Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Instant classic"

Unreal. It was released in 1998. It got mostly positive reviews, and a lot of hate from Quake 2 players. Though nobody denied it was the most beautiful game ever made at the time, and it was hard to run with all the bells and whistles turned on too.

Yeah, so it's gorgeous, and it made Epic Megagames (now epic games) industry leaders in technology. But was the game any good?

You're damn right it was. Before I continue with this, you must look at Unreal from a different perspective compared to other games. Many people came into it expecting a Quake or Doom-like experience where you run around blasting creatures to bad-ass music, but Unreal played like something wholly different from anything else at the current time. Where Doom and Quake relied on having you blast through hordes of weak, stupid enemies, Unreals approach differed in that it pitted you against less enemies, but they were bigger than you, used tactics and tried to outsmart you, and took a lot more damage then your average Quake monster.

lot of Q2 fans saw exactly that and forever cast the game out to be crap. But if you play it in a different mindset, it becomes something else entirely. You almost have to look at it like you would a Horror game, because it has way more in common with that then your average FPS. Take the Skaarj, for example, the game's main adversaries. Epic actually made sure to code them in such a way that they would avoid your bullets, and dodge out of the way of your slower projectile weapons, and even FAKE THEIR OWN DEATH to trick you if they couldn't get the upper hand on you. They were designed to be intimidating and difficult, and to keep the player on their toes. If you want to blast people, there are plenty of other games that let you do that

Now the music, Quake 2 and Doom were content with throwing some metal songs in your face to comliment the action. Not Unreal. Epic was more interested in making an Alien world, and the music was designed to denote that fact. Almost every musical piece in Unreal echoes the environment it is used in in some way. Pieces like Shared Dig accent the metallic mining complex, Hub 2 accents the looming gigantic sunspire you must traverse, and All Hallows Sunset shows you how oppressed the Nali, the indigenous populace are, from the Skaarj's attempted enslavement and genocide of them. It's all there to make you feel like you are in the environment. And yes, it does have some "bad ass" songs, they all are appropriately tuned to still fit the environment when they ramp up, like Erosion's action segment, or Wargate's in the Nali Castle

Variety was very heavily existent in the game's level design, and there's a real sense of progression you get while continuing through the game. The moment you step out of the ship at the beginning of the game, you can spot a giant spire looming in the distance (in the skybox). As you play the game, you notice that with each new outdoor area that spire gets closer and closer until you eventually arrive at the foot of it and attempt to climb up. The environments are kept fresh and interesting by interweaving Medieval-style and earlier era architecture with areas of heavy futuristic industrial alien technology, and it creates a sharp contrast that makes you feel something when you change between the areas. As you progress, the world becomes more alien, especially when you reach the first level which is basically on a floating island in the sky

Narrative-wise, the game isn't particularly deep, but everything in the game has significant backstory that you can read about through use of your translator that you first acquire at the beginning. The story of the world and figuring out about the various races you are fighting with for survival is quite engaging, and makes the game quite a bit scarier if you decide to read through the various short logs and journals you find, and gives a greater sense to the gameplay progression. Again, the direct narrative is pretty standard, but at the same time the lack of narrative definition adds a bit more to the atmosphere of the game and can make you feel more like you are experiencing the world, and not some random character you are assigned to

The arsenal is diverse and satisfying to use for the most part, but before you can truly enjoy using them, you have to learn how to make use of them. This is both a negative and a positive, as on the negative, it's not something you can just pick up and get like a shotgun from Doom or something, but on the other hand it again, adds to the immersion and makes it feel like you are trying to survive, and that whole feeling is where the strengths lie in this game

If you are looking for an action packed romp, Unreal probably isn't the game for you, but if you want something with a tight focus on weaving the gameplay with the player's personal feelings, and a lot of atmosphere and backstory, then you want to give Unreal a chance. You might just find it to be one of the most unique gaming experiences you've ever had.