Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2018
Underworld Ascendant
Developer OtherSide Entertainment
Underworld Ascendant is a first-person action role-playing game developed by Otherside Entertainment and published by 505 Games. It is the sequel to Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss and Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds. Players assume the role of the Avatar, as they return to the Stygian Abyss. As in the original Ultima games, there is an emphasis on non-linear progression, simulated systems, and… From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
202 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon, Lemmy) · newest Sep 15, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
44
Mixed
84 positive · 109 negative
95% range 37–51%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 84 | 109 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
9 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mostly Negative
381 of 1,103 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 202 · most liked firstThink I've played enough of this game to form an opinion of it. Definitely isn't worth full price. A 40/100 effort. The good Destructible environments are well done Some intricate and clever dungeon design Makes references to the prior Ultima Underworld games Spells are reasonable Skill sets are decent The bad Game is basically still in alpha stage - you're playing a half-completed product that'll never be finished now Lots of unimplemented features, like factions, decent character…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sad, but also his studio was struggling from the start. Their debut game, Underworld Ascendant, was in 2018 and notably one of the most busted immersive sims ever. Thick As Thieves was meant to be a PvP game but got re-worked as a PvE-only one literally weeks from release and sold episodically.
unlabelledView post →Remember Ultima Underworld? Maybe you're too young for that and that's ok. This was supposed to be the spiritual successor to Ultima Underworld, minus the IP branding of an Ultima game. It fails on every count and has apparently been abandoned. The Devs should release the source code so some other Dev team can fix and finish what they started.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There are many things I like about this game. Exploration is super fun and I really enjoy the level design. It was a pleasure to just walk around, poking my nose into every nook and cranny. If it only wouldn't be so dark (yeah, the lighting sucks). Interacting with the environment is also great. I had fun setting stuff on fire, throwing things at enemies, and even trying to climb extremely wonky crates. This game invites experimentation. Even its magic system wants you to mess around, try…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Don’t let the 'thumbs up' fool you, I selected a positive rating to show my support, but my review will be generally mixed. This game is undeniably flawed, and it should go without saying that another year of polishing up was needed before it hit the shelves. Despite its many pitfalls, there were still some diamond moments, and with a bit of perseverance you may find multiple aspects of the game enjoyable, but probably not enough to justify its steep price tag. In the face of negative reviews…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So ... 'tis done. Having played Ultima Underworld 1/2 far too much back in the days, I had somewhat high expectations to UA. Backed it on KS, played the (pre)alpha and backer build - I've just finished the story, which I did in 15 hours playtime with exploring and everything. It's ... not what I'd expected, and weirdly enough, everything I did expect and want it to be. I do like the game - I like the npcs and their background stories, I like the main storyline and the sidequests, love the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →OK, So i paid £120 for this in the KS and all they had to do was make Ultima Underworld 3. Oh dear, they could have taken the code from the original, made the graphics 4k and we would of had the fantastic writy-on-map, paper doll inventory and the combining stuff you pick up from the dungeon, nothing in this game comes anywhere near this. They just needed to add a new story WITH dialogue trees but no, what we got was ugly enemy models, no chatting with NPC's, tedious backtracking, a lot of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Devs left the game incomplete
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →No. No, no, no, no, no, no, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. This game isn't just broken, it's outright unfinished. Even after an extra year and a half plus four major patches Underworld Ascendant is a broken, near-unplayable mess where you'll die by the physics of a chain flipping out as you jump on it more than all the other hazards in this game combined. Whatever form of combat you do will be boring and tedious, the story is uninspired, and the AI is outright broken to the point that once you get to the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Six years old and still pre-Alpha at best. I'm sorry, like so many I wanted to like this and wanted to support a new entry in the Ultima: Underworld series but jfc, everything looks and feels so bad to play. Something as simple as swinging your arms causes them to clip out of frame, fire sources have no visuals, textures pop in and out of existence, the magic system is unintuitive, the enemies are dumb, the list goes on. What even is here that I can recommend? It's just unfinished. There are…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you find this review to be helpful, my curators page is here: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/The_dull_games_reviewer Underworld Ascendant is a first-person rpg, that mixes combat and platforming challenges with a level of some ingenuity for the player. Experimenting with it's systems can yield interesting results, with physics driven interactions like setting fire to wooden structures such as doors, and it's implementation of magic which offers a lot of flexibility. In theory it should…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One of the greatest hopes and disappointments the last few years, this company should be barred from touching any of the classics. Not only are they failing at making even the basic game mechanics enjoyable but they are ruining the legacies of these games. Avoid at all costs.