Lately, I've been getting back into the Unreal series, so I decided to make a topic about it.
Unreal is a first-person shooter video game developed by Epic MegaGames and Digital Extremes and published by GT Interactive in May 1998. It was powered by an original gameplay and physics engine that now bears the game's name, one that had been in development for over three years in founder Tim Sweeney's garage before the game was released.
Since the release of Unreal, the franchise has had one sequel and two different series based on the Unreal universe. One official bonus pack, the Epic-released Fusion Map Pack, can be downloaded free of charge. Unreal Mission Pack: Return to Na Pali was released in June 1999, and added new missions to the single player campaign of Unreal. Unreal and Unreal Mission Pack: Return to Na Pali would later be bundled together as Unreal Gold. Additionally, the games were updated to run on the Unreal Tournament version of the game engine. Two novels titled Hard Crash and Prophet's Power were published, expanding on the premise and story first introduced in Unreal. Prophet's Power, numbered as the second book in the series, is actually a prequel to the first, Hard Crash; thus it is harder for readers to understand what happened in the story.
The player controls a former Marine John Dalton, a Terran Colonial Authority Marshal whose job is to patrol remote areas of space far away from any real action. He is called back into service to retrieve seven pieces of an ancient artifact thought to make a powerful weapon when assembled.
The plot follows a pre-set linear path like many first-person shooters, with the character going to various planets in search of the artifacts. Level design at each location is also linear, with a certain amount of puzzle solving and key finding.
Environments on each planet are quite diverse, ranging from tropical to desert, bunkers and industrial installations, and alien cities and even inside the bodies of aliens. During several missions the player must hold a location against waves of incoming enemies, in some cases using NPCs as support. Unreal II: eXpanded MultiPlayer was developed by Legend Entertainment for Atari to deliver on the original promise to extend the original single player game Unreal II with a multiplayer functionality. The first playable version was released and made available for download on December 9, 2003. Almost nearing completion, the development of the game was suddenly halted by the unexpected close-down of Legend Entertainment on January 16, 2004.[/center
Unreal Tournament 1999
Unreal Tournament (commonly called Unreal Tournament '99 or UT99 to differentiate from later games) is a first-person shooter (FPS) video game co-developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. It was first published in 1999 by GT Interactive for PC. Infogrames released it for the PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast home consoles. The game is based on the same technology that powered Unreal, but the design of UT shifted the series' focus to competitive multiplayer action, a trend at the time: id Software's Quake III Arena was released only ten days later. UT was designed as an arena FPS, with head-to-head multiplayer deathmatches being the primary focus of the game. The game's single-player campaign is essentially a series of arena matches played with bots. For team matches, bots are again used to fill the roles of the player's teammates. Even on dedicated multiplayer servers, bots are sometimes used to pad out teams that are short on players.
UT is known and widely praised for its bot A.I., the product of programmer Steve Polge who had earlier risen to fame by designing the Reaper Bot for Quake, one of the earliest examples of an effective deathmatch bot. The player can choose a bot skill level (anywhere from "Novice" to "Godlike") or set it to automatically adjust to the player's performance. Bots can be further customized by changing names, appearance, accuracy, weapon preferences, awareness, and so forth.
Game types
Deathmatch: A classic every-man-for-himself player vs. player combat. The objective is to out-frag all opposing players.
Team Deathmatch: Teams compete together to out-frag the opponent team. Like Capture the Flag and Domination in this version—and unlike subsequent releases—four teams were allowed: Red, Blue, Green and Gold.
Capture the Flag: Classic Capture the Flag. Players compete to capture the other team's flag and return it to their base. Competitive teams must use a great deal of teamplay. Both teams must defend the base from incoming attackers and get into the other team's base, take their flag and return to base. This requires that the team protect their flag carrier very well from enemies in order to complete their objective.
Domination: Teams compete to control various control points to earn points and win the map. Standard maps contain three control points. Control of these points is initially accomplished through occupation (physically occupying the space), but control of a point continues until a player from another team occupies the space. The more control points one team controls, the faster it gains points.
Last Man Standing: Similar to Deathmatch, the objective here is to remain alive longer than your opponents, putting an emphasis on number of deaths rather than kills. Players start with all weapons available, fully loaded, and have a set number of lives. Power-ups, including health and ammunition packs, are unavailable. Once a player runs out of lives they lose and have to wait as spectators until the match ends.
