System Shock 2 remains one of those great tragedies of the industry. Beloved by millions, revered as a turning point in the entire genre and finished despite horrific odds, poor sales led to an abrupt end despite an obvious cliffhanger. Still regarded today as one of the essential greats alongside Deus Ex, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Ultima, it's still brought up today as the release which helped revolutionize video game narrative and survival horror. Well, turns out that it's not quite so dead as people thought.
Despite seemingly leaving the gaming industry for good in favour of a life in academia, Warren Spector has returned once more to his roots. Responsible for work on acclaimed titles from the aforementioned Deus Ex to Epic Mickey, reports say that he will be serving as a full time studio director for OtherSide Entertainment. Speaking to WIRED, the veteran stated that he left his current work in a heartbeat upon being offered a chance to continue the story of SHODAN. This, however, isn't the only great news. A spiritual successor to the Ultima Underworld spin-offs is well underway in the form of Underworld Ascendant, which will be more in the vein of the original title and its blend of societies than the second game's star spanning saga.
Obviously these are early days and little information has been released relating to what mechanics or ideas either revival will implement, but it's a sign of real hope for the future.
I'm really hoping this turns out more like Human Revolution than it does Epic Mickey, and hopefully doesn't get dumbed down a lot. If we're really lucky it might even fix some of the issues of 2, like exotic weapons being nearly useless.
ReplyDeleteUltima Underworld I never really cared about honestly, though I liked the games I've just played other systems since that did the same thing but much better, and overall they just came off as unnecessarily clunky, even for their time.
That's what many people are certainly hoping for, or perhaps something along the lines of the original Bioshock but with more risk/scavenging involved. Plus, personally, i'm quite interested to know how they'll handle the cliffhanger with SHODAN apparently entering the physical world.
DeleteEh, I can certainly see why, but as an Ultima fan I liked them thanks to how they operated in terms of story. The first one offered a degree of depth to the setting and its people, seeing how they interacted, and the factions involved were a fun spin. Plus, the second took things in such a unique direction for the series and gave so much background information behind the Guardian that some of the clunkiness just seemed worth it by the end. Each to their own of course though.