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's not what it longed to be, it's not what it had set out to be, it's not even what it could have been after the foolish dream had been put to rest eventually, but what remained of it through all this is enough to give us a good glimpse at the greatness of the immersive sim and keep that dream going.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is surreal to play. Literally every system is at odds with each other. That's genuinely impressive. Am I supposed to explore? Or am I supposed to manically run through every level scrounging for food because the consequence for sightseeing is starvation. I see you made your own physics system, and like so many people who have attempted that before you have made something that's beautiful on a technical level but entirely unworkable as a video game. There are brief moments of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →**This game is not finished and will not be finished** So I got this game for £3 on sale and I wouldn't recommend getting it for any other price. The trailer looked pretty cool but the reviews were real, real bad. A mix of development hell and kickstarter promises going unmet. This game is a part of a much-loved series and didn't meet expectations, but, I'm not an old fan and I know nothing about the genre, so I gave it ago. I'm relatively new to the immersive sim genre, I love the freedom…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The level design is really interesting, the areas are unique and compelling and the creatures (both friend and foe) are creepy and fascinating. The world is pretty. But its not a great experience. The best phrase I can think of that explains this entire mess is 'untapped potential'. The game is half baked, needs a great deal of additional work and polish it will never get, and is an endless jankfest. I can't in good faith, recommended it to anyone. Sometimes enemies don't see you when you…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was never sure if I'd make a review for this game, but I think this is the time. I was the Community Manager on this game for OSE (Boston) from 2017-2019. I still have very fond memories of working on it alongside UA's incredible developers, some of whom are still at the studio. If you're looking for an unbiased review of the game, I encourage you to read the other reviews. The ones from the KS backers, those who haven't played an UW, etc. Weigh them with whatever is important to you when…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is a collection of great ideas with poor execution. I have seen many reviews claiming that Underworld:Ascendant is incredibly glitchy and for the most part these reviews are true, however, In my time playing the game to completion I had no game breaking glitches, only some that messed with game balance (such as enemies killing themselves on objects or getting unearned feats). These primarily worked in the player's favor with few exceptions. Easily, the glitch that damaged the game…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Don't waste your money. Some would have you believe that patches applied to this game have made it playable since launch, and it certainly seemed so for the first few levels, I was having fun. Then the problems started in the Underswamp. The game for some reason no longer recognised my character possessing the Abyssal Key I acquired in the Keep, meaning I could not claim my reward from the mediator, and the next objective wouldn't trigger. I was able to use this transient "key" to get to the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →You know that thing those people who make videos online do when they're going to review something that really disappointed them? It's a world-weary sigh, usually followed by reaching for some alcohol. Consider this my best theatrical, saddest sigh, followed by me serving a stiff shot of whiskey. Underworld ascendant was kickstartered a full yonk of years ago, and the pitch was a no-brainer back in those heady, idealistic days of cynical nostalgia-fuelled kickstarter goldrush. Paul Neurath!…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I had hard time deciding how to rate this. If I could rate it neutral, I would. In the beginning I was annoyed by the weird physics that made it impossible to -- for instance -- stack and climb boxes. But then it quickly became obvious that none of the puzzles require that kind of physics. After a while I was wall-running and double-jumping everywhere, barely touching the ground. The physics are still weird at times, but they're not really the focus of the game. The environments look good,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Between an unsuitable engine, the bunch of bugs that come with it and clearly just the broadest strokes of a story this game is just a skeleton of what could have been great. If you like exploring and making your own fun with it I'd still pick up this during a sale at a deep discount, but there is no way I'd recommend this to the general public. A shame.