LGR - Unreal 20 Years Later: A Retrospective - VoiceTube: Learn English through videos!

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Time to make myself feel old with a retrospective on a PC game from my youth!
This is Unreal, developed by Epic MegaGames in collaboration with Digital Extremes and
published by GT Interactive on May 22, 1998.
Man, 1998 was how long ago? Ugh, that last fact still hasn’t quite sunk in yet.
Anyway, when it released decades ago Unreal was an absolutely monumental title for a multitude
of reasons, but one of the easiest ones to point out was its graphical prowess.
“Unreal! Yes, this is an actual PC game screenshot.”
Hehe. And dude, that really was mind-boggling for February of 1997
when Next Gen Magazine printed this.
Keep in mind that at the time of this world reveal magazine article, id Software’s Quake
was only eight months old, so going from characters
that looked like this to *this* was a notable improvement!
Furthermore, as a fan of titles like Epic Pinball and Jazz Jackrabbit, seeing developers
I was familiar with like James Schmalz and Cliff Bleszinski putting together ‘the most
advanced 3D shooter ever made’ only a few years after developing those 2D DOS games?
That was a bit surreal.
Or, unreal, if you will. [boooooo]
Heck when Unreal finally released, Jazz Jackrabbit 2 had only come out two weeks prior.
So seeing both a silky smooth 2D platformer and a silky smooth 3D-accelerated FPS arriving
under the same banner within the same month was just like... pschrrt, what, how?!
And even with Unreal arriving just five months after Quake II’s release, it still felt
like a generational leap in PC gaming graphics, and the box tried to make that abundantly clear.
Other first-person shooters often covered their package in logos and artwork providing
some abstract representation of the game, but Unreal went balls-out from the start,
plastering embossed renders of its 3D models right on the cover and including a square
cut-out showing off one of four screenshots.
And it was all topped off with quotes like “The best looking game of all time.”
“The future of gaming.”
And, “Rest in peace Quake II.”
The hyperbole continued around back as well, with copious screenshots and descriptions
cramming in every bit of self-congratulating marketing copy they could.
It seems a bit pompous in hindsight, but at the time they truly had earned the right to
brag about their tech so hey, why not.
And if you needed any more confirmation of how long ago 1998 actually was, checkout the
list of products it’s optimized for.
Not a single one of those APIs, instruction sets, or multiplayer networks exist anymore,
at least not in the form they did back then. Sad.
Inside the box you get a bit of an unusual cardboard insert, one that’s built to hold
the jewel case all snug so the cover screenshot is visible on the front of the box.
And mine is cover variant number 2 of 4.
And inside you get the game on a single CD-ROM, as well as a booklet that contains not the
manual, but even more screenshots!
As well as a merchandise catalog letting you know all the cool Unreal stuff that I’m
one vulnerable late night away from irresponsibly buying on eBay.
And yep, there was also a Macintosh version of the game ported by Westlake Interactive,
which was set to release in June of ‘98 but didn’t actually show up until a year later.
For that matter, there was also going to be a PlayStation and a Nintendo 64 version of
Unreal, with none other than DMA Design aka Rockstar North working on porting the latter
to the 64DD system, but both were canceled because reasons.
Back to the box though, where you also get this little catalog for GT Interactive’s
offerings for Spring of 1998, including existing releases like Unreal
and upcoming releases like Duke Nukem Forever.
This “long-awaited sequel” is coming in Winter of 1998, huh?
Mm, ‘dates are subject to change’ indeed.
Finally, you also get an instruction manual, or prisoner transportation log, with over
30 black and white pages of information covering everything from the story, to the gameplay,
to the ins and outs of the options menus and troubleshooting.
And then these ads in the back are great as well.
You could win a BMW for signing up to AT&T Worldnet apparently.
And check out that Falcon Northwest Mach V, wonder
if anyone still has one of those beasts lying around?
And it seems the infamous Mad Catz Panther XL controller
was “officially endorsed by the creators of Unreal?”
[somewhat irksome rubbery creaking noises] Huh.
Suffice to say I will be sticking to a mouse and keyboard for the rest of this video.
Once you’ve got Unreal installed and your graphics card properly configured it’s time
to dive into the most-anticipated PC gaming--aww. Welp.
This is not an uncommon sight when it comes to the launch version of Unreal,
bugs and crashes are a fact of life.
And Epic knew it, going so far as to include this slip of paper in the box calling for
their “hardcore” gaming audience to please forgive them in advance because making games
is hard and Unreal is full of bugs so please be sure to download
the latest updates as soon as possible.”
