I agree. I feel I would've gotten more of my money's worth had they just remade Unreal 1 with the new engine.

... I wonder if EB will still take the return...

I am very, very disappointed with Unreal II. This game was heavily hyped, heavily anticipated, and took, from what we can gather, a significant investment, and in the end, it yielded a pitiful 'rail shooter' with no sense of exploration, of space, of character or of interest. It is, in fact, a mildly attractive shooting gallery.

Visually, it may have richer colors, but the lighting is overdone, feeling like 70's blacklight poster art, or for those of us who can remember, the lighting at a 70's hair-and-screaming progressive rock concert for a band who would be forgotten today.

These companies need to have a little less vanity about their engines, and make the games more interesting to play. Unreal is unrealistically disappointing.

I've told everyone how much Unreal 2 felt like Halo. My kid plays halo on our Xbox and she watched me for about 10 minutes before asking me if I was playing "Halo 2". I told her "yes, basically".

Unreal 1 was a game you could explore and experience. Unreal 2 is linear and scripted as hell. I will say the "defend position" aspect was a nice addition to the gameplay, but that was really the only original idea in the game. Not even sure how original it really is.

I enjoyed the weapons. They are WAY better than the crap in UT2K3, even if it is a little ludicrous that your player can carry like 30 weapons, including a remote turret bigger than him (or 3). I only used about 4 different weapons of the many I was given.

I found my player able to walk through people and objects at times. That took away what little immersion I might have experienced. At one point I killed some big bastard animal and when I tried to get a close look at him I found myself clipping though him...dumb.

The sad thing here is this: I think the artwork (textures, models, sounds, etc) had the potential to take this game where it should have gone. The story, the scripty predictable gameplay shot the game down hardcore. I couldn't fully enjoy the game world because I was FORCED into cliche confrontation after confrontation. I never was immersed in the game as I have been in the past. I was hoping for that special feeling. Maybe if I get stoned I can dupe my mind into getting into it.. lol

In Unreal 1 you could walk around and look at things. You could mess with the animals, jump in and swim with fishes....shit, you could go on a virtual vacation if you wanted to. You weren't forced into combat. When you were ready to progress through the story, you would encounter bad guys or some story element. In unreal 2 its like you are taking a ride through a "haunted house" at some carnival. You are just along for the ride.

This comment was edited on Feb 6, 19:11.

For me, the review on Telefragged sums up Unreal II pretty well. Worth checking out if you are sitting on the fence

http://www.telefragged.com/reviews/unreal2/


'Despite constant warnings, you have never met anybody who has had their arm broken by a swan'

Warning: Minor (non) spoilers; you have been warned!

I can second vacs comments. Although it does not wreck the game in any way, the enemies are quite cheap. An enemy can be way across the map, he is less than 1/16th an inch tall on my screen, and he will repeatedly nail me with an inaccurate weapons such as the shotgun.

The example that first comes to mind is on the organism planet. Even though I am still up on the mining structure (or whatever it is), the guards that have just come up from the organism's mouth clearly and easily hit me from that far away on the map. I have no problem with it if I stand there like a fool and try to snipe them or when we get in close with each other, but their weapons are far more accurate than my own.

Additional to this, the enemies do not seem to register the geometry completely. I frequently setup ambushes for my filthy prey the NPCs, but they will shoot - and hit - me before they have even turned the corner. Again, not a major problem, but I have noticed this on more than one occasion (it is worst around doorways and/or edges of structures that are not completely at right vertical angles.)

Going to post more detailed comments at a later date,
Ray (too busy playing :o)

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9700 Pro installed; now where is my Barton???
http://users.ign.com/collection/RayMarden
HELLO!?! The *fish* have wings and the *cows* have toes!

That mission with the marines was the best one I've played so far. Running through the jungle with Izarians coming in from every direction and blasting them with the shotgun was a great rush. And just because the Marines can take care of themselves doesn't mean you shouldn't do anything.

