Underlight
KoiWare, LLC · 2018 · 1990's, MMORPG, Massively Multiplayer, Retro, Fantasy
PC
Mixed62% · 115
This game is free to play. Get it on Steam →
Screenshots
About Underlight
✦ AI summary
Underlight is a player-driven MMO set in a shared dream city where real people create their own characters, stories, and quests with zero predetermined paths or NPC quest-givers. Its standout features include skill-learning entirely from other players, FPS-style real-time combat with tactical dodging, and a retro late-90s aesthetic built on gorgeous 3D sprites and pixels.
Real Community
Be a part of a vast Underlight City of dreamers. Real people, just like you, creating real characters. There are no predetermined paths for you to follow and no specified end game. You are in control of how your character interacts with the other characters creating true conflict and resolution. It's your dream to make.
Real Interaction
Enter a world of complete player driven stories and interactions. There are no bots here handing out the exact same quests. How will you get wrapped up and proceed? Will you become a Teacher and help others grow? Will you take the noble path of a Ruler or Guardian of one of the Houses? Maybe you will hone your fighting skills and become a great warrior. The choice is yours to make. Create your own compelling character backstory and flesh it out with fellow Dreamers in the dynamic dream city of Underlight. Your actions and experiences will have a direct impact on an ever evolving story line with rich and engaging characters, histories, beliefs and factions! Every other Dreamer you speak to in Underlight is played by a real human being.
Real Combat Mechanics
You won't find any auto-attack here, standing in one place trading blows with a monster, not nearly exciting enough. In our world, you swing your sword, or shoot your fireball, and move to dodge before your enemy strikes you! Take the fight to the nightmares in a live action FPS-style combat system. Or duel other players to see who is the true champion of the city!
Retro Graphics
Immerse yourself in old style retro gaming feel of the late 90s! Experience a unique dream world surrounded by gorgeous 3D sprites and pixels!
Unique Teaching System
The teaching system in Underlight is a unique feature not found in other games.
In other games, upon leveling up your Wizard will automatically learn their next fireball spell or will go to an NPC skill trainer and purchase it for a couple of gold. In Underlight all of your magical arts are learned from other player characters in the game.
The characters capable of teaching you new arts, or improving existing ones, can be spotted by the colored halos they wear upon their heads. Once your character senses they are able to learn a new art they should approach one of these teachers. These teachers, however, are not going to just give away the arts they worked hard to learn and improve. Instead they will ask you to perform some sort of small task or quest before teaching it to you. Every quest your character receives in Underlight is written by another player of the game and can be customized for your character.
Your character could be asked to come up with a way to harm one of the Darkmares, gather supplies for an experiment the teacher is planning, or infiltrate an enemy house. The possibilities of what your teacher and you come up with for your quest are limited only by imagination (and a few basic rules!).
The pace of advancement for new and lower level characters has been increased so that they can quickly jump right into the action that our dreamworld has to offer.
Player Classes
These classes are known as a characters “focus” and represent one of the very first decisions you will need to make for your character at its creation. The focus determines what your character will specialize in and controls what magical arts your character can learn and how much they can improve those arts. The choices are: Gatekeeper, Soulmaster, Fatesender, or Dreamseer.
Gatekeeper:
While every focus are able to use blades, chakrams, and their flame art, Gatekeepers hit for more damage than any other focus when using any of these weapons. Gatekeepers are known as the protectors or defenders of the city. They are able to cast protective arts on themselves or others which prevent them from being paralyzed, cursed, or scared. Reflect is their strongest protective art, but is reserved only for themselves. Their signature art is called Ward. A Gatekeeper can use their ward to lock portals of the city to defend a stronghold from attack or to set a trap.
Dreamseer:
Weapons and items in Underlight have a limited number of uses before they are destroyed. The most commonly used weapon, the chakram, has a maximum of 50 uses or charges before they are destroyed. Dreamseers are able to recharge items that have a low number of charges remaining, returning them back to their maximum. This can be a risky process and instead of charges being added the item could be entirely destroyed. Their signature art is Blast, capable of rapidly damaging any single target within their sight.
Fatesender:
Fatesenders are capable of inflicting terror upon other dreamers, sending them running uncontrollably, blinding them, or even completely paralyzing them. While there are protective arts that can prevent a Fatesender from doing these things, a clever Fatesender will catch their target off guard or work with a Soulmaster to remove these protective effects. Fatesenders are one of the strongest dreamsmiths (or crafters), capable of imbuing the weapons they create for themselves or others with any of the aforementioned effects. Their signature art is Firestorm, which inflicts large amounts of damage to everyone in the same room who are not members of the Fatesender’s party.
Soulmaster:
Soulmasters are the strongest healers in the dream but they are not relegated strictly to that role. They are able to poison their enemies, causing them to slowly lose health, or curse them, causing their target’s arts to be more difficult to cast successfully. They often viewed as the backbone of the house strongholds with the ability to gather significantly more energy from defeated Nightmares, vastly increasing the stronghold’s strength reserves. Their signature art is Abjure, which randomly dispels active effects from their target. A Soulmaster working together with a Fatesender to Abjure and Paralyze their target represent one of the most feared combinations on the battlefield.