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love the original Underworld, and when I saw this I was hesitant to buy it due to the bad reviews. I waited until just before update 2 dropped and then decided to give it a try. It felt.... well... awful. Like an alpha release with a sluggish physics engine. Then update 3 dropped and some things improved, but it still feels sluggish. The story is so-so - nothing stellar, but not the worst either. There are some things I like, such as the spell crafting with runes, but overall, it's just not…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i wanted to like this so much, especially after the patches, but so much of it is fundamentally unfun after a while. go play arx fatalis with the arx libertatis community patch installed instead!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →From what I've played, this game definitely doesn't deserve the hate. It's like a game that reminds me of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, mixed with some Thief, along with some new stuff. It has an interesting spell system, with runes you gather throughout the game, which you combine and discover new spells with or find recipes for so they are added to your spellbook. It's actually very cool. Combat is fine, but not flawless. The AI is alright, but beatable. I'd say early on at least, the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I can give this game a solid recommend. It may have been poor when first released, I don't know, did not play it then. However, playing it right now, in 2023 the game looks, runs, and plays great. No issues technically at all. The graphics are quite good, and the art style and theme is immersive. Exploring the dungeon and figuring out ways to do things is great, and if you crank up the difficulty to the highest setting you have to play smart to be successful. What this game is NOT is an open…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Quite possible the least fun you'll ever have. Nothing feels good. Movement. Combat. Stealth. Art Style. The magic system. It's all awkward and NOT AT ALL fun.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I absolutely would not recommend ever playing, installing, or even looking at this title even if it's completely free. I had heard for years about how several of the immersive sim genre's leading names had formed a studio and decided to make a successor to one of their previous titles using modern tech and so on. I had heard for years about how it didn't launch well and was receiving repeated updates to try and make it better and so on. I saw it on sale for very little after its final update…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This games is not, and will never be, what the kickstarter promised. The only reason I even remembered it existed was because I scrolled to the bottom of my game list this decade. Shame on OtherSide.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't know what happened in development, but somehow the people behind Ultima Underworld, Thief, and System Shock made a really crap game. It tries to bring back some of that open-ended gameplay, but it's dragged down by a god awful physics engine that affects everything from the clunky character movement to buggy ragdoll combat. The art assets vary from maybe kind of pretty to cheap mobile game tier. And even the actual design ideas seem to boil down to them just thinking that stacking box…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Yo this game sucks, and it's so boring I forgot to review it until now. The AI forgot to exist like literally 2/3rds of the way through the game so i just walked through an empty ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dungeon for like 3 hours and beat the rest of the game. By the way the final boss is literally the same Lich enemy you've seen like 10 times but they scaled him up to be Kaiju sized. Also the fireballs he shoots move the same speed as the normal liches but because he's like a mile away they move snail slow…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The biggest problem with Underworld Ascendant is that it tries to be a game for everyone, but spread their resources far to thin and failed on to "finish" each play style. UA is chock full of good ideas, but they often feel as though they are wrestling for control with other good ideas. There's is one play experience that I enjoyed here and its not for the Action RPG player. It's the graphic adventure game, almost Shadowgate in full 3D. Much of the budget was put towards a sandbox physics…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →To put it kindly, this game is incomplete. You can see the spirit of the original Ultima Underworld games, but this game needs a LOT of further development. Save yourself the bucks, give this a pass, get DosBOX, and play the original two games.