In constrast the next mission almost made me fall asleep. Killing the same set of monsters in the same situations, with only button pressing and a jump puzzle for variety quickly becomes tedious and unrewarding. Good thing the boss fight woke me up.

So far it's been a mixed bag gameplay-wise.

"Life is not about the second chances. It's about the little mouse, and his voyage to an exciting new land. That, my friend, is what life is." - Dad

Sounds like the people here have a short attention span. Its like going to see the matrix: reloaded and leaving in the first 5 minutes because NEO doesnt kill anyone. Play the game and Complete it, then judge what its like. The first couple of missions are only scraping the surface of an already sinister storyline. As for AI? The enemy shoots at you, what more could you ask? Sounds like some people here wish that the enemy didnt shoot at them at all.

Even on the hard setting, if you are standing still, you shouldn't be hit by more than about 5/8 shots (remember this is on the hard setting with you standing still).

sorry Mike, as someone already said, your AI sounds nice on paper, but doesn't work that way in reality.

e.g.: Planet Sulferon: Right in the beginning of the level on "normal" difficulty you meet one enemy with a shotgun and one with some sort of rocket launcher. Whatever you now do (run, jump or duck) to dodge his shotgun bullets, if the guy shots 8 times, he will you hit 8 times! I call that frustrating accuracy, not intelligent AI.

BTW, what happened with the initially green landscapes filled with forest of Sulferon. Those old screenshots looked so amazing but now it's just a red desert with a strange floating "highway" which fulfills no other purpose than to be there...

Anyway, I began yesterday replaying U2 to give it another chance but before reaching the cutscene where the guy falls into the reactor I got too bored and stopped replaying. Hopefully there will be some decent MOD coming out some time this year...

This comment was edited on Feb 5, 13:32.

Looks ok but not that exciting! Whats up with the level were i go find the marines! Duh! They lead me to the pickup point and i have to wait 5 mins. for the ship while the marines shoot everything!!! Snore!!! For $50 i guess i expected this game to knock my socks off... Not!!!!

Well its the first unreal game thats alright.. is there any healing fruit in this

Good times.

Unreal II is a fantastic Game. Enough Said.

I think the "aimbot" impression was generated by the fact that a lot of the early enemy weapons appear to have one or several of these qualities combined:
-Large projectile radius (The Boss fight in the generator)
-Ricochet effects (Shock Lance)
-Splash Damage (Shock Lance Alt-Fire, etc.)

Thus the chance of them hitting you in close quarters is very high as I have experienced, even when using dodging or simple strafing movements (Although killing me is another matter entirely.) I'm still hoping to see the full capability of the AI in the latter missions.

"Life is not about the second chances. It's about the little mouse, and his voyage to an exciting new land. That, my friend, is what life is." - Dad

sounds good on paper to bad thats not how it worked in reality. if you think differently then feel free to fly me to where the game was developed and ill spend as much time as you wish pointing it out. the targets do shoot you while falling and they have the same fatal flaw that all Unreal Engine base games have and thats they know where your at, at all times, dont believe me pick up a flag in UT2003 and go hide in some remote location.

U2 is no different once they know your in the area its auto aim time. in the one level where you had to fight to get across the bridge i put my sniper crosshairs on an enemy that didnt know i was there. guess what he became activated and started dodging me. it go to be rather funny.

your games a joke and the reviews from most of the sites are telling the tale. U2 has gotten more bad reviews than it has good ones. but im sure you can give pcgamer an exclusive so you can get a 90%

* AI, as someone already said, the enemies all use an aimbot of some sort, keeping firing at you (2-3 at a time) and every shot hits you, like it happens when you are inside this living-creature-planet. We are now in 2003 and this sort of gameplay should have been abandonned the last millenium. Shame at Legend!

I find it hard to believe that anyone who is saying this has actually played the game. The AI in U2 evaluates over a dozen parameters to decide whether or not to hit their target including the speed of the target, whether the target is falling, how fast the AI is moving, how recently the AI was hit, how recently the target was acquired, whether there is smoke in between the AI and the target etc. They'll also aim at the location where the target was last seen if the target moves out of sight. Even on the hard setting, if you are standing still, you shouldn't be hit by more than about 5/8 shots (remember this is on the hard setting with you standing still). Some weapons (like the assault rifle) do have a rapid rate of fire so chances are they're going to hit you. If you have one, try using a smoke grenade to throw off their aim...

