New review of Unreal/Return to Na Pali

[jefequeso]

Ok, I checked out the forum rules before posting... so I don't THINK I'll get in trouble, apart from the obvious communal irritation that posting a blog link as a new member will cause

Ayway... I'm a newbie Unreal fan (a year old, maybe?), and I thought you might be interested in reading my impressions of the game, given that I just played it for the first time last year. 

http://videogamepotpourri.blogspot.com/ ... al-gt.html

I also did a more recent review of Return to Na Pali

http://videogamepotpourri.blogspot.com/ ... eturn.html

And yes, I totally intend on contributing to the community.  I'm not just joining to post this

[Buster]

Greetings,

Outside of the content being about Unreal 1 it was a well written review. I noticed in the review that you weren't sure if there's an active community for Unreal. Maybe you should add a footnote that there is. And that the 227 patch makes a great game even better.

Oh yeah. Welcome to the Oldunreal community.

[GreatEmerald]

Don't worry about that, we're happy to see content like that Since for most people it has been a very long time since the first time they played Unreal, it's always interesting to see the reactions of other people playing through the game for the first time!

As Buster mentioned, due to the nature of Unreal, you can extend the game a whole lot by the current developments, namely patch 227 that brings stability and visual improvements, and most of all, S3TC textures from http://unrealtexture.com/ (from the screenshots, it seems that you're not using them - try it, and you'll be surprised to see how the game really looks I do believe that no other game in existence has that detailed textures!)

Veteran nitpick: "Unreal III" should be "Unreal Engine 3", since "Unreal III" is the name of the third game in the Unreal series (currently doesn't exist, but might very well exist in the future!).

You don't just get a sniper rifle. You get...umm...well, ok, you just get a sniper rifle, but it's more fun to fire than most other sniper rifles, and has the added advantage of being able to blow off enemy's heads.

Heh, funny you should mention that - originally the alternative fire of the Rifle was to shoot three bullets at once They removed it in favour of the zoom function, however. But yes, Epic did put a lot of work into the unique design of the weapons. All of those things you mentioned there they called the "Unreal twist". They added crazy modifications to the vehicles in UT2004 in a similar vein.

For instance, the enemy designs: they're just...well...bland. I can't think of a single enemy that didn't look like it was ripped from somewhere else, and some types look so identical that you'd be hard-pressed to differentiate them from one another without a side-by-side comparison.

Again funny you should mention that, since historically most enemies were in fact inspired by movies, so they are kind of ripped And yeap, to this day I can hardly tell the difference between Skaarj Assassins and Skaarj Lords, for instance.

2 levels in particular (the Na Pali Haven and the ISVKran) were significantly less engaging than the rest of the game, the former featuring far too many dark uninteresting corridors, and the latter having combat that was far too easy and several areas that looked inviting, but were actually inaccessible.

True that, too. ISV Kran, in my opinion, is the most bland portion of the game... Very low visual variety, and even very low musical variety. It could have done without decks 2 and 3 and it would have been better...

As for Na Pali Haven, yeap, the Krall are surprisingly easy. They are not any harder than Brutes (most of the time easier). I'm not sure why that is (I think originally they were supposed to be more difficult to deal with?)

Agreed about the inventory items, too. I hardly ever use them, even the Amplifier.

About RTNP: Here's some history. It was created mostly from the unreleased Beta material of Unreal - that's why some parts are somewhat unconnected. And it was made mostly by a part of Legend Entertainment rather than Epic Games themselves. Mind you, they also made really good games like The Wheel of Time and Unreal II, so I know they could have done better here as well, but I think they just didn't really try too hard. That also shows in some of the coding (you noticed how awkward the Marines are - their coding really is odd). Though personally I liked a few things quite a lot about it - mostly the Cloak pickup (multiplayer only) that is invisibility done right + infinite jump boots, so it's super fun to use it. And the Combat Assault Rifle that shoots from both barrels at the same time, making it really something else (although I'm not sure that it was intentional!).

So yea, overall that's how I feel about the game as well. An interesting read there!

[Sly.]

