Forgotten Realms: Descent to Undermountain article by Al Giovetti

 

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By Al Giovetti
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Genre: action role-playing game
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Lead Artist: Kevin Beardslee
Lead Designers: Chris Avellone and Robert Hanz
Lead Programmer: Andrew Pal
Producer: Reginald Arnedo
Publisher: Interplay
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Website: www.interplay.com
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Forgotten Realms: Descent to Undermountain

History

Almost two years ago, Interplay released Stonekeep, an updated dungeon romp that rivaled any Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game, and perhaps surpassed those games in story, and features. Stonekeep did for computer fantasy role-playing games what doom did for three dimensional shooters.

The core audience of of the computer fantsy role-playing game is small. Industry experts extimate the number who like the games to be somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 loyal fans. You make the game and they will buy it. Of course one of the big problems is getting the word out.

Another problem is just how finicky this audience can be. Many computer fantasy role playing games have been financial disasters because someone designed a game that was either buggy or did not have the right mix of features, play balance, and complex plot needed by the cadre of grognards. Some of the problems come from the expense, complexity, and sheer volume of code that these games require when compare to successes like "You Don't Know Jack," which has more stable and consistent sales than these flash in the pan wonders.

Company Line

The stone belly of Undermountain below Waterdeep plays home to horrific monsters, dark magics and unspeakable evils. Experience these terrors and more in the first AD&D action RPG to offer multi-character development. In this spell-ridden maze of dungeons and rips in the very fabric of reality lies the ultimate threat... the Flame Sword of the Spider Queen Lloth.

Descent to Undermountain features...
Up to 4 players via network and 2-player modem.
20 magic-ridden dungeons filled with unspeakable horrors.
3D polygon monsters await you in frightening detail.
Explore the treacherous dungeons with fluid movement using the award-winning Descent engine.

The development of Descent to Undermountain has lead to a number of technical achievements that builds on the award-winning Descent 3-D graphics engine. Because of this, Interplay has decided to delay the release from Jan. 97 to this summer to continue to expand the detail and depth of Descent to Undermountain in numerous ways. Among the enhancements that are now included in this exciting new first-person 3-D action/RPG are: -Added animation engine within Descent engine DTUM includes 7800 frames of animation!
-Increased the number of texture maps the engine is capable of handling to 3000 or almost unlimited (compared with 150 texture maps for the average action game like Duke Nukem and Quake)
-25 different, distinct levels featuring 12 different art styles -- more complex than Descent; includes such varied environments as Dwarf Temple, Egyptian level, and Crypt
-Stunning new technology includes reflecting mirrors and translucency such as stained glass that you can see through to spot monsters lurking in next hallway
-Rich, dynamic character development: Choose from 6 different races, male/female, 4 basic classes, 7 types of armor, and an arsenal of more than 20 weapons - swords, bow & arrow, throwing axes and more
-AD&D statistics affect the way the game plays fighting effectiveness, speed, damage
-Added gravity physics as well as new flying physics
-More detailed collision detection
-Can have three times as many characters within the game screen at one time compared with Duke Nukem or Quake
-Includes 200 items to locate and use versus 20 - 25 in most other competitive games
-More features crammed on one single CD ROM than any other game in terms of polygons, music, animations, sound and more
-Descent engine remains the best rendering 3-D engine ever, and runs at a better frame rate in SVGA than the Quake engine.

The development of Descent to Undermountain has lead to a number of technical achievements that builds on the award-winning Descent 3-D graphics engine. Among the enhancements that are now included in this exciting new first-person 3-D action/RPG are:

-Added animation engine within Descent engine DTUM includes 7800 frames of animation!
-Increased the number of texture maps the engine is capable of handling to 3000 or almost unlimited (compared with 150 texture maps for the average action game like Duke Nukem and Quake)
-25 different, distinct levels featuring 12 different art styles -- more complex than Descent; includes such varied environments as Dwarf Temple, Egyptian level, and Crypt
-Stunning new technology includes reflecting mirrors and translucency such as stained glass that you can see through to spot monsters lurking in next hallway
-Rich, dynamic character development: Choose from 6 different races, male/female, 4 basic classes, 7 types of armor, and an arsenal of more than 20 weapons - swords, bow & arrow, throwing axes and more AD&D statistics affect the way the game plays fighting effectiveness, speed, damage
Added gravity physics as well as new flying physics
-More detailed collision detection
-Can have three times as many characters within the game screen at one time compared with Duke Nukem or Quake
-Includes 200 items to locate and use versus 20 - 25 in most other competitive games
-More features crammed on one single CD ROM than any other game in terms of polygons, music, animations, sound and more
-Descent engine remains the best rendering 3-D engine ever, and runs at a better frame rate in SVGA than the Quake engine.

Game Play

You choose your character from six races, including human, elf, dark elf, half-elf, dwarf, or halfling, male or female, and four classes or combinations of those classes: theif, mage, fighter and priest. Unlike Doom or Quake the character skills improve over time. Each monster killed and puzzle solved adds to statistics like strength, agility, charisma, constitution, hit points, piety, luck, and intelligence.

Melee (hand-to-hand) combat resembles Quake only superficially. Characters must duck and weave and then take a shot at the enemy and get away again. Fireballs and magic missiles are complete with flames that lick the walls and explode. There are traps to surprise you on doors and chests.

Puzzles are story based, built right into the plot.

Plot

Graphics

Each of the 50 evil denizens in the game are composed of from 235 to 350 polygons with new textures on the walls and characters. The designers will be using three times more smaller 64x64 texture blocks. This allows you to provide a more varied texture when you design the overall block pattern and stack them on top of one another. There is over 500 MB of textures used in the game and many more complex polygons.

Some of the eye candy includes glowing lava, running water, exploding fumaroles, flickering torches, stained-glass doors, and very interesting heat vision effects for those characters who can see in the dark. The environment is enhanced with cobwebs, rats and other background creatures that add atmosphere.

Animation

The engine is 200% faster than the older Descent engine.

When Dungeon Master, a single player game not unlike Doom, but with a plot, was released one of the artists at Faster than Light received an award for the best animated figure: a very large red dragon. Interplay is also trying for a special award in the large red dragon.

Voice Actors

Music Score

Sound Effects

Utilities

Compare to

Multi-player Features

Multiplayer features are built right into the game, since the Descent engine was used to produce the game. The game is written to be a cooperative dungeon delve, even though you can complete it solo. Descent requires the same up-front planning that a traditional AD&D paper and pencil game. It seems that Interplay wants to build on the success of Diablo and bring first person perspective multiplayer games to the fantsy role-playing genre.

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References

Andrew Sanchez, Boot, volume 2, issue 9, May, 1997, pg. 66.

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