Mike (AI Lead, Unreal 2)

I haven't played it yet. I don't warez. So I can't say much about the gameplay other than it's a FP shooter... it's bound to have a certain amount of conventional FPS fair in it. As for Aida -- ReDeeMeR, she's an intelligence officer, not a scientist or pilot. Spooks don't have to be "normal", whatever that is in that time / place. That's why as IO she sits in the ship and briefs the front man (you) and, I gather from others, provides intelligence updates as you go. I have toadmit curiosity has me, I think I'll have to buy it and compare my experience with the posts I'm reading...

This comment was edited on Feb 3, 22:50.

Why are we talking so much about this game if it "sucks" so bad?


This comment was edited on Feb 3, 15:10.

Jeez, the game isnt that bad, cmon, maybe you were expecting to much, but as soon as I heard it was passed for development to the guys who made teh crappy Wheel of Time, I knew this gam wasnt gonna live up the hype.

What it fails to do is creating something new, yes everything, AI, levels, gfx is cool, but nothing new and wehn a game with so much hype has nothing new it sure feel dissapointing.

Btw, that girl Aida is total bs, looks like a russian hooker rather then a scientist or a pilot and it takes some of the atmosphere, it feels like the game is more console'ish then the first Unreal, it feels somewat arcade, corny and unoriginal = like your typical console game.

Teenies will probably enjoy it.

Actually, the game has plenty of moments like that, and one that is almost EXACTLY like that, since it was built as an homage to that exact scene in Unreal 1. Were you even paying attention?
Guess what, I noticed that elevator scene. Great, let's copy all the intense moments from the original, add three "defend the perimeter" missions and then we got all the suspense and tense moments one could possibly think of. Wow, that's what I call innovation!

Uhh, 'the level where you fight the marines'? Could you possibly be more vague?
Actually I meant "all" the levels where one is fighting marines, mercs or whatever they are. As some reviewers already said, Unreal 2 could be "mistaken for Red Faction or Halo" instead of giving us the Unreal feeling we all experienced in the first game. That's actually one of the weakest points in U2: It doesn't look like Unreal 2, it looks just like an ordinary sci-fi shooter!

You think Acheron isn't an alien locale? Na Koja isn't alien? The Drakk Homeworld isn't alien?
I guess you understood me right, but you didn't want to. Yes, of course there are also alien locals here in U2, it's a sci-fi shooter remember! But this locals don't have any resemblance with the type of environment we saw in U1. Remember the strange, exotic feeling when running through the villages and mountains of the first game? U2 is just an action shooter, no more sense for exploration...

You may not _need_ that information, but it's there for _atmosphere_ and _immersion_.
Of course, if you really want to get immersed, no one will stop you, but the game doesn't really help for this to happen. I really cannot get myself interested in this fake story where they try to add depth to the different races where there is no depth to explain or even needed.

Trend or not, I have no problems praising a game when it's good but I don't think that it's good to say that game xyz is great when it isn't, even if it was made by such an acclaimed team like Legend, build on the shoulders of Epic. It just didn't work here.

Unreal2 is nonetheless better than most games, polished and enjoyable during a few moments but in the end it's just your average first-person-shooter you will have forgotten by the end of the month and not the sequel we could have hoped for...

This comment was edited on Feb 2, 07:19.

Deleted my post myself. Delete button doesn't seem to work

Creston

This comment was edited on Feb 2, 04:52.

Chris, sounds like you played the game with the idea of enjoying the experience. Others probably played it not to enjoy it, but to "dish the dirt" on it. That seems to be a trend today. I suppose it's easy to do when you've already heard about it's faults, you tend to look for them rather than noticing it's virtues. Guess I'll keep an open mind on this game a bit longer. Thanks.