I can think of a few companies who should still be including messages like this but anyway.
Thankfully there are patches for just about every configuration of PC imaginable, so once
it’s working you’re greeted with the legendary Unreal castle flyby demo.
[flyby demo commences triumphantly]
[classy Alexander Brandon theme plays]
Augh, dude, yes!
Every time I start this game up and I hear that MOD music playing, composed by Alexander
Brandon and Michiel van den Bos, in combination with those glossy 3D surfaces flying by?
Brings me right back to the first time I saw it running.
It was just me and my Compaq than ran Windows 98SE,
sitting there in awe at what was happening on my screen.
I kept thinking, “my computer can do THIS?!”
Granted, I mean, I had upgraded it with a 16MB Voodoo3 card
in order to make it happen so I knew it technically could.
But knowing and seeing were two different things, and seeing this in the late ‘90s
running on your computer was practically a religious epiphany to a PC gaming geek.
But impressive visuals can only carry a game so far and Unreal is much more than a tech
demo, so let’s get to it starting with the main menu.
And dang, I had completely forgotten this is what the UI looked like originally, with
no mouse cursor and a chunky green typeface.
Anyway, let’s begin with the single player campaign and its offerings of four difficulty
levels and a variety of character models to choose from.
What you pick out here is pretty inconsequential to the campaign since you play a silent protagonist
in a first-person perspective, but I appreciate the gesture regardless.
And now, it’s time to wake up.
[electrical buzzing, alarm blaring]
[AI voice: “Prisoner 849 escaping!”]
You play an unnamed soul known only as Prisoner 849, who awakes in a prison cell to pure chaos
aboard a transport vessel called the Vortex Rikers.
You quickly find a universal translator tablet lying on the ground and get to work navigating
the crumbling ship, accompanied only by the screams of unseen crew members enduring unseen horrors.
[screams, explosions, eerie ambiance]
And wow did this introduction make an impact back
then, I had never played an FPS with such a focus on environmental storytelling like this before.
You’re just thrust into this lonely but chaotic situation, with no idea what went
wrong and very little to go on except the written logs of dead crew members and the
level design itself to fill in the gaps.
Now this kind of storytelling in first-person is has been done to death nowadays, but keep
in mind this was before Half-Life had come out, so experiencing this in ‘98 was a treat!
In hindsight though, there’s a definite similarity to System Shock here with its dark,
dilapidated space station and its focus on picking up story pieces as you go.
But I wasn’t aware of that game at the time so this was an entirely fresh experience to me.
And, unlike System Shock, Unreal is a first-person shooter above all else and it’s not long
before you find a weapon, some ammo, and some beefy alien baddies for target practice.
[soothing sounds of alien target practice commence] And while you’ll be seeing these
same dudes repeatedly throughout the game,
the way they’re introduced one by one is just awesome.
Like, the first time a Skaarj shows up? Fantastic!
[more eerie ambiance.]
[alarms, shooting]
Yeah that’s another thing, Unreal makes heavy use of darkness throughout
the campaign, no doubt to show off its dynamic lighting capabilities.
So you’re frequently having to make use of flares to light your way, at least until
you find any of the various flashlights later on.
But all of these lighting sources are temporary, with the flares exploding after a short time
and flashlights running out of battery life.
Ah well, at least you can use a weapon and a light at the same time, so you’re not
doomed to shuffle between the two.
However, as creepy and atmospheric as these darker levels can be, personally, Unreal really
feels like *Unreal* to me in the outdoor environments.
Say hello to the planet of Na Pali.
[critterschirp, wind blows, serene music plays]
This moment is perhaps the most memorable one in the game for me, even after all these years/
Where you first step off the crashed ship and out into this lush, alien world.
The place was not only massive but beautiful, with strange creatures flying around, a village
off in the distance, weird rabbit things hopping by begging to be shot, and the sound of a
waterfall in the distance while more of that awesome tracker music plays.
[Music plays over waterfall sounds. Then, he ded.]
Just saying the word “unreal” brings environments like this to mind.
They’re pretty to look at yet isolating to exist within, containing just enough detail
and wide open space to entice you to explore further without overwhelming you at the same time.
And this kind of lower polygon count geometry?
I just find it ridiculously charming at this point.
I mean it’s like, “Hey look!
These platforms you can walk across?
It’s an elongated rectangle, have fun!”
A good chunk of your story remains a pretty straightforward, chill experience really,
with no objective markers or lists of things to do getting in the way of your wandering
and interacting with the world.
