A year after the events of Ultima VII: The Black Gate, Lord British decides to have a party to celebrate the defeat of the Guardian. Guest of honor are the Avatar and his companions. During the celebrations at the castle, Guardian makes his move, casting a huge blackrock sphere around it, thus trapping Avatar and everyone else unfortunate enough to have attended the party.
From the suggestion of the court mage, Avatar begins a search under the castle, from where a large gem is found. One of its sides shines and turns out the be a portal to another realm, which Guardian has conquered ages ago. Avatar finds, that there are several of these worlds, that are either under the heel of the Guardian or destroyed by him after trying to resist him. From each world, a small gem is found, which then can be used on the larger gem to weaken the blackrock shell.
From one of the worlds, Avatar finds a clue of a magic wand that can be used to detach the world from each other, as the gem is feeding energy to the blackrock through the gem. Other tools are found too, to help bring a final blow to the dark shell.
In the castle, things are not well, as a sudden murder takes place. As the other occupants are incompetent, it's up to Avatar to solve this little murder case as well. It's not like there are more pressing matters at hand.
When all the power channels have been cut and a surprise attack of Guardian's troops is thwarted, the court mage Nuystul can finally break the spell with the help of Avatar. As the blackrock shell crumbles down, the ruler of Britannia can again thank Avatar for a job well done. And state, that the rebuilding of Britannia must continue.
It's pretty amazing, that there's only around a year in between the 1st Ultima Underworld and its sequel. The engine has improved quite a bit, making the 1st person gameplay much smoother, faster, and overall a greatly improved experience. Even the game screen is a bit bigger and the several worlds Avatar goes through are more detailed and filled with helpful and dangerous creatures alike. Some places you can even go through without a need to fight at all if you are smooth enough of a talker or manage to find a solution around the fight.
It does need to be said, that some of the worlds are somewhat annoying, even gimmicky. Talorus, a world inhabited by energy beings is one such world. It's basically a collection of jump pads and conveyor belts and it's really a place, that doesn't really have rhyme or reason about it. Scintillus Academy, a huge maze for magic students, is just that, a maze with all kinds of different puzzles ranging from reasoning to just jumping around on platforms. Ethereal Void is just a more playable version of the void that was seen at the end of the 1st Underworld and is, overall, rather uninteresting place in both gameplay and graphical appearance.
But then, there are places like the Prison Tower, Killorn Keep, and Pits of Carnage, where you need your wits as well as your tongue in the right place. All these locations show that Underworld 2 is at its best when the locations are a good mix of NPCs you can talk with as well as fight with, depending on how you approach the matters. There is one pretty decent maze world, the tomb of Praecor Loth, a world filled with ghosts of the people who were once under the service of the king, who tried to defy the Guardian. The main emphasis here is to find a path through the trap-filled mausoleum that is what is left of the world.
The gameplay is much smoother as well, turning even smoother if you install a fan-made mouse look patch, which also turns other controls a bit more modern. Jumping is still a bit annoying, but even that feels much better than in the 1st game.
The character progression is a bit different this time around. In the 1st game, you could hone your skill by speaking the right mantra on Ankh altars. Here, you need to find a trainer who is willing to teach you. Many of these trainers are easy enough to find, as Lord British's castle has many occupants who know a thing or two about a thing or two. Combat, magic, and stealth skills are easy to learn there and other worlds have teachers as well.
Like in the 1st game, exploration is the key to everything. And talking. it's just as important to talk with people as it's to explore every location. If you've managed to find enough runes to cover spells like identify, you'll even get to know what kind of magical items you have. Also, a good lore level helps there as well, making it easier to spot those good items.
Ultima Underworld 2 is a good example of how fast technology was already evolving in the early 90s. The 1st game is something of a miracle, given the hardware it was designed for, but the sequel manages to improve upon it greatly. In many ways it's a shame, there never was Underworld 3, as it would have surely been something truly special. I can only imagine what Looking Glass could have done with Thief engine, had they used it to create another Underworld title.
But, another Underworld was not to be. The next immersive simulator Looking Glass did was System Shock and after that, it seems their path with Origin was over and no other Underworld games were made, unless you count the poorly reviewed spiritual successor Underworld Ascendant which was Kickstarted in 2014.
Be it, however, the legacy, a rather mighty one at that, of Ultima Underworld games keeps on trucking. Even as they are, they are still surprisingly playable. You can purchase both games from GOG and I can't recommend them enough. Especially if you patch them with mouse look.
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