sometime. Not well regarded or reviewed due to a whole raft of issues, but it has a special place in my heart for having one of the coolest aesthetics and concepts an action-strategy-RPG could have in the late 90s. In short: X-Men + XCom + Lovecraftian horror. Eldritch biomechanical elder monsters eat a city, and a team of mutant superhero soldiers pick through the ruins in search of the truth and a cure. Could make for an interesting video.
This game badly needs a remake! Maybe a modder could do it in the recent Daggerfall Unity engine? Anyway, great review LGR! Love the humor, and the bit of trivia was very interesting. I actually had no idea it was related to Descent. Or maybe I forgot, because I was around at the time and was a big fan of Descent.
Damn. If it wasn't for the rush in creation; this looks like it could've been an amazing game. Everything perfect is there but it was executed horribly. The only thing that I can see that wouldn't be solved by a little more time is the hidden walls - which could just be bad design. Other than that; it really seems like the kind of game I'd have spent hours on as a child - but they rushed it so it never was.
Was just rewatching this review and man it's so sad that it's so buggy/crashy, because it looks like a legitimately fun game with a nice engine (feature-incompleteness I can deal with). Few DOS games in that genre had such smooth cameras with mouse control, and nice model/texture work.
2:31 - That 60 FPS page turning... soooo smooth! BTW, if you're looking for an awesome D&D action-oriented dungeon-crawler, get *Dungeon Hack* instead. That game is great!
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.
Woah, 60 fps. I don't know if you switched to it as soon as it became possible but I noticed the smoothness just now. Seeing real life at such a high framerate almost reminds you of.. real life.
Descent meets D&D *should* be a D&D game set on a labyrinthic dungeon that's a space prison and the gravity is wonky allowing you to move in any direction as you do in Descent. My mind tingles with the possibilities a game like that could have.
Decent 3 EyeRate global total kills leader mentioned in the credits portion of the manual remember me ? just like now in modern FPS games the more I tried the worse I got I just played a lot !
Not sure if you knew this, but the cover artwork for this game is also on the Forgotten Realms book "Spellfire" I have a feeling it was made for that book first, given it matches what happens IN the book. So I'm wondering if they just took it and decided to make it the cover art for two games.
I'd enjoy reviews of those. I had one where magic was broken and all spells always worked to the maximum effect. 6d6 fireball? 36 damage every time. Hold person? Worked 100% of the time, no one ever made a save. Healing always got max heal. A party of mages and clerics would demolish anything if they won initiative.
I really love that Odium (Gorky-17) box you have on the background at 0:20. First "horror" game I ever played when I was around 8 or 9 years old. Needless to say at that time, a tatical horror and stressfull game made me shit my pants and only finish it years later.
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.
Cool I was searching for a game I played when I was little. Found out like a day before this video that it was Descent 3 on PC. And now you upload this video! Super cool!
Decent 3 EyeRate global total kills leader mentioned in the credits portion of the manual remember me ? just like now in modern FPS games the more I tried the worse I got I just played a lot !
To think this game had been released the same year as Baldur's Gate. Interplay managed to go from the worst Dungeons & Dragons game to the best Dungeons & Dragons game within the span of a single year. Top 10 Anime Redemption Arcs.
So, was Descent 2 made on a brand new engine or was it developed from the original engine also? I wonder if this project could have been saved back in the day or if the engine just wasn't cut out to be an RPG. Maybe if they'd stuck to sprites for the monster characters? I know the enemies in Decent were 3D but they were also very rudimentary space ship shapes.
With actual game devs at the helm, you get a reliable company that waits to release games until they are done, and generally aren't obsessed with expansion. With a business executive at the helm, you get people trying to extract as much money as possible from the --suckers-- customers, who will just move on to the next company when the current one inevitable bites the dust. Rinse and repeat; the parasites advance to their next host to bleed it dry in the name of anarcho-capitalism. For the best example of this sort of nonsense, you need look no further to the early days of EA versus today...or the early days of Activision versus today.
So glad you talked about Descent. It was one of my first PC Games next to Jazz Jackrabbit... but holy hell I had no idea the Descent Engine could be used in such a terrifying manner lol.