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
⠀8 found this helpful
[h1] A Historic MMORPG, Sabotaged and Left To Rot by New Ownership. [/h1] I played this game years ago and decided to check up on it. Unfortunately, as of this review, that is impossible for new/returning players. The game now requires you to create a "KoiWare Account" (KoiWare being the new team maintaining the game). The problem is, [b] creating an account isn't possible. [/b] Upon clicking the [i] "Create KoiWare Account" [/i] button I was met with a browser warning stating that the sites web security certificate expired [b] over a month ago [/b] (as of this review). Not a good sign, but I carried on into the site. [b] Upon attempting to create an account, I was met with the following web error - [/b] [i] "Unhandled Rejection (TypeError): error.response is undefined ./src/signup/SignupView.js/SignupView/onSubmit/< src/signup/SignupView.js:75 }) catch(error => { setFormSubmitting(false); if (error.response.status === 400) { setMessage(true); setMessageList(error.response.data.errors); } " [/i] Now, I can't tell you what any of this means. But I can tell you that no matter what account info tried or what browser I used, I got this error every time and was ultim…6 found this helpful
I first discovered this game, I believe around 1997. I watched a PBS doc on the creation of it, and was curious. After a bit of research, I gave it a try. This internet and online stuff was new to me then. Sure, I did the Prodigy thing, AOL, but both did not appeal to me at the time. Then, Underlight! This game sucked me in! Bad graphics, poor mechanics and all. I never played Meridian or that other Ultima online game, but this game, I found a home for my then state of self. Thus, I did the download for a beta. entered, and found a home. I was greeted by factions within, choices to make for my character, and of course some grind to level up. I became Jevik Bane in the dream, a true zealot of an in game belief. My character then allowed me to find escape from a troubled life, as I thought back then. This in-game persona actually brought forth real world friends. I spent many years playing this outdated game, then stopped. Yet, when this game went to Steam, I was drawn back in out of curiosity. The game, graphic wise did not change. Of course, money is needed for such, but the community it...WOW. My character Jevik Bane was still there though. I tried him for a bit, but in time, as I…1 found this helpful
Underlight sounds like an amazing game in theory. However, it is extremely inaccessible. I'm a big fan of RPGs both video games and tabletop and unless you are okay with trying to learn the narrative, lore, and setting of a small clique of people that have been effectively playing a 20+ year long campaign. This game doesn't really have much for you otherwise. The game also has upkeep that is very much the bare minimum to keep the game still alive and the developers are not looking to rebalance the game to acomodate the low player count in a way that matters. When I played I was greeted with particularly excellent players who were very gracious and answered all my questions. This game is marketed as a "true roleplaying game" which is true but it lacks alot of mechanical systems of other MMOs or have some sort of weird half-implementation. In its place you have to interact with the GMs to progress your character and to do quests. Which sounds interesting but it requires everyone to schedule your time around helping you do quests of narratives that the GMs made. Unlike in most other MMO adjacent games, where the GMs are just around to moderate behavior, the GMs here are tied strictl…
Игра Underlight – это уникальный, глубоко иммерсивный опыт MMORPG, основанный на взаимодействии игроков и развитии персонажей через ролевую игру. Здесь нет квестов в привычном понимании, зато есть захватывающий мир Демиан, где правила создает само комьюнити. Динамичные политические интриги, формирование альянсов и неожиданные предательства – это лишь малая часть того, что ждет вас. Графика, конечно, не самая современная, но атмосфера и возможности отыгрыша настолько сильны, что быстро забываешь о визуальных недостатках. Ключевым элементом является использование "снов" - инстансов, где игроки могут развивать свои навыки, искать артефакты и встречаться с другими персонажами. Однако, стоит отметить, что игра требует определенного уровня вовлеченности и готовности к активной ролевой игре. Если вы ищете казуальную MMORPG, Underlight, вероятно, не для вас. Но если вы цените свободу действий, интересные социальные взаимодействия и готовы погрузиться в продуманный и живой мир, то Underlight может стать настоящей находкой. Это проект для тех, кто хочет не просто "играть в игру", а создавать свою собственную историю.
[[h1]Underlight: The Magic of RPG Experience✨[/h1] Underlight is a unique RPG game. I was fascinated by the experiences I had in the game. 👍 [b]Positives:[/b] [b]Deep Story and Character Development:[/b] I was fascinated by the depth of the characters and the layers of storytelling in Underlight. The process of building a relationship with my character and the development of my character was really impressive. The events, each unique, enrich the game even more. [b]Community and Social Interaction:[/b] The game encourages players to interact with each other. Community interaction adds real depth to the game experience. [b]Mystery and Exploration:[/b] The world of Underlight was full of mysteries that I enjoyed exploring. It was exciting to explore new places and solve mysteries. 👎 [b]Negatives:[/b] [b]Learning Curve:[/b] The game can be a bit complicated at first. The learning curve can be a bit steep for beginners. [b]Technical Issues:[/b] I sometimes encountered technical issues within the game, which affected my gaming experience a bit. [table] [tr] [th]Features[/th] [th]Evaluation[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Deep Story and Character Developmen…
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