Gaming Itches I Want Scratched

This was written a few years ago and since then I've had someone recommend me the excellent game Horizon's Gate. That game was very clearly inspired by Uncharted Waters and scratched that itch nicely but I'm going to leave UW in the writeup as I don't see the harm and I wouldn't mind more games like it.

So I’ve been playing video games as far back as I can remember really. I’m 35 (now 40) and I’ve gamed on almost every Nintendo system, almost every version of windows after 3.1, and more. I’ve played a wide variety of genres from metroidvanias to point and click adventure games. It’s been interesting watching the gaming trends come and go and which games I played as a kid have influenced modern games. For example the sheer number of RPGs that seem to be inspired by the interface for Baldur’s gate is staggering. I’ve been fortunate enough to watch 2 of my favorite genres get reborn after going through a down period (metroidvanias and PaC adventure games) but there’s some gaming experiences that…. I just can’t quite seem to find a modern/semimodern equivalent and it leaves this little itch in the back of my mind.

To be fair most of the original games are available through one method or another these days and are still playable. However you can only play the same story so many times and honestly there are a lot game design lessons we’ve learned over the last 30+ years that would be nice to see implemented here.

Now a lot of this is gonna be pure opinion and I may not always be able to quantify what I’m looking for but we’ll see. Let’s begin with 2 of my absolute favorite games ever.

Ultima Underworld The Stygian Abyss and Ultima Underworld 2 Labyrinth of Worlds.

These two games are spinoffs of the Ultima series of RPGS. Ultima used to be a powerhouse franchise consisting of 10 games in the main series, 4 pc spin off games and a number of console ports and an extremely popular MMORPG.

The Underworld games were first person dungeon crawlers. "but wait there's plenty of those games like Legend of Grimrock" you say, except these aren't grid based. The two Underworld games are completely free movement, you can even cast spells that let you fly around and explore a 3d world. These were the only RPGs to let you do this at the time and it's still pretty rare. Further it's more than that, a lot of dungeon crawler RPGs it's just you, the monsters and the dungeon but these two games made it feel like it was an entire world within the dungeon. In the first game you meet several different races and factions each with fleshed out characters and quests and tons of lore. The second game has you travel to 8 different alternate dimensions once again each with their own characters and lore. Both games manage to weave a complex narrative throughout the environment that still holds up today. Basically it feels like a real world, I'm not on rails, I'm not doing mission based levels, I feel like I'm exploring a world.

Now there have been some games that made me feel similar, the first being Arx Fatalis. Arx Fatalis is a game directly inspired by the Underworld games and it manages to deliver on a similar feeling, it's held back a bit by awkward controls but it's a decent time. The other game that made me feel like Ultima Underworld was surprisingly Fallout 3 when I'm exploring the massive underground subway system. It's not quite the same but there's a real depth to the environment that a lot of games seem to miss and a freedom of exploration that helps make it feel real. New Vegas had less underground but honestly both games are so good I enjoyed them on their own merits.

"What about SKYRIM SKYRIM SKYRIM?".  I put 100 hours into Oblivion and honestly it just was not really my thing. I finally gave up on trying to force it. I tried Skyrim for a couple hours and it felt exactly the same and I didn't care to go further. I'm not a fan of the backstory approach. The other games I've got a history to explore but in Elder Scrolls I apparently popped out of the ground fully grown. I found the dungeons to be largely meh, and a had issues with the gameplay and story. I remember walking down the road in Skyrim and seeing a group of soldiers hanging someone and I get a quest to "join the rebellion". Why? for all I know the guy was a serial killer, you've told me nothing of why I have this quest. Then I go to town and ask about the war and every single person tells me "oh I don't know anything about that" and it's like pulling teeth just to find out what the main story is. I'm just not interested in the Elder Scrolls.

It's hard to quantify what I want from this and I realize a fully realized 3d environment is not easy to create but I'm disappointed it seems like a space that no one wants to explore that much. Too many RPGs either put you on rails, a grid or feel very shallow to me in terms of worldbuilding. Further for dungeon crawlers it all feels so isolated. You might find someone to have a conversation with through a locked door but for the most part it's just you, the dungeon and the monsters.