Remember being so hyped for this when it was first released. I loved the old D&D games, I loved Ultima Underworld, I loved Arena: the elder scrolls and this was going to beat them all! And then....
Hey LGR,, I was ispired by your thrift store vids and went to a goodwill. I bought battlefield 2 for 3 dollars and saw a flat screen monitor for 6 dollars and a crt with composite ports for 8 bucks. This place is amazing.
This video actually made me look up the word "grundle" LOL biggest thumbs up to a video ever for the character name alone. I hope you don't mind me stealing it the next time I play Daggerfall.
Basically, they wanted to make their own Ultima Underworld -- with blackjack and hookers (and D&D license). They should have hired Looking Glass Studios.
Wow I totally forgot about this game it has its unique charm of brokeness, I was always a fan of decent, decent 2 & 3 and the Freespace series even though Freespace only used source code from decent. Speaking of Freespace maybe you should do that one next. I looked around your video archive and didn't see it.
I suppose the (extremely) short bit of the intro which can be seen at 2:49 is part of the Interplay logo introduced sometime in the mid-90's. It's on RUclips if you want to have a look. ;)
I have never heard of this game before.... maybe that is a good thing! On a more positive note I did really enjoy the jaunty little tune at the end. For some reason it made me want a tankard of Balor Ale...
fyi the translated version of the 4 catchphrases on the back of the box (funny as always ;) ): - develop different personalities (I think they meant characters) in more than 20 dungeonlevels - the first AD&D roleplaying action with modem/network support for 4 players - full 3D-Action in Ego-perspective with 360°-movement and the extraordinary successful engine of Descent - terrifying 3D-Monsters in gruesome details will await you Allthough the lines are all grammatically correct German, it somehow sounds liked google translation.... or just marketing blah blah... :)
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.
Decent 3 EyeRate global total kills leader mentioned in the credits portion of the manual remember me ? just like now in modern FPS games the more I tried the worse I got I just played a lot !
@LGR OOOH! I Seriously liked the music at the end of the video. Is that part of the game? If so, that must have been one of the ONLY good parts about it. I remember nearly thrashing my computer once because the game just wouldn't load properly. And what's more, like you said, I never even got to hear any of the game's sound because I didn't own a genuine SoundBlaster at the Time. The sound card I did own was quite superior to that, but that didn't stop the game from simply refusing to work with it. I actually had to make sure the card was forcibly disabled by going to the computer's BIOS before I could start the game. Good thing I knew how to do this, because with this configuration I could either do that or physically remove the card before trying to start the game. Really… How that game even was allowed to hit the market truly beats me… Anyway, I loved your review of it!
Hahaha, awesome video. I remember reading reviews of this game in the gaming magazines my brother bought as a kid, and kinda wanting to play it as a curiosity.
I was SOOOOOOO hyped for Descent to Undermountain when it first started showing up in ads and online, but super disappointed that i'd never be able to run it. Apparently i saved myself some money.
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.
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.
Decent 3 EyeRate global total kills leader mentioned in the credits portion of the manual remember me ? just like now in modern FPS games the more I tried the worse I got I just played a lot !
It's entirely necessary. You do need to recall, Undermountain was built by a Lunatic Archmage with WAAAAAAAY too much time on his hands. Thus far it actually sounds like they did a splendid job of accurately adapting Undermountain.
Yeah, but they need to adapt the gameplay to that. It sounds like the skills to detect fake walls doesn't really help all that much. If there's going to be a lot of those fake walls, then the mechanics to find them should be intuitive to prevent progression from halting too often.
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.
The development story of this game reminds me a lot of how many modern games take too long in development yet end up being released in an unfinished state. And this was made back in the days when that was rare and most games always shipped finished and complete.
Decent 3 EyeRate global total kills leader mentioned in the credits portion of the manual remember me ? just like now in modern FPS games the more I tried the worse I got I just played a lot !
Oh snap, I had no idea this game existed even. And I thought I knew my PC D&D games. Apparently not! Interesting video, and thanks for the enlightenment. ^^
I remember playing this when it came out. There was a nugget of gold buried in this game, there really was, but unfortunately it was buried under tons of bugs and poor development. If only...