Most of this interaction takes the form of bumping into doors, switches, machines, and
contraptions to make them do their thing.
Taking a cue from Quake, there is no interaction key, you just kinda straddle an object for
a second until it does what you want.
But there are some physical puzzles as well, like moving a box here and there so you can
jump on top to reach a higher ledge, or shooting at objects to activate them or destroy part
of them to create a new platform, or blowing up walls
and surfaces to reveal a pathway or hidden room.
There are also friendly NPCs, known as the Nali, that will help you out if you have enough
patience to keep them alive, opening up alternate routes
or secret chambers of weaponry and power-ups.
Of course, the less amiable aliens around do not want that to happen and will make a
bee-line to try and kill them before they can help you so being
quick and precise with your guns is a must.
Speaking of armaments, there are ten guns in the original Unreal, many of which will
be quite familiar to you if you’ve played the later games in the franchise.
The first gun you receive and the most basic of them is the dispersion pistol, a low-power
energy gun that recharges over time and is most likely going to be used for shooting
open objects like crates and barrels.
But also has the unique ability to be upgraded several times
by picking up boosters throughout the game.
Then you have the Automag, which is a hitscan pistol that’s incredibly accurate but rather
slow in terms of firing rate, yet also has a sideways “gangsta” mode where you shoot
way faster for some reason, at the expense of a loss in accuracy.
Then there’s the Stinger which is a rapid-fire chaingun type of thing, except it shoots tarydium
shards in either a straight line or a slow but effective spread-shot.
Then there’s the GES BioRifle, which is a little bit unusual in that it shoots blobs
of toxic waste in various sizes.
Next up is the ASMD Shock Rifle, which is a fantastically useful weapon, shooting powerful
beams in a straight line from any distance, as well as a secondary fire that shoots out
a pulsating energy ball which can then be shot
with the other beam to make an even larger explosion.
Then there’s the minigun, which works a lot like the Stinger except it uses the same
ammo as the Automag and its secondary mode fires at a different rate.
Next is the oddly-named Eightball Launcher, which is
a rocket launcher with six barrels, not eight.
Apparently it’s a vestigial name from earlier in development, but whatever man it’s awesome.
You can shoot individual rockets, or you can hold down fire to queue up to six of them
in a horizontal pattern.
Or use the alt fire to toss rockets in a general direction like grenades and bounce them off
surfaces, or hold down both buttons to send a cluster of rockets in a small group.
Just a fantastic gun, but even better in my opinion is the Flak Cannon.
Somewhat like the Stinger’s alt fire mode, except here you have heated shrapnel that
bounces everywhere and shreds enemies to pieces, as well as a shell launcher that’s fantastic
for doing lots of longer-range damage if you’re skilled enough.
After this is the Razorjack, which is quite powerful but often causes more trouble than
it’s worth seeing as it shoots spinning blades that bounce all over the place and
can easily lop off the heads of anyone in its path, including you.
And it also has a rather gangster secondary sideways firing mode
because you had to make that weapon “cool” somehow.
And then finally there is the sniper rifle, easily one of my
favorites in this and every other Unreal title.
It’s a powerful, armor-piercing, hitscan weapon that disconnects heads from torsos
in spectacular fashion, and is a pleasure to use in Unreal’s
massive environments when you zoom in.
Although it just kind of decreases the FOV to make zooming happen, there’s no scope
overlay or anything, but it works and it’s fun.
As memorable and useful as these weapons are though,
I found the power-ups to be pretty standard.
You pick these up and store them in your inventory to use whenever you need, things like the
aforementioned translator, flares, and lights.
You also get useful stuff like scuba gear, jump boots, invisibility, and a single-use force field.
But probably the most useful one is the amplifier, which has nothing to do with your hi-fi setup
and everything to do with making your weapons more powerful when activated.
There’s also the Nali Fruit Seed, one of the more creative health items I’ve seen.
Most of the time you’re just picking up medkits and such off the ground, but every
so often you’ll see a seed which can activated by planting it and waiting for it to grow.
Seriously.
You’ll find these out in the world too, already grown.
But when you plant one the longer you wait, the more health you’ll get from the plant,
up to 30 health points.
It’s weird and inconvenient, but that’s neat.
And you will want all the seeds and health items you can get because Unreal does not
always take it easy on you, especially on higher difficulties as you would imagine.
I enjoy how almost all of the power-ups and weapons you find aren’t yours alone and
will inevitably be used against you.
