大地传说 2：命运守护者 Lands of Lore II: Guardians of Destiny p.228

天翻地覆

Descent to Undermountain

时间回到上世纪 90 年代中期，彼时 Interplay 的内部团队正在同时开发两款 CRPG，他们的重点是万众瞩目的《天翻地覆（Descent to Undermountain）》，而另一款次重点游戏叫做《辐射（Fallout）》。

这在今天听起来可能会很奇怪，所以需要做一点补充。1994 年，Interplay 发行了大获成功的《天旋地转（Descent）》，这是一款 3D 的零重力 FPS 游戏，在其中玩家操控一艘可以向任何方向移动的宇宙飞船。与此同时，Interplay 购买了基于《高级龙与地下城（AD&D）》开发游戏的许可，于是一个有些上头的点子诞生了：开发一款基于《天旋地转》引擎的，《龙与地下城》式的全 3D 多人地牢探索游戏！

Interplay 在商业层面做出了聪明的决策，但技术层面简直是一场灾难。由于不熟悉引擎，开发团队举步维艰，游戏因此鸽了好几年，然后在 1997 年圣诞节被赶鸭子上架——游戏阉割了多人模式（然而盒子上仍然标明有多人模式）。更糟糕的是，它几乎不能玩：游戏经常崩溃、延迟、敌人飘在半空中、脑残的 AI、爬不了的梯子，以及许多致命 BUG。

即使你能够让游戏正常运行，战斗也是一团糟。《高级龙与地下城》规则被粗糙地改编成一款即时的 ARPG，玩家和敌人都打不中对方，直到其中一方掷骰子掷到了命中的一面——所以在游戏初期的几小时里，一次普通攻击就可以秒杀玩家。

玩家可以扮演战士（Fighter）、牧师（Cleric）、盗贼（Thief）或法师（Mage），或者将职业混搭——拥有诸如火球术（Fireball）、隐身（Invisibility）和羽落术（Feather Fall）等标志性法术。但在你达到一定级别之前，每天只能用一种法术。用了法术后，你就要选择是拿着匕首对敌还是找一个安全屋（很少见）休息。

敌人和环境比较单一，但至少背景和剧情设定还不错，故事发生在地下山（Undermountain），一座位于深水城（Waterdeep）下方的巨大地下城，也是 CRPG 游戏的绝佳场景。

Back in the mid-90s, Interplay's internal teams were working on two CRPGs: their big bet was the eagerly awaited Descent to Undermountain, while the other was a side-project named Fallout.

This may sound weird today, so some context is needed. Interplay scored a hit in 1994 by publishing Descent, a 3D zero-gravity FPS were you controlled a spaceship and could move in any direction. Around the same time, the company bought the license to make games based on AD&D, and thus a bold idea was born: a fully 3D Dungeons & Dragons multiplayer dungeon crawler based on the Descent engine!

While a clever business decision, the technical side was a disaster. Unfamiliar with the engine, the team struggled and the game was delayed for years, then suddenly rushed out for 1997's Christmas – without multiplayer (which was still listed on the box). Worse, it was practically unplayable, with constant crashes, slowdowns, enemies floating in mid-air, a brain-dead AI, unclimbable ladders and many other serious bugs.

Even if you got the game to work, combat was a mess. The AD&D rules were crudely adapted into a real-time Action RPG, as monsters and the player just keep missing each other until someone scores a lucky dice roll – in which case a single blow can kill your character during the first several hours.

Similarly, you can play as a Fighter, Cleric, Thief or Mage (or even multi-class) – with iconic spells like Fireball, Invisibility and Feather Fall. But until you level up a few times, you're limited to one spell per day. After that, your options are to battle monsters with a dagger or to find a (rare) safe place to rest.

There isn't much enemy or environment variety, but at least the setting and lore are both well employed, with Undermountain, a massive dungeon beneath the city of Waterdeep, being a great location for a CRPG.

地下山由四个中心区和几个互相连接的地牢组成，遍布陷阱、隐藏通道和可选择的探索区域，游戏拥有很棒的原声音乐以及有着不寻常任务和对话的 NPC。地牢做得也不错，尽管过于依赖幻影墙了。

遗憾的是，由于勉强运行的引擎、众多恶性 BUG、模糊的画质、乏味的战斗和开发商给玩家画的大饼，《天翻地覆》中的优秀设计都被埋没了。

Composed of four hubs and several interconnected dungeons, Undermountain is filled with traps, hidden passages, optional areas, a great soundtrack and NPCs with unusual quests and dialogues. The dungeons are also well-done, although too reliant on illusory walls.

Sadly, any quality to Descent to Undermountain is buried deep beneath a barely working engine, gamebreaking bugs, muddy graphics, tedious combat and many unfulfilled promises.