2:23 There also stands: Eveolve characters (Or personalitys I am not sure) in the over twenty magic Dungeons levels! And: Full 3D-Action in the I-Perspective (first person) and 360* Controls with the highly succesful engine from Decent. Terrible 3D beasts are awaiting you in awful love to detail.
My favorite part of this whole thing was the Magic 8 Ball in Fallout 2 which would sometimes say "Yes, we know Descent to Undermountain was crap."
Was it by the same developer?
T Duke Perry Yeah, Interplay.
I vaguely recall reading that and not getting it as a kid... I thought it was a jab at some fantasy, LOTR-like book. XD
A little late but Chris Avellone was level head for Descent to Undermountain. He would work on Fallout 2 and later on be director (I think) of New Vegas.
@@guguy00 Avellone was a key developer on New Vegas but project director was Josh Sawyer. Chris A DID however direct all the DLC except Honest Hearts which again was J Sawyer.
That art was first used for a Forgotten Realms novel, Spellfire, which was published in 1987. So, the art was stolen twice over.
damn you, four years ago! At least I saw it before I said the same thing. I freakin' loved Spellfire.
I read this in the LGR dude's voice.
It was also used for one of the booklets inside the AD&D 2nd Edition Forgotten Realms campaign setting. Thrice.
9
Ah good to know 😊
I was an external beta tester for this game. What a horrible mess that was.
Wait, really?
Did it get less crashy from beta to release, or did it just stay the same? Also, you should totally leak any pre-release materials you have to the Internet.
I’ve used to be a game/system tester...my sympathies to you.
we salute you, kind sir!
So, a customer?
I broke my foot and now I'm stuck behind my laptop watching RUclips videos. I am so happy with your channel it really gives me great entertainment and makes this way more bearable. Thank you for that LGR! Keep on making awesome content!
I'm glad you're enjoying, and I hope you heal up nicely!
How's your foot?
5:25 "Hi, I am Zariel, High Priestess of Tymora."
Me: *pulls out my DnD books* Hmm, wasn't Zariel...oh, there it is: Zariel is one of the rulers of the Nine Hells, and one of the archdevils.
Yes zariel was angel turned demon
It is sad to see great ideas like this game to fail so badly.
Very much so, it should've been great
Lazy Game Reviews
i wonder if anyone has thought to make a mod of it in another engine like the source engine or maybe skyrim?
Tony Arnold please make it happen
radio star Sorry, I know nothing about modding unfortunately. I would like to learn though if anyone's willing to teach me. :)
Tony Arnold I was saying somebody please do it
The text on the box at 2:21 sais:
Based on the Engine of the incredibly successfull Descent, the Horror of the chasm, with 3D-Polygon rendering and state of the art graphics that show an alomst terrifying love of detail, is brought back to life. *Advanced Multiplayer Options allow you to risk the lifes of up to three other players* on your way into the ultimate abyss. The 360 Degree motion control does not forgive any ruthless attacks from an ambush. Develop your personalytiy with apprehension. Trust noone. Get a good therapist. May God be with you.
*Develop different personalities in over 20 magical dungeon levels
*The first AD&D roleplaying action with modem- or network multiplayer for four players
*Complete 3D-Action form first person perspective with 360° Motion control and the incredibly successfull engine from descent
* Gruesome 3d-monsters await you in greyish(!) detail.
At least they didn't lie about needing therapy after playing.
Greulich=horrifying.
The box art was from a forgotten realms novel called "Spellfire." The novel has nothing to do with the game content but I recognized it right away. I just read it later year and still have it.
Why not use this engine to play as a dragon and fly around the world burning down peasants lol.
Go back in time and make this happen - that is not a request, it is an order. :D
Burninate
im no game developer and know little about game production but i always thought a game where you go to play as a dragon would be tons of fun, flying around and burning down villages or saving them, fighting armies, etc. maybe add a "transformation" mechanic where you can change into a human like in ancient Chinese mythology (or like the show American Dragon) so you could interact with humans.
Every once in awhile we get a game like Skyrim where you get to ride a dragon a little bit, but i'd love a full game where you got to BE a dragon.
Divinity II ?
@Pow3rh0use
I of the Dragon is a good game for playing as a dragon.
