Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss Retrospective

Corvus at Man Bytes Blog has put together a four-page retrospective review of Origin and Blue Sky Productions’ classic first-person RPG, Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss.

The magic system in UW is a perfect example of the design philosophy underlying the entire game. Like the other Ultima games, UW utilizes a runic magic system. Unlike the other Ultima games, UW does not merely transcribe runic spells into a book from which you cast, but requires you collect rune stones and assemble them into spells yourself. Casting the assembled spell requires an expenditure of mana.

Those familiar with the Nordic runes will be right at home with UW’s rune set. There are twenty four runes and each rune has a specific meaning AN means negate, BET means small, CORP means death, and so on. Runes can be combined in twos or threes to form spells, which when read from left to right describe the effect of the spell. For example, combining IN (cause), MANI (life) and YLEM (matter) has the effect of creating food while combining IN (cause) and LOR (light) produces the magical equivalent of torch light. Adding a VAS (great) rune to front of the light spell VAS (great) IN (cause) LOR (light) produces the magical equivalent of sunlight.

This provides a consistency to magic and makes spells much easier to remember without the convenient reference card Origin provides with the game. In fact, I didn’t look up a single spell during this play-through. The spells I couldn’t remember off the top of my head, I worked out by reading the runes. The effect this approach has on the narrative is crucial. Rather than an arbitrary system involving a progression of various magical effects, UW’s runic system has an internal consistency that lends it a gravity, if you will. Relying upon actual cultural symbols that most RPG geeks will recognize and ensuring that the implementation of them is consistent practically removes the designer from the equation, allowing the player to build a relationship directly with the system.