Played on:
Windows
When Unreal was released so many years ago, it was a bit of a revolution in art, and the game was pretty damn good to go with it. Since then, Epic has dedicated most of their time into Unreal Tournament games, which focused on multiplayer. But Legend Entertainment has been quietly working on Unreal 2 for a few years now - after a long wait, is this game worth it?
Unreal 2 is a strictly single-player first person shooter with some cool weapons, a decent story, and excellent graphics. There are also a few bits of basic tactics you will need to employ, as you can command troops to specific spots and set up some basic defenses.
The Unreal engine is pretty much the best game engine currently out on the market right now, and Legend has done their best to put it to good use. The indoor maps are chock full of detail and little bits of architecture, while the outdoor environments are lush and expansive. The frame rate is generally pretty consistent, but not terribly great.
The minimum requirements for Unreal 2 are fairly high, and on the minimum system, the game still runs pretty badly (even with all the extras turned off). I would probably consider the "recommended" system to be more of an accurate minimum. To compare, I found that Unreal Tournament 2003 runs quite a bit better than U2, even during intense deathmatches.
At least you're getting a lot of cool graphics and tons of polygons, though; the Unreal engine is a solid piece of work, and despite the slightly disappointing frame rate, the game is still very playable and great to look at.
Unreal 2's controls are very nicely set up; this is one of the first FPS games I've played in a while that doesn't overwhelm you with a million keys to bind. The controls are smooth, and the in-game HUD looks nice and works perfectly. The main character's movement speed leaves a little to be desired; sure, he's wearing a huge set of power armor, but can't they have put some speed boosters or something in there?
You'll have access to a bunch of weapons in the game, almost all of which have some form of alternate firing mode. Switching between guns is pretty simple, as it's almost identical to the tried and true Half-Life system. Climbing down ladders was a bit of a problem for me - that's how you know this is an old school shooter. : )
Unreal 2's graphics are just plain awesome - from the huge outdoor environments to the narrow corridors, it's obvious that Legend took their time to make sure every environment looked clean and awe-inspiring. The enemies you fight aren't so consistently great, though; generally, the more bug-like the enemies are, the uglier they are. The big mutated spiders in this game were not only extremely annoying, but they looked terrible in my opinion. I kind of wish FPS developers would stop trying to shove spiders into almost every game - at least in Unreal 2, you get a gun to throw spiders at the enemies later on.
U2 includes the rag-doll physics code that also is in Unreal Tournament 2003 - this is the system that makes enemy bodies slump to the ground in a somewhat realistic fashion. It generally doesn't get used anywhere near as much as it could be, and I'm actually thankful for that. Little things like this are better done in a subtle way in my opinion, and trying to specifically create a game situation to show it off just cheapens the experience to me. Also, the system isn't perfect yet, especially when enemies get blown into the air with rockets. Sometimes a dead enemy will be hanging horizontally off of a wall at a weird angle, which just looks way off. But I do think it's better to have it in than to leave it out.
The weapons all look pretty cool, and firing them is nice and satisfying. Unreal 2 has the best flamethrower I have ever seen in a game. It's too bad that using it after the stage when you first pick it up is difficult - there isn't enough ammo and smarter enemies will charge you, making the thing hurt you and your enemy.
The cutscenes in the game are generally well done, and the game is paced slow enough early on by using lots of cutscenes and idle time aboard your home ship. The models for your ship mates (Ne'ban, Aida, and Isaak) all look great; each one embraces some form of sci-fi stereotype.
Unreal 2 is a first person shooter mostly in the classic style. It's got a linear, story-driven mode of play as you head to different planets trying to recover strange alien artifacts. There are some decent twists in the plot, although anyone who thinks a little will probably start anticipating them by the end. If you turn the brain off and just keep shooting, though, it's a decent experience - at least the first time through.