To be honest, I don't really like the S3TC textures, they update the technology like some screens changing the atmosphere (after all it was a sci-fi action shooter something - as you said, hard to categorize - from 1998 and that CRT screen/retro sci-fi charme was definitely part of the game's special atmosphere) and many textures don't look dirty enough imo. The original had quite dirty surfaces, you rarely get to see something that's clean. Just my personal opinion. And there's also the problem with wet textures, but the topic is not about that anyways, so I'll return to the actual topic now.

Your reviews perfectly summerize Unreal. Good job. I would be pleased to read something about the 4 (or 3 if you count UT2003 as a beta of UT2004) UT games and Unreal II: The Awakening someday. Maybe even an Unreal Championship 1 and 2 review. Reviews do the playerbase good, there is still a solid online community but it shrinks each year, it's always fine if someone likes the games and writes a review, it at least motivates players to try the Unreal classics and the newer U-games.

Even before Unreal III dominated the market, Epic knew how to make gorgeous visuals.

I suggest to fix this. People keep mistaking Unreal with Unreal Tournament, this will only spark the confusion. There was never a Unreal III (and I think as sad as this might sound, it is possible that there will never be one considering what a flop Unreal II was). I suggest to change it into Unreal Engine 3 (as Great Emerald already posted).

The way the textures are so detailled is a small overlay pattern that gets displayed when close enough. That's why the metal doors in Chizra look so awesome from close distance. Epic Games really knew what they were doing.

And I agree very much on the AI part. Even these days you don't always have a challenge when fighting one single enemy and the bots in Unreal Tournament III are really retarded compared to Unreal.

By the way, in my opinion that Space Marine fight was funny because it was so hard. They were the real fighters who were beamed down from the UMS-Bodega Bay to kill you and get the data from the UMS-Prometheus (btw, does anyone else think this data of this special weapon could have been the Redeemer from UT? lol). You were also surrounded by them, it was a well planned attack (compared to what you would do before in the game which was more of "Surprise!! I'm a Skaarj who's jumping onto you!" or "Hello there, I'm Prisoner 849, I'll be pleased to kill you NOW! ") which - of course - they thought through in many aspects... and they had good armoury and a battle suit... but they just didn't know that 849 is simply a 1337 fighter.

I love this game series.

PS: The CAR was probably my favorite weapon because it was very precise (more than the Minigun) and I think it even dealth more damage - and yeah, the fact that you could shoot form both barrels at a time made it even better - and I really liked that you could update the Dispersion Pistol which made the weapon much stronger.

[GreatEmerald]

There was never a Unreal III (and I think as sad as this might sound, it is possible that there will never be one considering what a flop Unreal II was).

And I agree very much on the AI part. Even these days you don't always have a challenge when fighting one single enemy and the bots in Unreal Tournament III are really retarded compared to Unreal.

Unreal II definitely wasn't a flop. UT2003 was more like a flop (Epic are trying to forget it ever existed), but U2 is generally regarded as a decent game, just that is not very faithful to the original, that's all. But very many people would rather see Unreal III rather than Unreal Tournament 4.

Yea, the Skaarj AI is really awesome. They dodge everything - it's nearly impossible to kill one with a Stinger, and they try to dodge even hitscan weaponry.
I wouldn't say that UT3 bots are so bad - I get murdered by Skilled bots, while in UT2004 Masterful bots are just fine with me... Though it's probably all due to practise. Also, in Unreal, I get murdered by Average bots, so yeah

[Sly.]

Well, technically it was not a flop, but the sales were rather poor compared to Unreal 1 which seemed to be enough for Epic to scrap the original series, it's the only explanation I have for not seeing any Unreal III on the market, such as UT3's sales were rather poor compared to UT2004's and UT99's sales, which might mean there would be no UT4, however, none of these games was such a misery as Bulletstorm (imo a very underrated game which is my personal Unreal 3 for the time there is no U3). Bulletstorm - even though a really nice concept and fun gameplay with serious storyline, beautiful landscapes and great atmosphere - could just equal the loss they made with its development. That's quite sad as People Can Fly - no an Epic studio - said they won't make a Bulletstorm 2. As a companies goal is to make money (and eventually please some customers with a great game experience), I can fully understand their decisions and don't try to show them in a bad light. Something that doesn't pay off is just not worth any more trouble.
Legend Entertainment's biggest issue was - as you already pointed out - that it was not a faithful remake. It doesn't have to have the same story and anything of that kind, but imo the environments were not Unreal enough and the weapon style differed a bit much from the original. The game in itself was not bad, it was indeed quite good, but it didn't really compete with Unreal in many aspects.