And almost all of the game’s 20-something enemies are quite skilled in dodging and switching
up their attacks, so it can often be a serious challenge to get a bead on them depending
on what you have at your disposal and what exactly is attacking.
There’s a respectable variety in them as well, including
Skaarj, Brutes, Krall, Gasbags,
Mercs, Slith, Flies, Mantas, Titans!
And if you’re not keen on jumping spider-y, facehugger-like things,
well, too bad because this game is full of ‘em!
[sounds of shooting, Pupae attacking]
However, as varied as the enemy types are,
by the time you reach the mid-point of the campaign it becomes increasingly apparent
just how much of a bullet sponge many of them can be.
And unfortunately it just gets downright tedious.
Because you’re fighting the same kinds of creatures on the first levels are you do level
10, level 17, 26, 34, and so on, you get the idea.
And while the right set of circumstances still leads to some fun firefights here and there,
the combat seriously wears out its welcome in my opinion.
I mean, it’s exciting to take on your first Stone Titan for sure,
it just acts as a mini boss battle and it’s all cool and stuff.
But by the time you see your fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth one, all doing the same thing
except now the bigger ones soak up more ammo?
Eh, it gets old fast.
And I’m sad to say that so do many of the maps themselves, with the sheer size of them
being a blessing and curse at times, twisting all over the place and requiring tons of backtracking
for no particular reason except to pad out gameplay.
Not really providing many new things to do, but rather just shaking up how you get to
those same things in slightly different environments.
Don’t get me wrong though, there’s something to be admired about this kind of complex level
design from the ‘90s and I appreciate the what the folks at Epic and Digital Extremes
crafted using relatively few art assets.
But man, there are only so many samey-looking fortresses, underground cavern systems, and
Nostromo-inspired spaceships that I can handle.
And then there’s the ending of the game, which is rather unmemorable.
It’s a generic alien queen boss battle, where you have a big room and a bunch of ammo,
dodging a barrage a simple attacks that repeat on an endless loop.
Once that distraction is over with you get a cutscene of you escaping the planet, hooray!
Except then you run out of fuel and then contemplate how you’ve effectively done nothing by ending
up where you started: alone, as a prisoner aboard a spaceship. “To be continued...”
Thankfully you didn’t have to wait too long to continue with the release Unreal’s one
and only expansion pack, Return to Na Pali releasing in 1999.
Followed by Unreal Gold, which combined both the mission pack
and the base game together with the latest patches.
The pack was a bit of a departure in that it was developed in conjunction with Legend
Entertainment, known mostly for their point-and-click adventure games back in the day.
I also don’t see this mentioned very often, but RTNP actually works
with both Unreal and Unreal Tournament.
Can’t say I recall many expansion packs doing double duty like this.
And I must admit, I’ve never actually played this pack until now or even opened my boxed
copy so I’m pretty excited here!
Let’s break the seal and see what you get.
And that is not a whole lot really, just a simple product registration card and a jewel
case holding both the CD-ROM and an instruction booklet
covering the new features on offer. Pretty standard stuff.
The expansion campaign picks up right where Unreal left off, with your character being
discovered by a human warship, the UMS Bodega Bay.
But once they find out who you are and what you’ve just done, you’re forced to go
back to the planet and retrieve the data cores of another crashed ship.
And wait, what the--you have a voice now?
“A day after my so-called rescue and I’m going back to the surface of the planet.
They’ve promised me a full pardon and transit back to Earth in exchange for my help.
The alternative was a trip out the airlock without a suit.”
Huh.
So yeah, turns out you could talk all along and just decided to play the first game silent I guess.
Not only that, but you even get little interludes in-between each level, showing your kill stats
as well as an audio log of the protagonist’s thoughts.
“I’m pausing to record a log entry.
I’m still shaken up after running into the Skaarj and their filthy minions.
I guess I thought I’d seen the last of them when I killed the Skaarj Queen on the mothership.”
There are even some short in-engine cutscenes that freeze the action while some voiceover
plays, although you can still shoot and move the camera while this is happening, hehe.
Yeah these changes can be a bit strange and
ill-implemented but I don’t mind them too much.
In fact, uh...
I kinda like this campaign better than the original in some ways.
Now, that’s not to say it’s a masterful narrative or that the original sucks,
neither are true at all.
But for whatever reason I feel that Return to Na Pali is better-paced and remains more
consistently enjoyable to play than the original campaign these days.
It helps that it’s only about 4 or 5 hours long compared to the main game’s 10 to 13
hour story, so it doesn’t spend too long in any one area and keeps the combat brisk
without repeating as many of the same enemies in a row.
