OldUnreal (Engine)

Oh. Well, I don't see the rest of it too bland either, although it does have a fair share of cliches. Definitely not a fan of Hell, though (except the gorgeous look outside the facility).

The only stuff I liked was the gorgeous outdoor in that map with the dam. Best terrain ever, nice sky/water transition, lively atmosphere. Sulferon also had a nice desert. Apart from that, it's all too common. I feel like I've seen each map a zillion times

My biggest gripe with u2, has been the completely utterly useless atlantis sequences. Not only did it take away the "lone gunman" feel unreal had. But the characters general characteristics and behavior just pissed me off. You had your random alcoholic dude, a fishbowl pilot that speaks in broken annoying sentences and a prostitu.... err aida
The dialogue was so generic, and nobody was remotely normal, no character development, i couldn't get attached to any of them, at the end i felt like it was a good riddance.

Mass effect had a similar setup, infact its very similar to unreal2, you live on a ship, have a crew, travel through the galaxy doing boring missions. But atleast that game did the side characters so much better, it put unreal2 badly to shame!

fishbowl dude, hilarous! At least chasing the 'rabbit' inside the ship was fun
I liked it though, the music sometimes was pretty exciting. The one part that annoyed me was the landing on the Drakk planet, took freaking 2 minutes to land.

The thing is, Legend's idea was exactly the same as in ME. You were supposed to have a star chart and be able to choose your own missions, and the dialogues were supposed to affect your relationship with the crew. They just never managed to implement all that.

Too bad it isn't. The result is that Mass Effect is applauded and Unreal 2 is long forgotten.

Yeap. That doesn't stop me from enjoying it, though, because I am amazed by the prospects as much as by the game itself.

The thing is, Legend's idea was exactly the same as in ME. You were supposed to have a star chart and be able to choose your own missions, and the dialogues were supposed to affect your relationship with the crew. They just never managed to implement all that.

The more I hear about all of the stuff that got cut from U2 the more I get angry at their publisher. High Voltage Software knew that publishers usually screw things up. So when they were developing The Conduit, they spent most of the game's development period without a publisher. The problem was the game ended up being too short and the multiplayer had slight problems. So it really depends on what publisher you get. Legend, unfortunately, got Atari.

the thing which annoys me the most about unreal2's characters is; despite their sterile zombie like behavior, they all suddenly throw really pointless and random character developments IN YOUR FACE.
oh aida saved teh wurld, and aquarium is son of emperor of the universe zomg pointless plottwists that bear no coherence to the actual game!
it was all in your face and so random, it felt like watching a really bad childrens fanfic. A really silly scenario which really took away the seriousness the game still had up to that point (and destroyed any credibility of the story).

i'm sure they could've done better, introduced the characters, made them develop and grow on to you... a sad missed oppertunity.
That paired with a galaxy map, choosing missions, switching alliances, unfold the plot in a nonlinear way, characters having more input in the plot development... yeah Mass Effect.

Its good to know i'm not the only one who noticed how much Mass Effect seems to draw from unreal2, the instant i loaded it up it reminded me of unreal2,  it did what i expected unreal2 to be. And to see how succesful the formula has become, legend really missed the mark pretty bad (sadly).

Its good to know i'm not the only one who noticed how much Mass Effect seems to draw from unreal2, the instant i loaded it up it reminded me of unreal2,  it did what i expected unreal2 to be.

Yeap, I've noticed that a long time ago. I'm also going to play through each Unreal game, and guess what I'm playing just after Unreal II? [smiley=evil.gif]

about character development

Ah yeah, I felt exactly the same when the Atlantis was shot down in frot of me. "Jee, are they really expecting me to have any reaction at all after knowing them for a cumulated 10 minutes with ridiculous development ?" There is no flesh on these characters, they are mere placeholders for menu buttons on a briefing screen.

Well, at least Dalton cares about them.

Good thing ; we don't.

lol mere placeholders for menu buttons - Good point.

lol mere placeholders for menu buttons - Good point.

:-?

lol mere placeholders for menu buttons - Good point.

:-?

That was an answer to what I said about the characters a few posts above.

Oh, I see.