Talking about AI:
In Unreal DM I can barely stand an Average bot as well while in UT I manage to play on Inhuman (sometimes Godlike but since I didn't play UT99 since quite a while I'm again on Inhuman), in UT2004 on Godlike and in UT3 on Masterful (above Masterful they're REALLY cheating, the best example I ever had was that the Goliath's barrel rotated through the turret body and shot me through it before even the turret rotated to that spot - probably a bug but could have been typical bot behaviour as well - not to mention the 99% accuracy with Stinger Minigun Normal- and Altfire and the Sniper Rifle). lol

Btw, @jefequeso: You might not believe me, but most Unreal textures have a resolution of 256x256p or 128x128p, however, there is no stock texture that I'm aware of that is bigger than 512x512p. It's all the power of the detail texture concept which makes it look simply breathtaking up from close. This system was also used in UT2004 although some detail layers don't look really convincing.

PS: Note to myself: Try to post shorter posts. *ashamed of the fact that he cannot keep posts short*

[Hellkeeper]

U2 is generally regarded as a decent game, just that is not very faithful to the original, that's all. But very many people would rather see Unreal III rather than Unreal Tournament 4.

Not on this planet. U II had decent critics because it runs properly most of the time. Go talk with players that are not Unreal Addicts : they are almost unanimous in qualifying U2 as the blandest least interesting game since Rock Throwing 1.0. Most people would rather see UT4 because UT, no matter the version, is always at least decently cool. Let's be a little bit honest - I have the same unrequited love relationship with U2 has you must be having, but there's no saving the actual game.

[jefequeso]

Ahh, lotsa replies! Thanks for the feedback. I'll be sure to make the suggested changes as soon as possible.

[Lord_Porksword]

My ultra quik reply.. I agree with Great Emerald in that I'd rather see an Unreal III before another Unreal Tournament.

I haven't read the reviews yet but will as I'm keen to see what someone new to Unreal thinks of it.

[Hellkeeper]

I've started looking at your reviews, they're nice, but you need a "reviewed games" list somewhere. Otherwise we have to navigate the archives to find what games you have tested.

[Sly.]

My ultra quik reply.. I agree with Great Emerald in that I'd rather see an Unreal III before another Unreal Tournament.

Same here.
My Unreal 3 "placeholder" is Bulletstorm.

[Hyzoran]

Unreal 3 or I have no will to live

[Bloodshot]

I liked the review. Makes me think of how much I would kill for an Unreal 3. UT has just been overdone, and they gotta do SOMETHING new. I mean Gears is ending, UT3 didn't go over well, etc.

They can't just get rid of their franchise, I mean the Unreal expansion pack and Unreal 2 both were made by legend and were both poorly received, they should realize that it's because they weren't as good, not just because Unreal wasn't as "interesting".

IMO Unreal 3 as an SP/Coop game with multiplayer that functions like UT would be a perfect way to continue both games.

[Hyzoran]

Upak was good, just very small, but still good.

Unreal II, imo, was an abomination. I inserted my installation disc. Fired up the game, and then played for two minutes. I shut the game down, removed my dvd drive, and threw it out.

That dvd drive was contaminated....badly.

[Bloodshot]

I didn't think the first mission with Skaarj was that bad. But the rest was ugh. The weapons weren't even Unreal-ish.

[Blu3Haz3]

There was never a Unreal III (and I think as sad as this might sound, it is possible that there will never be one considering what a flop Unreal II was).

And I agree very much on the AI part. Even these days you don't always have a challenge when fighting one single enemy and the bots in Unreal Tournament III are really retarded compared to Unreal.

Unreal II definitely wasn't a flop. UT2003 was more like a flop (Epic are trying to forget it ever existed), but U2 is generally regarded as a decent game, just that is not very faithful to the original, that's all. But very many people would rather see Unreal III rather than Unreal Tournament 4.