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game wanted to be Ultima Underworld 3 but failed. I have only played 2 hours but I can't play more. It is buggy, graphics are 2000 like where studios were emphasising corny glowing colours to make gamers happy about their new graphic cards. The game constantly changes resolution whenever you change any option in graphics including brightness. The spell system is original, the possibility of inventing new spells comes back from Ultima, but good luck hitting with that spell enemy because…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →WORST DAMNED PHYSICS ENGINE EVER! I kickstarted this game and have tried time and time again to come back to this game to TRY and like it because I loved the original 2 Underworld games in the Ultima Series, which the idea and creators hail from. Many "puzzles" offer low reward prizes for insanely difficult solutions that should be simple "stack and climb" where you could drag a 220 lbs table across a room and stack a box on top of it to climb on, but while you drag the table, it throws you,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Starts with a lot of promising immersive sim stuff and then none of it comes together. - Stoopid AI that is sometimes also broken or hyper-aware of the player, and never a threat unless you decide to actually fight it - The bad AI makes sneaking pointless. You can run by most enemies, and no amount of sneaking will prevent some from seeing you from a mile away - If you do decide to fight, then the melee combat is boring, and both magic and stealth kills require some serious grinding to unlock…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There are good things here and bad things, for a while at least it seemed like i could actually have fun despite the jank. Instead of going trough the majority of its problems piece by piece i will mention the two that finally made me quit. 1. When does a mission start and when does it end? There is no clear indication for when a mission truly starts a problem when that the world seems to be intended to be more open, more of a open playing field for the player then straight up level based…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game should not be bought. There are major bugs that block quests with no way out. This game was around $35 and after a few of hours of playing, some door was locked that shouldn't be and the game was bricked. I looked in the forum for an answer and everyone wsa complaining about this problem. The only known solution was to delete all you saves, make a new character, and go through the entire game again to that point and hope it doesn't happen again. The bug was 6 years old and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Janky as hell ... yes ... but not in the dictionary definition sense (i.e. of extremely poor or unreliable quality) ... as this is certainly none of either. The quality is sky-high, and there are no show-stopping bugs to be found (not any longer anyway) ... HOWEVER, there are certainly unfinished systems / ideas that make the game-play very odd at times (climbing, movement over obstacles etc) ... which are mostly due to advanced physics systems that had to be culled / man-handled into a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An abandoned pile of broken jank. Avoid like the plague!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Absolute garbage. Devs have made it so that it's impossible to move your character. You can look around, you can jump in place, you can punch and block. But you start in a room with a face carved into a wall and blue things floating around, and that's it. Rebinding all of the movement keys doesn't do a thing. The (under)developers should be outright arrested for theft and fraud.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The original underworld is one of my all time favorite games. I had very high hopes when I heard the creators were making another one. Unfortunately, this is an absolutely failed project. I purchased the game when it first came out, and found it to be massively buggy and missing everything that made the this series fun. The game was released way before it was to a point where it should have been considered ready. I decided to wait and play it later to see if the bugs would be fixed,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am very saddened to read the poor reviews this game has gotten... it's a little chunky, yes, but it reminds me of watching The Box of Delights when I was young. It's imperfect, and yet the developers tried to do something good and - for a certain type of person - I think they succeeded.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I recommend this only for super-mega fans of old Looking Glass studios games (Thief 1/2, System Shock 1/2, Deus Ex) who can look past some jank. It isn't anywhere near the quality of their classic titles but there is an interesting and (barely) functional game here. Technical problems still exist but this is in a playable state and has some unique mechanics. I get that they were going for "realism" with the physics, but they are quite buggy and you can often take damage or die from things like…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is great as long as you Get it on sale Have low expectations Enjoy janky games Lookup the file to get the kickstarter items If you fit all of these criteria you can have a good time with it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Underworld Ascendant fails to live up to the expectations set by its predecessors. The level design lacks coherence, leading to frustrating navigation. Combat mechanics are clunky and lack precision. A disappointing and underwhelming journey. /!\ Underworld Ascendant runs well on Steam Deck. "NATIVE" on ProtonDB. https://www.protondb.com/app/692840