And I really quite enjoy the new Combat Assault Rifle it comes with, which is a lot like the
minigun except it shoots more accurately and its alt fire
mode fires burst-fires rounds that explode on impact.
And I definitely found some use in the new rocket launcher, which acts as more of a traditional
single-shot RPG and has a secondary mode for shooting guided rockets.
And the grenade launcher, eh I dunno, I can take it or leave it.
I didn’t see much need considering you still have the Eightball which kind of shoots grenades
of a sort anyway, but it is kinda handy that its alt fire launches grenades
that can be remote-detonated at any time.
But yeah, that combat rifle is the one I used most here, especially handy against the new
enemies like the Pack Hunters: fast-moving little dinosaur punks that chomp away at your knees.
Then there are the Spinners, and man if you didn’t like the jumping Pupae enemies in
the original, these giant arachnids are not going to make you feel any better.
And without spoiling much, there’s also a chance you’ll get to kill some humans
for once, who are absolutely a force to be reckoned with
and again I found the combat rifle most useful here.
Anyway, once you reach the finale of this pack the ending
is even more abrupt than the main game.
There’s no giant boss battle, you just kind of wander into a small chamber and take a
spacecraft off the planet where you unceremoniously defeat your enemies through a cutscene.
The end!
No final thoughts from our badly voice-acted protagonist, just the credits.
Hrm.
Okay, on second thought, maybe Return to Na Pali is a bit underwhelming by the end.
But still, I really enjoyed it while I was playing it!
There are some truly awesome levels in there with some creative environmental puzzles,
many of which were apparently cut from the main game and then added back through this
pack, alongside the new ones made by Legend.
But whether you’re playing the main game or the mission pack, I very much recommend
the story mode for Unreal, even today.
Especially the first half of the original campaign, it is still one of
my absolute favorite shooter experiences of the late ‘90s.
But as enjoyable as the story mode is? One cannot forget Multiplayer Unreal.
Not only is the entire campaign playable in co-op, but there are a crapload of maps, modes,
and gameplay items that were available exclusively in multiplayer.
And yes, people are still playing to this day with dedicated servers online at any given
time, provided you have the right patch installed.
Speaking of which, I very much recommend the Oldunreal patches, which are fan-made updates
to the game made with the permission of Epic once official support ended.
These provide all sorts of updates for more modern hardware, including support for newer
versions of DirectX and OpenGL, as well as additional graphical tweaks
and bug fixes over what Epic provided.
But yeah anyway, multiplayer: it’s pretty excellent.
Whether you’re playing one of the more usual modes likes Deathmatch or King of the Hill,
or the more unique ones here like DarkMatch or CloakMatch.
All the weapons and power-ups from the main game are here, as well as some extra stuff
for deceiving your opponents, with things like the Sound Dampener for silencing your
guns and the Voice Box for making distracting noises.
But the biggest claim to fame for this mode are probably the AI bots that it came with,
of which Unreal was a trendsetter in this regard.
Now, there were earlier shooters to have bots in multiplayer, but they were either modded
in by fans or they were so basic that no one could confuse them for human players.
But Unreal, good grief, Steve Polge’s bot tech was fantastic.
Even knowing the manner in which it uses preset waypoints to make it work, you can still easily
play the multiplayer offline against nothing but bots and have plenty of fun.
And of course this experience would only get better and more expanded from here with the
eventual release of Unreal Tournament in 1999, but that will have to wait for another day.
Ahh and I haven’t talked about UnrealEd yet, which was the fantastic editing suite
that it came with on the CD from day one.
This was the same program used by the developers to make the game and including it was an absolute
dream come true to 13-year-old me with lofty game designer ambitions.
And naturally this built-in modability led to a barrage of modifications, mutators, map
packs, and fan-made additions over the years.
Not to mention the proliferation of the Unreal Engine itself which continues to dominate
in the games industry in various forms to this day.
And bringing it all around to the modern day, if you have the urge to revisit Unreal or
even play it for the first time, it’s incredibly easy to do so now seeing as the game is on
digital storefronts like Steam and GOG.com.
And hey, if you appreciated this video and feel like supporting the channel through buying
the game, feel free to use my GOG affiliate link below this video.
Either way though I hope that you enjoyed taking a look back with me at Unreal: an FPS
classic that does not deserve to be forgotten.
[shooting, dying. Game over man, game over.]
And if you dug what you just saw then awesome!
This went a lot longer than I planned but whatever, this game is rad.
So if you’re still here then thank you very much for watching LGR!