Unreal

[Bloodshot]

I know this is a Quake forum, but what do you guys think of Unreal? (NOT unreal tournament, but the first game, with a campaign)

Personally, I find it to be one of my favorite games, right up there with Quake for me. I think the devs accomplished a great sense of atmosphere in the game with the detailed and stylistic level design, mixed with the excellent musical score. The AI was actually challenging for a single player game, and each enemy acted differently.

IMO these things added a lot to the suspension of disbelief for me because it makes it feel like you are a vulnerable human trying to survive in a foreign world. That, and I thought it was quite cool how there was a ton of backstory, but if you didn't care about it, you could just blast through the game and avoid all the logs and diaries and alien writings read through the translator.

In the beginning of the game when I first played back in 98, I was expecting another Quake or Doom-like game with nice graphics (which i was fine with), but then I got passed the first level, out of the ship I was like

Also, I think the setting is pretty different from ID's games too, and this makes it a pretty good thing to play when your done replaying Quake's SP.

I see the game more as a FP adventure with shooting than a straight-up FPS though, as even though it involves heavy amounts of shooting, it has such a huge exploration element that makes up a lot of parts.

Plus, the music was just plain awesome:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glnpnifV4Fk]Unreal - Dusk Horizon - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPcJOnwWhF4&feature=related]Unreal - Surfacing - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--5COmk8ZM0&feature=related]Unreal - Main Title - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xMp0fZiJaM&feature=related]Unreal - WarGate - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft4dVEs5RNE]Unreal: Return To Na Pali - Return To Na Pali - YouTube[/ame]

[Bloodshot]

The fabled outdoor sections usually sacrificed detail for scale.

Not that Quake had any detail, but Unreal's mountains were just giant blocks.

The colour palette is more lively than Quake's though. I like some of the weapons. I played quite a bit of it, but it never really gripped me.

There is a port that runs on Linux btw.

Well, to be fair, unreal did have bad mountains (and the skybox mountains were pixels - which made no sense because the sky istself looked so good and they are part of the same thing) but there was a ton of details in the indoor levels. The places like inside the nali castle, or the boat level (forgot what it's called) has a lot of detailed level design, or the ISV-Kran (which was pretty scary too)

It was probably more of a hardware thing, because the game was already hard enough to run as-is for the time.

[IronWarfare]

I've never had a copy, but when it went out I used to play it at the home of a friend and it looked really cool

[Bloodshot]

? There was tons of gibbing in unreal

[sb306]

The fabled outdoor sections usually sacrificed detail for scale.

Not that Quake had any detail, but Unreal's mountains were just giant blocks.

The colour palette is more lively than Quake's though. I like some of the weapons. I played quite a bit of it, but it never really gripped me.

There is a port that runs on Linux btw.

Quake was in a league of its own as far as "mood". The soundtrack still adds alot to the experience also. Glquake made up for alot of the visuals in software quake. Although glquake was definately lacking, as we can see now ;-)

But Unreal with its dynamic music and huge outdoor environments did
Its own thing great. Also, Unreal was a newer game than Quake. But there was no gibbing that I remember in Unreal. Gibbing=fun

[golden_boy]

The fabled outdoor sections usually sacrificed detail for scale.

Not that Quake had any detail, but Unreal's mountains were just giant blocks.

The colour palette is more lively than Quake's though. I like some of the weapons. I played quite a bit of it, but it never really gripped me.

There is a port that runs on Linux btw.

[Grim Warlock]

Certainly better than Quake, it actually has a storyline and not just aliens invading earth crap. Not to mention it was one of the first games to have colored lights and highly detailed textures.

[Miihkali]

This was the first game I bought myself. Never finished it, though, and I have lost the CD. The box is still somewhere--I recall quote from Finnish gaming magazine which said something like: "Finally intelligent monsters!" Personally I wasn't impressed by Unreal creatures as much as by the Quake ones, what I remember from this game best was the continuity between levels, and the strong atmosphere. Unlike Quake levels which are just extradimensional realms after another (which is fine itself, of course), Unreal levels presented believable new world, in which the player explored the unknown regions.

I should try it again!

Unreal Tournament was one I played more, even though I had only demo version with 6 maps or so. But it was great to smash some bots. I especially remember the smooth graphics and great controls that were smooth as well. Not to mention the level with super high-rises heading up to outer space, it impressed me and I remember how I thought how interesting it would be live in such apartments. . . As a game level it was my less favourite, however.

[sb306]

Well, after seeing this thread I decided to setup Unreal and UT Tournament with oldskool ampd. Along with the high res textures etc. Took awhile to find everything, like the bonus packs for UT. The packs I found were umods so I had to get a umod unpacker type program because i kept getting a general protection fault running the umod. Brings back some good memories. :-)

[jakub1]

unreal and i

for me, unreal is one of a few games that created own unique style. i remember that when i saw unreal for the first time i couldn't belive it. even today unreal is beautiful game. technologically, of course, it's obsolete, but visually unreal is piece of art. all those giant castles filled with the clever enemies together with music you can't get out of your head - and i mean it in a good way :-).
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i have another go through unreal every now and then just to listen unreal soundtrack and admire it's architecture. expecially levels bluff eversmoking and na pali heaven. i consider bluff eversmoking as the best level in any fps game a have ever played.. maybe together with hong-kong hub from deus ex, but deus ex isn't exactly fps.
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there are fan addons that develope the story behind unreal, most of all onp. but there are others and i like that all these mods follow the same visual style. some might say is boring and repetitive, but to me it's a proof consistency of unreal's universe. i especially like the idea that in some mods you can revisit sections of the original game and than continue through originally blocked exit to a new section.. e.g. the modernized version of temple velora with all the electrical stuff from 7bullet. still hope that the chosen one and residual decay and shamu quest will see the light of day eventually.
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there is only one thing i don't like about some unreal sp mods - fights with human soldiers. they are too quick/too acurete and in general too dangerous. sometimes these fights are pure chance. you are usually dead before you know what happened. i want to fight skaajrs, titans and kralls or at least those overgrown flies.
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jakub

[VGAce]

youre right the nalicastle doesnt have this good visuals like in the intro
they sacrificed a few effects for better performace of the play version
strange i never noticed this before

[Grim Warlock]

Why does Nali Castle look different in the intro? It's got reflective floors, fog, noises, different sky and different lighting.

[sb306]

Unreal is right up there with Quake for me also. One of the things I remember the best is the first time I ran it on Glide with the voodoo 2 cards in sli. The beginning "flyby" is still etched in my memory. Ill start it up now with the 5870 and it still looks good. There is still a mod community over at unrealsp.org also. There is a nice section on mods over there. Anything from single maps to full episodes.

Its definately a classic.

[Grim Warlock]

How dare you post an Unreal thread in a Quake forum. How long was that game in development for? Since 1995? Lol!

[gdiddy62]

I've always had room for both Unreal and Quake in my mind. Both truly awesome!