Main Series Ultima Games

Ok so we're gonna double dip on this franchise a bit. Looking at the evolution of this series is fascinating for gameplay, graphics and writing. What starts off as literal stick figure graphics and keeps pushing graphics engines every step of the way. The Ultima games were a series of third person RPGs, some turn based, some real time and most of them with a party system. I'm more familiar with the later Ultima games, mainly Ultima 7 part 1, 7 part 2 and 8. (yes 9 is awful and garbage and can we just not?). The story revolves around the fantasy realm of Britannia which has face many challenges. What usually helps overcome the challenges is a visitor from Earth known as the Avatar that arrives in times of need to save the day. These are probably the earliest sandbox games, the world was open to explore and you could bake bread, harvest food, and forge weapons.

The gameplay varied greatly and sometimes was great and other times was not but what I miss most was the writing and the setting. I honestly just want another Ultima, EA is basically sitting on the IP and I want a new adventure in Brittania. I want a complex single player focused narrative in this fantasy world.

Games have become very multiplayer focused and it's hard to find a modern RPG that really grabs me, either they're multiplayer focused as I said or it's an on rails experience. It's like comparing Metroid to Super Mario Brothers, both are platformers and good games but vastly different experiences. Or they're Baldur's Gate clones (to me) and I have some issues with Baldur's Gate.

Warhammer Shadow of the Horned Rat and Warhammer Dark Omen

These are the games that made me write this article actually. These two games are strategy games in which you control a mercenary army known as the Grudgebringers. In the games you go from place to place following a story campaign and taking on missions at each location. You command units of troops in real time battle each with their own unique traits and abilities. You acquire magic items by finding them hidden in missions and defeating enemies. You have to manage your money and try to avoid spending more on troops for the mission than it rewards you with.

The battle system shares a lot of surface level similarities with the Total War series, flanking with cavalry to drive an enemy away, firing on approaching troops with a squad of archers and so on. However from my limited attempts at Total War it's just not the same experience. First off there's no story in the Total War I've played. Story in games is usually a big draw for me. In total war the maps felt less like a real place and more just a battle ground. In the WH games each map is unique and has it's own terrain. Further I'm here for the battles, not the kingdom management. I'm writing this after just trying Total War Warhammer and bouncing off of it. I found the controls awkward and I didn't like the feel or look of it. In the WH games I like to approach the battles like solving an equation. I'll look at it not as just beating the mission but finding the optimum path through it and I'll start a mission over a dozen times if the starting doesn't feel right.

One series of games that gave me a similar feel for gameplay is another strategy series called Kohan. The Kohan games are real time strategy games where you capture strategic points on the level's map and build garrisons to expand your territory. The parts that are similar are that each map is unique and you explore for rewards and magic items and that you build units of troops instead of individual units. You can make a unit of cavalry and lead them against swordsman and such.

Uncharted Waters

Uncharted Waters was an NES title developed by KOEI who have done a number of historical themed games. This game is actually fairly simple in concept. You are a ship captain in the time of the Ottoman Empire, you go to a town and buy cargo and go to another town to sell it hopefully for a profit. As you acquire wealth you can put together a small fleet of up to 5 ships which allow you carry more cargo. You can also engage in battle with other fleets in a turn based system to steal their cargo or collect bounties. As your wealth grows you hire mates to command the other ships, acquire reputation and get assigned missions which are usually just fetch quests and can search for treasure. It's basically just a simple little cargo trading game with a very simple style of play.

Now apparently this series has quite a following in Japan and there's been several sequels in Japanese but only a couple made it here to North America.

I should mention I'm not necessarily looking for something historical or even on Earth. This is something that would translate very easily to a scifi space setting. Basically just a game where I traverse port to port trading goods to earn wealth, build up my fleet and have engaging battles. I would like the game to have a more in depth story than the original and give me some neat random encounters.

I've come across a couple games that came close to this but either they got repetitive fast, too difficult fast or were trying to do too much in addition to the trading aspect. For example one game involved two factions of fleets that were trying to claim ports back and forth to finish a map on top of this gameplay and it was very much not what I wanted. Then there was Rebel Galaxy where I wanted to progress the story but after almost 50 hours of gameplay I found myself not making enough progress on my ship strength to fight the enemies and the controls giving me RSI. I'm not looking for an epic long game here, just something fun and short. Honestly I'd love to see a spinoff of FTL that gave me something like this.

Conclusion

Honestly, there probably are games out there like the ones I'm describing here, there's so many different games these days and a lot of them are being made by extremely talented indie developers who have the freedom to experiment. I describe this as itches I want scratched purely because there are so many great games out there. I'm not desperately looking for games to play and enjoy, it's just that there are a few specific experiences I'd like to mix in with the current crop of wonderful games.