I'm thinking Ultima was one of the first MMORPG's? Was it third person like Warcraft? From the Joe Fielder interview this new game kind of sounds like a third or first person version of Divinity: Original Sin. At least it sounded like that from the description Joe was giving about the way in which you can approach things.

Sounds cool anyways

Any one know any different? I'm sure I'm wrong on several counts on the above.

Ultima was a long-running series of RPGs that started in 1981. Ultima Underworld (1992) was a spin-off from the Ultima series and founded the immersive sim genre. Ultima Online (1997) was one of the first big MMORPGs.

Underworld Ascendant is a spiritual successor to Ultima Underworld, but it does not share the Ultima License. The similarity with Divinity Original Sin is because both games are hybrids of traditional CRPGs and immersive sims. In practice, this means that there's stuff like dungeon crawling and tactical combat from a CRPG paired with the reactive systems-based gameworld of an immersive sim.

Divinity Original Sin (2) pulled off this style of game very effectively. Underworld Ascendant, however, is not out yet, so we don't know how well it will manage it.

Ultima is old, very old. It started as an early computer RPG and defined many aspects of that genre.

Ultima Underworld was a first person dungeon crawling RPG from the early 90's. I've only played a bit of it but it seems surprisingly playable in 2018. Looks like this Underworld is an attempt to modernize Ultima Underworld.

There was an Ultima MMO and I think it was the first really successful MMO.

Underworld is very different from the market-driven notion of what an RPG is, or what RPG mechanics are. Rather, it's a first-person action/strategy game that's trying to capture the power and flexibility of tabletop roleplaying (improv, problem solving, collaborative storytelling) by way of systemic design.

Ultima Underworld basically was a fantasy themed Bioshock/System Shock/Thief/Prey/Dishonored kinda thing, and ran on the same engine as the first System Shock. So I'd think this Underworld should probably be thought of as part of that FPS lineage rather than as an RPG, even though some RPG mechanics have always been part of the genre.

@justin258: @savage: @ravey: @fisk0: Thanks guys, all helpful answers. Looking forward to seeing what it's like, sounds interesting.