Yea, the Skaarj AI is really awesome. They dodge everything - it's nearly impossible to kill one with a Stinger, and they try to dodge even hitscan weaponry.
I wouldn't say that UT3 bots are so bad - I get murdered by Skilled bots, while in UT2004 Masterful bots are just fine with me... Though it's probably all due to practise. Also, in Unreal, I get murdered by Average bots, so yeah

Epic surprisingly found Unreal I to be a flop, because they never EVER speak of it.

[Hyzoran]

There was never a Unreal III (and I think as sad as this might sound, it is possible that there will never be one considering what a flop Unreal II was).

And I agree very much on the AI part. Even these days you don't always have a challenge when fighting one single enemy and the bots in Unreal Tournament III are really retarded compared to Unreal.

Unreal II definitely wasn't a flop. UT2003 was more like a flop (Epic are trying to forget it ever existed), but U2 is generally regarded as a decent game, just that is not very faithful to the original, that's all. But very many people would rather see Unreal III rather than Unreal Tournament 4.

Yea, the Skaarj AI is really awesome. They dodge everything - it's nearly impossible to kill one with a Stinger, and they try to dodge even hitscan weaponry.
I wouldn't say that UT3 bots are so bad - I get murdered by Skilled bots, while in UT2004 Masterful bots are just fine with me... Though it's probably all due to practise. Also, in Unreal, I get murdered by Average bots, so yeah

Epic surprisingly found Unreal I to be a flop, because they never EVER speak of it.

This is quite strange, and quite scary too, as it is true, they never speak of it, I mean, if they have no pride in the original, then I doubt we will get Unreal 3. Heck, they dont even speak of UT anymore.

But they MUST make it....my sanity depends on it.

[Sly.]

The point is that in Unreal II you were using human weapons whereas in Unreal you were using a mix of both, human and alien (read: Skaarj) weapons. The Eightball for example is obviously a Skaarj weapon given its design and the fact that in RTNP you saw that humanity had one barrel rocket launchers. The Dispersion Pistol was a human weapon (as you found it in the Vortex Rikers) or at least a weapon that was quite popular in the Unreal Universe (otherwise I can't explain why there are so many DP updates hidden in Nali locations as "treasures") apart from that Skaarj Troopers used it too, together with the RazorJack and the Eightball so I tend to say it's "intergalactical" ::). The RazorJack was obviously (again) Skaarj technology, ASMD was human (how else can you explain human letters on it and that you could find it a lot in the ISV-Kran? :P), the Sniper Rifle could be anything, but I tend to say it's human tech or a Merc weapon as they are the only ones to use bullets in the original game, the Bio Rifle seemed to be Merc tech as you found it in the crashed Terraniux spaceship which was turned into a stationary HQ(?).
Not sure about the Flak Cannon, it seems that it could have been anything.

Whatever, you get what I mean. The weapons were pretty mixed - and creative. Unreal II's weapons were not bad, but they were not overwhelming like in Unreal 1... and not rusty like in Unreal 1. ::)
Even this little fact made the atmosphere less Unreal-ish. That's true.

Nonetheless it was a nice game, such as I enjoyed the expansion pack to Unreal as much as the actual game. Surely it had a slightly different atmosphere because 849 got a log and because he or she had contact with humans. It was also a nice thing to get some insight into 849's thoughts after each level.

[Hyzoran]

I always imagined that the weapons in Unreal I (Besides the upak weapons) were cheap, low performance productions, because no one was expecting any heavy armed conflict, the Skaarj thought they were only going to deal with Nali..
The Humans only though they were going to deal with Prisoners.. and the mercs though the planet was uninhabited.

I bet the high tech skaarj weapons are much more effective than seen in the game, seeing as the human UMS weaponry seems to be both more advanced and effective the the skaarj weaponry. (Which to me, makes no sense, since the Skaarj are supposed to be so high and mighty)

However Unreal II wasnt a bad game because of lack of atmosphere, slowness,weaponry, or because the skaarj were fat and lame looking (although these greatly increase the value of the game), it was a bad game because the gameplay was absolutely uninteresting, with nothing to back it up. All you could really do was move, shoot, and crouch, and walk through corridors. The gameplay was extremely simplistic and repetitive. This is all based on the fact that I have never played XMP.

