Descent to Undermountain

Descent to Undermountain
Cover art: "Spellfire" by Clyde Caldwell
Developer(s)	Interplay
Publisher(s)	Interplay
Designer(s)	Chris Avellone Scott Bennie John Deiley Robert Holloway Steve Perrin
Composer(s)	Richard Band Rick Jackson Ron Valdez
Engine	Descent engine
Platform(s)	PC (DOS)
Release date(s)	1997
Genre(s)	Role-playing video game
Mode(s)	Single player

Descent to Undermountain is a role-playing video game developed and published by Interplay in 1997. Based on the Dungeons & Dragons setting of Undermountain in the Forgotten Realms, it casts the player as an adventurer out to explore the treasure-filled recesses of the Undermountain dungeon. The "Descent" part of the name refers to the game's use of the 3D rendering engine from the 1995 game Descent.

Descent to Undermountain had a troubled development cycle. The Descent engine turned out to be unsuited for a role-playing game, leading to ballooning budgets and protracted delays. Interplay decided to ship the game in time for Christmas 1997, resulting in a rushed product. The game earned awful reviews and has been called the worst Dungeons & Dragons video game ever.

Descent to Undermountain was developed by Chris Avellone, Scott Bennie, John Deiley, Robert Holloway, and Steve Perrin. The game is based on the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, which was published at the time by TSR, Inc. Programmers were Andrew Pal, James Gardner, Robert Holloway and Chris Farenetta.

The game partially derives its title from the use of the Descent 3D graphical engine. The game was not the first to bring PC role-playing into a 3D environment: Bethesda Softworks' Elder Scrolls series and Looking Glass Studios' Ultima Underworld series preceded it. However, Descent was the first to use a true 3D engine as opposed to a sprite-based 2.5D solution.