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wish I had never bought this game. It's not fun, and not just because of the overabundance of jank and bugs. Jank and bugs are easy to overlook if the game is fun. This game is just nothing. I do not recommend.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is horrendous. Part of me is still in disbelief at the fact that this is the official 3rd Ultima Underworld title because, in addition to being bad, most of the game is completely at odds with what came previously in the Underworld series. For example, the game is linear. A key aspect of Ultima Underworld games is that they take place in complex, interconnected dungeons with various entrances and exits to different levels on each floor. As you played the game, you would go back and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have been waiting for this game to be completed, since it feels as if it is in late beta early alpha for 2 years. I am certain at this point the developers took the Kickstarter money and ran.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →First of all I played this game in early access so the issues might be fixed later on, but at this stage I can;t recommend it. Level layout is very confusing, most of the time I don't have any grasp on where to go and what exactly my quest is. Graphics are glitchy, stats and effects are overwhelming. The game has some genuinely fascinating ideas tho. The magic system where you make your own spells by mixing and matching runes? Awesome. Is it worth struggling through the chaotic enviroment? Not…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I bought this game at a deeply discounted price (I think it was around 7 bucks) and boy am I glad I didn't pay 30 dollars for this.....I'm not even sure what to call it. It's a "game" in a basic sense; a lackluster and visually outdated physics simulator/puzzle solver with some hack-n-slash. But every part of this game feels old, abandoned and lazily done. Combat is slow, clunky, and sometimes the mouse input doesn't happen for several moments. Often times my repeated light attacks would…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I’ve always been a huge fan of the Ultima series. Although I haven’t completed every installment, I’ve played most of them extensively. So when I first heard about Ultima Ascendant, it immediately caught my attention. After reading a few reviews mentioning technical issues, I was still eager to experience it for myself. After spending some time with the game, I found that it has a solid foundation. The story and core systems are engaging, the graphics are impressive, and the physics and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After all the patches the game became quite playable and enjoyable for the fans of the Thief series. It is slow and stealthy, it rewards exploration, and completing bonus objectives feels great after you figure out how to do them. Physics is hit or miss sometimes, but settings things on fire feels soooo great. TLDR, Deus Ex and Thief fans will love it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There is definitely a game under the jank, but the jank drags you down. The biggest problem so far is that there's a 20% chance the game will crash everytime you break anything, and there is loot to be found in a lot of the breakable stuff, so you can kind of see a problem right there. I've spent about 2 hours now in the game only to realize i dont want to continue, mostly cause of the crashing. I dont personally see a problem with much of the other stuff, even though the physics reminds me…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Why the bad reviews? It is a cool game, nice graphics, setting, crafting and gameplay. Not the best of the type but worth getting on sale.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Casual fun to be had with uniqueness, but I'll start with the bad. Underworld Ascendant more than lacks polish. It feels unfinished even though the questing system has been problem free for me so far. I picked to use a male voice, but the game decided I was to be female instead. Problems with sound effects standout. Often the enemy AI doesn't function as it should. Sometimes strange things happen with the physics, making me think I'm going to die.... and... Well, it's kinda funny. Have…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TLDR: The combat isn't fun. Half the game heavily discourages combat and the other half is about making you better at combat (even the "stealth" skills are combat buffs). The exploration is fun. There are a bunch of factors that work to make the exploration less fun. Pros: Exploration I found that the exploration aspect of the game was done relatively well. There was generally more than one way to get through an area and there are often hidden areas with a bit of extra loot in them. There…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Save your gold. 'Tis the wiser choice...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I think this is the only Steam game I ever refunded. I impulse bought it while it was heavily discounted based on the pedigree of its creators and was unaware of its initial production woes/reception. But even after some updates, a lot of those issues were still present, and a lot of things that seemed to be in the description when I bought it were just not a thing in the game. The enemy AI really is interesting, the best way to fight seems to be to go up some stairs or around a corner, which…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I just finished the game to completion tonight...and don't fully understand the intense negativity surrounding this game. I do see that there was a lot of backing and promises that went unkept, so in that regard I can understand how I would have been disappointed as well. This is by no means a 'great' game, nor maybe even a 'good' one -- but it's not 'bad'. For me it was a relaxing experience, not-quite as dungeon-crawly as I was hoping for. I had never played the original Ultima Underworld…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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