Unreal 2

[Jasmania]

I picked up Unreal 2, The Awakening for $19.00 at Target awhile ago and finally got around to loading it up. I figured this would be a good test for the Radeon 9800 card I got recently.
My first two impressions are...."what a bargain at $19.00!"...and..."Boy, I'm glad I didn't pay full price for this game when it first came out!"

Like so many others, I loved the original Unreal and still remember that moment when the lights suddenly go out and you meet your first Skaar in a sealed hallway, illuminated by intermittent strobing flashes of light. Well, I've been playing the sequel for about 90 minutes and have begun to suspect that those moments of gaming goodness will allude me in this game. So far two of the scripted set pieces-(the one on one fight with the armored Skaar after the recovery of the artifact & the stand with the marines in the clearing waiting for your ship to arrive)-promised drama and intense gameplay. In each case a potentially great set-up ended up in a pretty mundane way.
I don't mind a linear, scripted game if the script is good! The storyline, voice acting and visuals in this game are all well-done. The gameplay..so far...has let me down.
The movement of the main character is barely faster than a walk, at top speed.
You can't jump worth a damn and the weapon loadout is underwhelming. If we see ACPs-(Armored Combat Suits) in the future I hope that they will enable the wearer to be stronger, move faster and jump higher than a mere mortal in jeans & a tee shirt!!! If you aren't sure what I mean, read John Ringo's " A Hymn Before Battle" series.
The grenade launcher is so limited as to be useless and the handgun really is useless.
In the first stage of the game the atmosphere reminded at times of AVP. The close, spooky interiors, the tension of whats around the next dark corner....but, you can't investigate the dark corners because you don't get a light to use!!! In AVP some of the best moments were when an alien would skitter across your flashlight beam or loom out at you from the darkness. Here theres no reward for exploring the nooks & crannys in the game. :mad:

Anyway, I didn't intend to write another review of the game, just give my initial impressions.
I hope that the game will live up to it's potential and storyline. If not, it's a really pretty game with average gameplay for less than $20 bucks. :p

[Suicides-by-Steve]

I would like to see the object textures from Unreal 2 remapped into System Shock 2. U2 I did not like.

[Robert-The-Rambler]

I picked up Unreal 2, The Awakening for $19.00 at Target awhile ago and finally got around to loading it up. I figured this would be a good test for the Radeon 9800 card I got recently.
My first two impressions are...."what a bargain at $19.00!"...and..."Boy, I'm glad I didn't pay full price for this game when it first came out!"

Like so many others, I loved the original Unreal and still remember that moment when the lights suddenly go out and you meet your first Skaar in a sealed hallway, illuminated by intermittent strobing flashes of light. Well, I've been playing the sequel for about 90 minutes and have begun to suspect that those moments of gaming goodness will allude me in this game. So far two of the scripted set pieces-(the one on one fight with the armored Skaar after the recovery of the artifact & the stand with the marines in the clearing waiting for your ship to arrive)-promised drama and intense gameplay. In each case a potentially great set-up ended up in a pretty mundane way.
I don't mind a linear, scripted game if the script is good! The storyline, voice acting and visuals in this game are all well-done. The gameplay..so far...has let me down.
The movement of the main character is barely faster than a walk, at top speed.
You can't jump worth a damn and the weapon loadout is underwhelming. If we see ACPs-(Armored Combat Suits) in the future I hope that they will enable the wearer to be stronger, move faster and jump higher than a mere mortal in jeans & a tee shirt!!! If you aren't sure what I mean, read John Ringo's " A Hymn Before Battle" series.
The grenade launcher is so limited as to be useless and the handgun really is useless.
In the first stage of the game the atmosphere reminded at times of AVP. The close, spooky interiors, the tension of whats around the next dark corner....but, you can't investigate the dark corners because you don't get a light to use!!! In AVP some of the best moments were when an alien would skitter across your flashlight beam or loom out at you from the darkness. Here theres no reward for exploring the nooks & crannys in the game. :mad:

Anyway, I didn't intend to write another review of the game, just give my initial impressions.
I hope that the game will live up to it's potential and storyline. If not, it's a really pretty game with average gameplay for less than $20 bucks. :p


Not only does it looks great but it has some of the DEEPEST BASS in a videogame you will ever hear. Other than that it is not distiguished in any way though enjoyable.

I enjoy AVP and AVP2 more.

[And_so_it_goes]

i also loved the original unreal. it was the first shooter that i played since doom, and i didn't play it until fall, 02. yeah, i've been trying to catch up a bit since then... anyway i wasn't planning on spending lots of money on unreal 2 based on the reviews i read, but when i saw it in media play a few months ago for ten dollars i just couldn't pass it up. i think they went from like fourty down to ten the same day they put out the version with multiplayer. (also picked up mafia for ten bucks at wally world about a week ago:)) i played the game through one and a half times and have uninstalled it for now- it takes up a whopping three gigs of hd space- but it was fun, had beautiful graphics, and was certainly worth the belated price of admission.

[moya]

I've only played the demo (of Unreal 2), but I remember it being pretty crap.

There's this bit (in the demo) where you've been ploughing through aliens to get down a corridor in some generic research facility on an even more generic alien planet, when this guy's voice comes over the tannoy: "I'll try and open the door to the next room, but be prepared because they've taken down the visuals in there and they must be up to something really nasty - OH TEH HORROR!" (paraphrase). The idea seems to be to make you scared to even enter the room. Then when you finally get in there, it's just wave after wave of the same monkey-like aliens firing purple floaty crap at you from all angles. Like Serious Sam, then, only not as fun. Needless to say, this didn't inspire me to pick up the full game.

[Static_Fred]

I found Unreal2 at a local store for $20 waaay back in the day. I was very tempted to pick it up, thinking it was a pricing error. But then i thought to myself "do i really want another mindless FPS? Can i take another mideocre action title (a la Halo)?" Needless to say, i didn't buy it...

[mandark]

Wow, Thanks for the heads up guys. I was considering to purchase this game when I saw it for $19.99 this past weekend. I sure am glad now that I did not pick it up when I had the chance.

[Renzatic Gear]

I've heard that the free multiplayer aspect is pretty damn cool, but beyond that I can vouch for the fact that the singleplayer game sucks about 10 loads worth.

I was expecting a game similar to the original Unreal, a game that made you feel like you were taking a long journey across a really fantastic enviroment, what I got was a string of episodes that took about 10-30 minutes to beat. The only interesting part of the game was at the very end, and as cool as that was it wasn't worth the 6 hours it took to get there.

[Jasmania]

I will say this about the game....with 8X Anti-aliasing and 12X Anthroscopic filtering enabled" it shore is purty...."

[Friend_Bear]

I enjoyed Unreal 2 except that its way too short and easy to complete, any news on Unreal 3? If its being planned, I wanna know about it :D

[pizzakid13]

great graphix. boring game.

[Jasmania]

I just finished the section with the **!!##@@ JUMPING PUZZLE!!!!
God.....I HATE jumping scenarios, especially when your character can't jump worth a damn! And whats with the constipated grunts every time he takes off???? :confused: