History VideoGame / UltimaUnderworld

* GoWaitOutside: The game features a blacksmith character who will repair your items. The trope is {{Averted}} by requiring X ''real time'' minutes to accomplish the repairs, although you can skip this time by sleeping.

* {{Defictionalisation}}: [[http://web.archive.org/web/20110806045235/http://www.dc.state.fl.us/pub/compass/0305/2.html Apparently]], the Florida Department of Corrections encourages security guards to live by the virtues of the Guardian as outlined in Underworld 2. Evidently, no one told them that the Guardian is the ''villain'', and that his virtues are the groundwork for a fascist society.[[note]]This isn't political commentary either. From the bottom of the page: "These virtues were excerpted and adapted from "The Virtues of the Guardian of Killgorn Keep" created by John Hosie."[[/note]]

* LethalJokeWeapon: Sort of--they're not jokes per se, just sneaky. Some of the most powerful weapons and armor in Underworld 2 look just like the weakest. There's a hatchet of smiting that's probably the most powerful weapon in the game, a cudgel that opens all locked doors and chests, and a leather vest that makes you immune to fire, to name a few of the most notable.

* HopelessBossFight: You can attack the Slasher of Veils in the final level of the first game, but he's extremely strong and impossible to kill. Note that accidentally hitting him with an item counts as an attack, so it's best to be cautious. Fortunately, as strong as he is, he isn't faster than you.

* AlienLunch: Rotworm stew in the first game is made from [[BigCreepyCrawlies minced rotworm]], a hallucinogenic mushroom, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking a bottle of port]]. Surprisingly, it's apparently quite delicious.

* SequelDifficultySpike: The second game is a lot harder than the first, at least in the early stages, as even the enemies that you encounter early on are capable of inflicting a OneHitKill on you. Once you've managed to level up the difficulty evens out a lot, but actually doing so without getting slaughtered can be tricky.

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The sequel.

** AllThereInTheManual: Despite no references in this game, the castle's sewers are actually a primordial dungeon, Hythloth, which was either there before the sewers accidentally opened it up or they were placed there to seal them off, depending on the story. ''Ultima VI'' actually had the sewers of the castle connect to natural caves which reached all the way to Buccaneer's Den.

* NonMaliciousMonster: A few of the gigantic monstrous-looking spiders, lurkers, worms, slugs, rats etc. encountered in both games are non-hostile and will leave you alone (as long as you don't anger them.)

* TeleportersAndTransporters: A spell in the first game allows you to teleport to a special stone. Pretty handy as a quick escape method or to get out of areas that otherwise have no exit (the vault in the Dwarven area is just a massive pit with no exit, and you find the stone on the same floor).

* GameBreakingBug: If you fail to adequately handle the "strike" situation with Lord British's kitchen staff in the second game, the game will become {{Unwinnable|ByMistake}}. There's also no indication at the time that you've chosen the wrong option on the DialogueTree, it isn't until a bit later that you realise you can't progress any further... yet you still aren't sure ''why'' unless you consult a [[GuideDangIt walkthrough]].

* UnwinnableByMistake: A number of bugs can lead to this (see GameBreakingBug above).

* ApocalypticLog: Used quite frequently for exposition.
* BattleThemeMusic

* BrokenBridge
* ButThouMust

* CoolGate

* EarlyGameHell: In the first game, you start with literally nothing (a nearby bag, fortunately, has a dagger and some food), and you have to scrounge everything. Unless you're diligent in exploring each inch of the level, ''and'' finding every secret, you're going to be underpowered and underequipped when you go to the second level.

* FetchQuest

* IncrediblyLameFun: The troll game of "White Rock Black Rock," in which you are challenged to pick the correct rock... from a pair of rocks ''clearly visible to both players.'' You can make it even more difficult by giving the troll a ''gray'' rock.
** It's more of a puzzle than it appears to be though, because the reward comes from [[spoiler:figuring out how to let the troll beat you.]]

* LightbulbJoke:
-->"How many Vorz does it take to skup a light-sphere?"\\
"None -- Vorz cannot skup, [[UnusualEuphemism dinglenoggen]]!"

* RelationshipValues
* RodentsOfUnusualSize: An early enemy in both games.

** The Trilkhai (see MythologyGag).

* UselessUsefulSkill: Half the skills are either useless or thoroughly redundant. To illustrate: you can put points in Repair, enabling you to keep your weapons and armour in tip-top condition. And you can train in lockpicking, so you can get past those pesky locked doors/chests. Awesome! Except if you'd put those points into mana and casting, you'd have got spells to do both of those and a whole load of other things.
** One of the cool things about these games is that there are multiple legitimate ways to do everything. Want to open a door? You can bash it, pick it, cast a spell, find the key, or, if you invested in Lore, find a Cudgel of Opening. All of these represent different potential characters taking different paths through the game--though like all Ultima games, Underworld is rather unfriendly to thieves. The game is designed to encourage experimentation with character builds: mages have it easi''er'', but just about any build is viable.

* OminousFloatingCastle: Killorn Keep, though you only get to see it from the outside. If you do enough searching, you can find what's keeping it aloft and destroy it. This will understandably turn everyone inside hostile, and once you leave using the Blackrock Gem, it will have crashed upon your return, revealing a few things you couldn't reach before while also eliminating everyone important to the plot that lived there.

* MadeOfExplodium: The bats, which inexplicably burst into flames when you kill them.

* MythologyGag: The Trilkhai, who share a similar back story with the Kilrathi of the ''Videogame/WingCommander'' games. In fact, if you [[SignificantAnagram rearrange the letters...]]

* WalkOnWater: Available as a spell.

* TheReptilians: The Thepa Lizard Men are reptilians.

* TalkToEveryone

** One of the cool things about these games is that there are multiple legitimate ways to do everything. Want to open a door? You can bash it, pick it, cast a spell, find the key, or, if you invested in Lore, find a Cudgel of Opening. All of these represent different potential characters taking different paths through the game--though like all Ultima games, Underworld is rather unfriendly to thieves.