Your videos and reviews are awesome. Thank you for sharing them with everyone and keep up the great work!!!
Thank you.
+1
I still have my copy. I remember working at a software etc store that Christmas of 1997 and returning my copy because I thought it was defective. It was then, on the forums, that I realized it was the game. The official forums were a hellish mess. I remember impersonating Brian Fargo on the boards and apologizing for the game and people believed it too, fooled the board admin, Robin. Good times. Also uploaded the first bit of gameplay of this game on my old channel back in 2007. Then had a bunch of others steal the footage and claim it as their own.
welcome to fucktube.
As annoying as hidden walls are, they are kind of thematic for Undermountain, which is supposed to be a labyrinthine dungeon created by a mad wizard. If it wasn't infuriating and confusing, people might think Halaster had lost his edge.
There's faithful translation of the source material, and then there's game design that's fun to play. Sometimes, you can't have both it seems :)
True that. I thought Neverwinter Nights did a pretty good job with Undermountain. At least then the secret doors were optional (if I remember correctly) and marked once you found them.
Yes, hidden passages should have been revealed by character spot checks, as they are in Hordes of the Underdark. This game here was clearly unfinished and possibly just not well thought out to begin with. Probably more of a cash grab than a proper D&D game from the get-go.
@@desther7975 Exactly. If you had a high enough wisdom it should just let your passive perception reveal them, maybe some rules that change the DC like looking directly at it or moving quickly.
this is an old thread but... Undermountain was specifically a trap. The whole damn thing. It was designed to kill. Halaster has issues after he received a part of mystra. Elminister did better. After mystra came back and took that part of her power from him he returned to normal and his paranoia was far less.
BG tavern song at the end, awesome.
It's actually from Undermountain! A barely tweaked version was later used in Baldur's Gate :)
Lazy Game Reviews Really? I never knew :D
Mansen That makes two of us, I played DtU, but I didn't have a soundcard at the time.
Lazy Game Reviews Whoa, plot twist. As usual w/o your obscure game trivia I'd be none the wiser.
Came here to post the exact same thing 2 years later, I presumed it was in Undermountain too though, would make sense.
Sad. This one looked like it could have been good.
LGR, have you ever tried the King's Field series? I believe it is a bit of an ancestor to the incredible Souls series of today. KF carries that similar first-person action with the dark, dungeonesque esthetic.
It's even made by the same people who did dark souls
Ambitious failures are always interesting to see, and often far more interesting and educational than any regular success story.
On that note, I'd love to see LGR take on Abomination: The Nemesis Project sometime. Not well regarded or reviewed due to a whole raft of issues, but it has a special place in my heart for having one of the coolest aesthetics and concepts an action-strategy-RPG could have in the late 90s.
In short: X-Men + XCom + Lovecraftian horror. Eldritch biomechanical elder monsters eat a city, and a team of mutant superhero soldiers pick through the ruins in search of the truth and a cure.
Could make for an interesting video.
The box art is actually even older, from a Forgotten Realms book called "Spellfire"
This game badly needs a remake! Maybe a modder could do it in the recent Daggerfall Unity engine?
Anyway, great review LGR! Love the humor, and the bit of trivia was very interesting. I actually had no idea it was related to Descent. Or maybe I forgot, because I was around at the time and was a big fan of Descent.
Instant skeleton on a pillow...
"If you chose a mixed class you can classily mix things up a bit" -- I laughed on that one. Great video!
Damn. If it wasn't for the rush in creation; this looks like it could've been an amazing game. Everything perfect is there but it was executed horribly. The only thing that I can see that wouldn't be solved by a little more time is the hidden walls - which could just be bad design. Other than that; it really seems like the kind of game I'd have spent hours on as a child - but they rushed it so it never was.
Rushed? It took way longer than initially planned!
@@31leoceara Mostly because the original planned time was ludicrously short.
The Ultima Underworld games must have ran circles around this.
they were, play them now
They still run circles around so many games even today...
Frickin Stonekeep ran circles around this, let alone UW 1 and 2 which are on many GOAT lists 🤣
And hilariously came out years earlier
The box art is actually the same as the book "Spellfire" I believe.