The game would have been boring to me even if it had unreal Styled weapons and maps, imo.

[jefequeso]

I've started looking at your reviews, they're nice, but you need a "reviewed games" list somewhere. Otherwise we have to navigate the archives to find what games you have tested.

Good point. I'll look into doing that.

[jefequeso]

There was never a Unreal III (and I think as sad as this might sound, it is possible that there will never be one considering what a flop Unreal II was).

And I agree very much on the AI part. Even these days you don't always have a challenge when fighting one single enemy and the bots in Unreal Tournament III are really retarded compared to Unreal.

Unreal II definitely wasn't a flop. UT2003 was more like a flop (Epic are trying to forget it ever existed), but U2 is generally regarded as a decent game, just that is not very faithful to the original, that's all. But very many people would rather see Unreal III rather than Unreal Tournament 4.

Yea, the Skaarj AI is really awesome. They dodge everything - it's nearly impossible to kill one with a Stinger, and they try to dodge even hitscan weaponry.
I wouldn't say that UT3 bots are so bad - I get murdered by Skilled bots, while in UT2004 Masterful bots are just fine with me... Though it's probably all due to practise. Also, in Unreal, I get murdered by Average bots, so yeah

Epic surprisingly found Unreal I to be a flop, because they never EVER speak of it.

Didn't Cliffy B says something about "just admit that Unreal was boring" or something like that?

Kinda ironic given that they made Gears of War

[Hyzoran]

Source or it didnt happen.

Unreal III will come, or else the universe will tear itself apart.

[Sly.]

Gears is their "billion dollar franchise" and so it gets much more attention than Unreal. He said he would revive Unreal if he had a team but I'm not sure whether he wanted to be sympathic in the eyes of their old time Unreal fans or if he really meant it serious, however, he said he would overwork the entire level design, change the graphics style, make it more Skyrim-like, scrap the action and imo this would NOT be Unreal. I dislike his idea. Sure, you can extend a remake, there is nothing wrong with that, but a remake should be at least faithful in layout of landscapes and give you this action-filled Unreal thrill and have the Na Pali style.
This made me sceptical whether an Unreal 3 would be such as we imagine it. Unreal was scary, action-filled, beautiful and breathtaking, yet foreign but familiar, it had creative environments and unpredictable moments, beautiful skies that were otherworldly and a rusty look with creative weapons many many more elements. If I wouldn't see such a thing in an Unreal 3 I would be disappointed. The expectations just grow with each year the fans have to wait, someday they won't be able to fullfill them, I'm afraid this time already passed long ago. :-/

[GreatEmerald]

Not on this planet. U II had decent critics because it runs properly most of the time. Go talk with players that are not Unreal Addicts : they are almost unanimous in qualifying U2 as the blandest least interesting game since Rock Throwing 1.0. Most people would rather see UT4 because UT, no matter the version, is always at least decently cool. Let's be a little bit honest - I have the same unrequited love relationship with U2 has you must be having, but there's no saving the actual game.

Nope, players that are not Unreal addicts usually say something along the lines of "Unreal? What's that? Never played it and I don't care to!". That doesn't make their points valid, however.

I may be easily amused, but I didn't find anything uninteresting or boring in Unreal II at all. All missions had something unique in them. Weapons, especially the end game ones (Laser Rifle, Takkra, Singularity Cannon) were in the style of Unreal just as well.

But anyway, this is getting quite off topic here!

[Bloodshot]

Unreal 1 was far from a flop, they just never speak of it. It happens with a lot of games. Look at Quake 1, that single handedly put online multiplayer on the map and is widely popular, and John Carmack only just acknowledged it a couple of months ago. Gears is ending, and there's no reason not to bring it back - reboot, continuation, it doesn't matter. If it has a good SP campaign and good MP features I'm sure it will sell.

I don't think there's anyone who would really be like "OMG a new Unreal!?? I WILL NEVER BUY THAT GAME SERIES FOR AS LONG AS I LIVE"

They can even incorporate some gears stuff with an Unreal Twist.