A Real Unreal Review.

No_Style

No that subject was not meant to be a pun. I've just been giving opinion on the game and well I decided to just collectively put down my opinion here.

Well at first glance the game looks very complete. It had a nice Installation screen and everything. No BGM tho, I was kinda hoping there was some spiffy BGM playing while I was waiting to dump a little of 2 GB into my HD. The first thing I saw was something that could have been used in a 3DMark Demo. It was pretty useless tho. I went on and configured the game. Nice laid out menus. I continued with the game and immediately brought down the console to type in "stat fps" to my disappointment the FPS were low. However, the game was running smoothly, so I wasn't so worried too much. The tutorial was like any other tutorial. Informative, but not necessary.

Passing the tutorial, I stepped onto the first level. Everything was going fine, until I hit the big sceneries. FPS dropped to a mere 19 FPS. I managed to move on from that part. Passing another 2 major levels, I suddenly crashed. An error appeared. I didn't record what it was, but it certainly was Unreal 2's fault. The game itself gave me the error and offered me the choice of sending a bug report or not. I declined and tried to play again to see if it was a random thing, or an error at that particular point. To my pleasure it was a random error.

The gameplay was quite interesting. The game seems to hint on what type of weapon you should be using in each area of the map. How so? Well in certain areas there is an abundance of Assault Rifle ammo. In the spider levels, at first they give ammo for flame thrower, but then take that away to replace it with Shotgun ammo. The levels are very simple. You cannot get lost in this game. Somebody or something is always pointing you in the right direction. You'll first notice that the movement in this game is slow. This is intentional. It was made to give a "real" experience. There is dodging in this game like UT2K3 and a new thing which allows you to climb over edges in a way. Other than that, there is the usual leaning which everybody is putting in, (although Unreal 2 doesn't allow you to shoot while leaning) ducking, jumping and walking.

The graphics are amazing in this game. Absolutely amazing. Best to date in my opinion. Legend has put a lot of attention to detail. From the smoke coming out of your Assault rifle when you reload to the different reticles for each weapon you're using. I've gotta tell ya the Shock Lance is quite a pretty weapon to use.

The sound in this game was ok. It wasn't amazing. But it wasn't bad either. The problem I found to have brought the overall sound experience down was the voice acting. When selecting choices, especially about the history of characters and organizations in the game or the weapon descriptions, the voice of one option would be in a "normal" tone and then suddenly when you choose another choice the description goes loud all of the sudden. Unless this was intentional, it's quite an "Unreal" thing.

The let downs of this game are few, but important in my opinion. Immediately was the fact that there was no multiplayer. I know UT2K3 is the multiplayer, but it's not the same. I think this game would have been a great multiplayer. Simple, but great. Sorta like Red Faction's multiplayer. Without multiplayer, the replayability of this game is hindered. I'm thinking of uninstalling it after I'm done with it. The latest Unreal Engine is flexible is gorgeous and all, but it is sure is a real hardware intensive game. I'm struggling with this game in it's Quality/performance ratio. I haven't found a suitable option yet. Either that or the game needs a few patches to raise the FPS in those "resource greedy scenes". On that note: Do not go by the minimum requirements of this game. You truly need something faster than 1.2 GHz and Radeon 8500 or higher to enjoy this game.

Overall I give this game a 8/10. Mainly for bringing a Halo-like experience to the PC finally. As for the future of this game, I really don't see one, unless something with multiplayer comes along. This game would have been great, Co-Op style. I think if there was going to be an X-Box port, Legend should try to work out a Co-Op thing for it.

P.S - System used for review: P4 1.99 GHz with a 8500 Flashed to 9100 @ 297/263. Windows XP and Latest Cat 3.0a.

Zardon

Interesting reading, and although im running a 9700 pro I can confirm ive had the occassional crash to windows. Im not sure if it is this Nforce board im testing with the 2800+ or bugs in the game, but from what im reading there are some people experiencing the same crashing problems across the video card board. Perhaps we shall be seeing a patch shortly.

As for the game, I really am loving it atm, im seeing all sorts of reviews on other sites stating that this game is nothing out of the ordinary, and perhaps this is partially down to the sheer saturation of FPS games in the last 6 months, could it be that people are becoming bored with them? as the thread in this forum states?

I think the plot is quite good, with some nice cutscenes and the gameplay I enjoy. Granted its not ground breaking in originality, but the good gameplay paired with some of the best visuals ive seen in any game on the PC make for a thoroughly entertaining romp.

Longetivity? I cant comment yet, I have been playing it on and off today for about 4 hours in total and I feel im quite a bit into the game, but ill be able to make a comment on this more in a few days time.

My conclusion? certainly if you have a nice system, a good CPU and GFX, this is something you are going to have to get in my opinion to show off that hardware you have purchased. As for the lack of a multiplayer game, well I think the reason for this was the increased use of texturing and the overall hit on hardware with this game. It was never meant to be made for multiplayer. UT2003 was to fulfill all those needs.

I would give it 9/10, I like the look, love the visuals, its got a decent storyline, nice characterisation (and boobies) with polished level design. there are some problems perhaps with stability, but nontheless, first class.