Was just rewatching this review and man it's so sad that it's so buggy/crashy, because it looks like a legitimately fun game with a nice engine (feature-incompleteness I can deal with). Few DOS games in that genre had such smooth cameras with mouse control, and nice model/texture work.
2:31 - That 60 FPS page turning... soooo smooth!
BTW, if you're looking for an awesome D&D action-oriented dungeon-crawler, get *Dungeon Hack* instead. That game is great!
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.
It's a shame this was such a broken game. There's some GOOD ideas in there...
Woah, 60 fps. I don't know if you switched to it as soon as it became possible but I noticed the smoothness just now. Seeing real life at such a high framerate almost reminds you of.. real life.
The cover art was also used on the cover of one of the Spellfire books set in the Forgotten Realms.
Descent meets D&D *should* be a D&D game set on a labyrinthic dungeon that's a space prison and the gravity is wonky allowing you to move in any direction as you do in Descent. My mind tingles with the possibilities a game like that could have.
Decent 3
EyeRate
global total kills leader
mentioned in the credits portion of the manual
remember me ?
just like now in modern FPS games
the more I tried the worse I got
I just played a lot !
Man that Spellfire artwork has been used so many times for so many things.
Not sure if you knew this, but the cover artwork for this game is also on the Forgotten Realms book "Spellfire" I have a feeling it was made for that book first, given it matches what happens IN the book. So I'm wondering if they just took it and decided to make it the cover art for two games.
I'd really like to see some reviews of the old SSI gold box AD&D games. I still play those.
I'd enjoy reviews of those. I had one where magic was broken and all spells always worked to the maximum effect. 6d6 fireball? 36 damage every time. Hold person? Worked 100% of the time, no one ever made a save. Healing always got max heal. A party of mages and clerics would demolish anything if they won initiative.
I was wondering what to watch and said to myself "I fancy LGR"
Then realised what I had said... xD
mmmm dont we all though ;)
Ain't nothin' wrong with that :)
I'd love to see more reviews like this. "This" being high profile games from name brand publishers that I somehow have never heard of.
The splash screen guy is like "Damn, that intro blew me away!".
'Instant skeleton on a pillow'
I LOLed
I really love that Odium (Gorky-17) box you have on the background at 0:20. First "horror" game I ever played when I was around 8 or 9 years old. Needless to say at that time, a tatical horror and stressfull game made me shit my pants and only finish it years later.
Can we get a review from that game?
Unrelated to the game, I love the fact that you walked up "stairs" in the beginning of the review. lol
the hidden 1st floor of LGR HQ. ;)
LMFAO
It's pretty amazing they used the Descent engine to make a game that seems to be mostly flat corridors.
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.
Cool I was searching for a game I played when I was little. Found out like a day before this video that it was Descent 3 on PC. And now you upload this video! Super cool!
Decent 3
EyeRate
global total kills leader
mentioned in the credits portion of the manual
remember me ?
just like now in modern FPS games
the more I tried the worse I got
I just played a lot !
instant skeleton on a pillow
To think this game had been released the same year as Baldur's Gate. Interplay managed to go from the worst Dungeons & Dragons game to the best Dungeons & Dragons game within the span of a single year. Top 10 Anime Redemption Arcs.
Is this the game that shares the tavern music from Baldur's Gate (the music you played in the end)?
Correct!
Lazy Game Reviews Never had rats, no siree.
I knew it!
So, was Descent 2 made on a brand new engine or was it developed from the original engine also?
I wonder if this project could have been saved back in the day or if the engine just wasn't cut out to be an RPG. Maybe if they'd stuck to sprites for the monster characters? I know the enemies in Decent were 3D but they were also very rudimentary space ship shapes.
The same engine, but it was modified I think.
It's incredible how many game companies went out of business just because business owners made bad and rushed choices.
With actual game devs at the helm, you get a reliable company that waits to release games until they are done, and generally aren't obsessed with expansion. With a business executive at the helm, you get people trying to extract as much money as possible from the --suckers-- customers, who will just move on to the next company when the current one inevitable bites the dust. Rinse and repeat; the parasites advance to their next host to bleed it dry in the name of anarcho-capitalism. For the best example of this sort of nonsense, you need look no further to the early days of EA versus today...or the early days of Activision versus today.
So glad you talked about Descent. It was one of my first PC Games next to Jazz Jackrabbit... but holy hell I had no idea the Descent Engine could be used in such a terrifying manner lol.
It's disturbing what great damage can be done with great power used irresponsibly.
Lazy Game Reviews That's what Yoda Spider-Man would say! Are You Yoda Spider-Man!?
@@LGR
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Remember being so hyped for this when it was first released. I loved the old D&D games, I loved Ultima Underworld, I loved Arena: the elder scrolls and this was going to beat them all! And then....
Hey LGR,, I was ispired by your thrift store vids and went to a goodwill. I bought battlefield 2 for 3 dollars and saw a flat screen monitor for 6 dollars and a crt with composite ports for 8 bucks. This place is amazing.
I was really hoping for a happy ending about a magical patch that fixed everything years down the road. Seems like it could have been legendary.
This video actually made me look up the word "grundle" LOL biggest thumbs up to a video ever for the character name alone. I hope you don't mind me stealing it the next time I play Daggerfall.
Basically, they wanted to make their own Ultima Underworld -- with blackjack and hookers (and D&D license). They should have hired Looking Glass Studios.
+Locke Silvrel No, otherway around. Forget the blackjack and the hookers; ultima underworld was great!
+Locke Silvrel Know; don't care.
Wow I totally forgot about this game it has its unique charm of brokeness, I was always a fan of decent, decent 2 & 3 and the Freespace series even though Freespace only used source code from decent.
Speaking of Freespace maybe you should do that one next. I looked around your video archive and didn't see it.
oh! OH! OH! that was baldurs gate music when your in a tavern at the end of your vid! i love baldurs gate
The cover art was used for the D&D novel Spellfire by Ed Greenwood as well.
I suppose the (extremely) short bit of the intro which can be seen at 2:49 is part of the Interplay logo introduced sometime in the mid-90's. It's on RUclips if you want to have a look. ;)
It's also the cover art for the novel Spellfire.
I absolutely love the graphical style on this. If it worked I could play it for hours.
All hail Grundlebutt of Ankh-Morpork.
+SegaCDUniverse From the city so great, they called it... Ankh-Morpork.
box art is also used on the forgotten realms novel 'spellfire'
love watching your reviews. don't stop.
The box art was also used for the book Spellfire
I have never heard of this game before.... maybe that is a good thing! On a more positive note I did really enjoy the jaunty little tune at the end. For some reason it made me want a tankard of Balor Ale...
fyi the translated version of the 4 catchphrases on the back of the box (funny as always ;) ):
- develop different personalities (I think they meant characters) in more than 20 dungeonlevels
- the first AD&D roleplaying action with modem/network support for 4 players
- full 3D-Action in Ego-perspective with 360°-movement and the extraordinary successful engine of Descent
- terrifying 3D-Monsters in gruesome details will await you
Allthough the lines are all grammatically correct German, it somehow sounds liked google translation.... or just marketing blah blah... :)
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.
Decent 3
EyeRate
global total kills leader
mentioned in the credits portion of the manual
remember me ?
just like now in modern FPS games
the more I tried the worse I got
I just played a lot !
@LGR OOOH! I Seriously liked the music at the end of the video. Is that part of the game? If so, that must have been one of the ONLY good parts about it. I remember nearly thrashing my computer once because the game just wouldn't load properly. And what's more, like you said, I never even got to hear any of the game's sound because I didn't own a genuine SoundBlaster at the Time. The sound card I did own was quite superior to that, but that didn't stop the game from simply refusing to work with it. I actually had to make sure the card was forcibly disabled by going to the computer's BIOS before I could start the game. Good thing I knew how to do this, because with this configuration I could either do that or physically remove the card before trying to start the game. Really… How that game even was allowed to hit the market truly beats me… Anyway, I loved your review of it!
Speaking of forgotten realms has anyone else read the Legend of Drizzt series based on it?
Excellent review. I could never get far on those AD&D games. I thought it was me, but glad to see it wasn't.
Long wait before your first d&D reivew, excelent as always.
I have to admit I like this game too(read the page on TCRF)...have you finished this game?
Can't wait to watch LGR's Descent and Descent 2 reviews now.
Oh man, Gnome! Played the help out of that game as a youngster. You gotta review it soon
Hahaha, awesome video. I remember reading reviews of this game in the gaming magazines my brother bought as a kid, and kinda wanting to play it as a curiosity.
The music at the end is actually from taverns in either Baldurs Gate 1 or 2
9:45 "My inn is as clean as an elven arse!"
Another great example of how the phrase "Time is money" makes a potentially great game an utter piece of shit.
I was SOOOOOOO hyped for Descent to Undermountain when it first started showing up in ads and online, but super disappointed that i'd never be able to run it. Apparently i saved myself some money.
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.
Damm son. Even I will rage quit. Haven't played it but thats because I never play shitty games.
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.
Decent 3
EyeRate
global total kills leader
mentioned in the credits portion of the manual
remember me ?
just like now in modern FPS games
the more I tried the worse I got
I just played a lot !
I remember seeing this in the store shelves many a moons ago, wish I could of picked it up back then.
it looks... interesting, even how bad it is. xD
Great review man. Can you tell me the name of the soundtrack that plays at the start and during you were explaining decent series?
That's the _Descent To Undermountain_ soundtrack. I almost always use the music from the games I'm reviewing when talking about them!
Lazy Game Reviews
Yes, I figured it out after I wrote the comment, I should have checked the game's ost first sorry about that :)
Love your openings where you just casually appear on screen
Oh man - This looks very similar to the early Elder Scrolls games.
OH MAN - The Baldur's Gate inn music. Much nostalgia :D
It's entirely necessary. You do need to recall, Undermountain was built by a Lunatic Archmage with WAAAAAAAY too much time on his hands. Thus far it actually sounds like they did a splendid job of accurately adapting Undermountain.
Yeah, but they need to adapt the gameplay to that. It sounds like the skills to detect fake walls doesn't really help all that much. If there's going to be a lot of those fake walls, then the mechanics to find them should be intuitive to prevent progression from halting too often.
Halaster Blackcloak's magic is so strong, it can crash your computer.
Sweet that you put in Tavern music from Baldurs Gate at the end of the video. Made me fire up and play BG immediately :)
Nope, it's actually the inn music from Descent to Undermountain. It was later re-worked a bit and included in BG!
Lol, that Mystery of the Druids box art gets me everytime.
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.
The development story of this game reminds me a lot of how many modern games take too long in development yet end up being released in an unfinished state. And this was made back in the days when that was rare and most games always shipped finished and complete.
"...but it's more like awful meets crap."
And this example of stellar writing is why we keep coming back to LGR.
...
Jk, you are the best.
I actually have a paper related to this game inside the box of Descent I and II: The Definitive Collection, which was released in 1997.
Decent 3
EyeRate
global total kills leader
mentioned in the credits portion of the manual
remember me ?
just like now in modern FPS games
the more I tried the worse I got
I just played a lot !
Fuck yeah, some 3 am LGR! Good on ya Clint :D
This was the first game that disappointed me so much I thought I must have made some mistake at install
I remember when this game was announced. I was so excited. Sad that they screwed it up so badly.
Around the 8 minute mark I could've sworn a rubber chicken with green eyes was being used as a weapon!🤣
WAH! 60fps Clint! I really need to get used to that.
Oh snap, I had no idea this game existed even. And I thought I knew my PC D&D games. Apparently not! Interesting video, and thanks for the enlightenment. ^^
Did you try Elf?
Elves automatically in D&D within 5 feet find secret doors automatically. I wonder if they put that in.
I remember playing this when it came out. There was a nugget of gold buried in this game, there really was, but unfortunately it was buried under tons of bugs and poor development. If only...
2:23 There also stands: Eveolve characters (Or personalitys I am not sure) in the over twenty magic Dungeons levels!
And: Full 3D-Action in the I-Perspective (first person) and 360* Controls with the highly succesful engine from Decent.
Terrible 3D beasts are awaiting you in awful love to detail.
I never even heard of this game, and it's DnD?!?
Thanks Clint! I needed another game to play while drinking...
5:14 ¡WOW!, from the bottom of your heart.