Assault: This game type is played with two opposing teams, one assaulting a "base" and the other defending it. The map is set up with a number of objectives which the attacking team must complete (usually in sequence) such as destroying something, entering an area, triggering a button, et cetera. The team who first attacks then defends, and attempts to defend for the entire time they attacked. If they can accomplish this, they win the map. If the team defending first assaults the base faster than the other team, they win the map. If both teams defend for the maximum amount of time the map is a tie.
Unreal Tournament 2003 (my favorite)
Unreal Tournament 2003 or UT2003 is a first-person shooter video game designed mainly for multiplayer gaming. The game is part of the Unreal franchise's series of games, and is a sequel to Unreal Tournament (UT99).
The game set a record for the number of downloads (1.2 million) when the demo was released, which is a reflection of the popularity of the original UT. In addition, the game engine has been widely licensed for games such as the Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six series, Splinter Cell, and America's Army.
Unreal II: The Awakening was released as a sister product to the game. The available combat modes are:
Deathmatch — Frag other players as much as possible to gain the highest score.
Team Deathmatch — Two teams go head to head to be the best fragger.
Capture the flag: Players must invade the enemies' base, capture their flag and bring it back to his/her base in order to score.
Double Domination — In double domination two teams must control two points on the map. Holding both locations for a certain period of time gives points to a team.
Bombing Run — Bombing run can best be described as Unreal-style American football where the player gets the ball and has to take it into enemy territory and score in the enemy force's goal. Players can pass to other teammates. Getting killed causes the ball carrier to fumble the ball. The ball launcher is used to carry the ball, it isn't a weapon but helps the player heal when he/she is in low of health. 3 Points are awarded for field goals (shooting the ball through the goal), and 7 points are given for touchdowns (carrying the ball through the goal), although the levels are often designed such that this kills the ball carrier.
Last man standing — All players in this gametype spawn with a limited number of lives. The last remaining player to still have lives wins the match.
Invasion — Is a co-op gametype where you play with all the players in the server in an attempt to kill the invading alien AI. If you are killed, you must sit out until your team clears the map of aliens.
Mutant — Mutant is very similar to a "Juggernaut" or a "King of the Hill" type of gameplay. The first person to make a kill becomes the mutant, which gives them unlimited ammo, camouflage, and super speed. The mutant then tries to get as many kills as he can until he's killed. The person who kills the mutant then becomes the mutant.
The game has single-player mode that mimics multiplayer gaming by featuring AI-bots.
Unreal Tournament 2004
Unreal Tournament 2004, also known as UT2K4 and UT2004, is a futuristic first-person shooter computer game developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. It is part of the Unreal series of games, particularly the subseries started by the original Unreal Tournament, and is a sequel/expansion to 2002's Unreal Tournament 2003.
The game features most of the content of its predecessor, replacing it on the shop shelves. Unreal Tournament 2004 boxes sold in the United States include a $10 mail-in rebate requiring that a short form be completed and sent to the publisher along with a copy of the manual cover for Unreal Tournament 2003. Versions sold in the United Kingdom had a similar offer, but required sending in the play CD for Unreal Tournament 2003 instead.
Among significant changes to gameplay mechanics and visual presentation, one of the major additions introduced by Unreal Tournament 2004 is the inclusion of vehicles and the Onslaught game type, allowing for large-scale battles.
Its sequel, Unreal Tournament 3, was released on 19 November 2007. The game includes extensive modification support which allows users to easily create maps, models, gamemodes as well as various other additions to the game. The game features a flexible modification system which seamlessly blends custom content with the original, as well as allowing for easy tweaking of the game with the "mutator" system.
In 2004 Epic games held the "Make Something Unreal" contest, which rewarded the creators of the best submitted modifications with prizes in cash, computer hardware, and, ultimately, a license for commercial use of Unreal Engine 2 and 3. Red Orchestra, a total conversion modification based on the Eastern Front of World War II and focused on realism-oriented gameplay, was the winner of the contest and is currently available as a retail title on Steam.
Alien Swarm was the winner of Phase 4 of the Make Something Unreal Contest for best non-FPS modification. In 2010, the game was released as a standalone game for free, based on the Source engine instead of the Unreal engine. There are many vehicles available in Unreal Tournament 2004. Most of them make an appearance in the Onslaught game type, while a few feature in Assault. The full set consist of aircraft types and vehicles. There are also two spacecraft which only officially feature in one Assault map, and different types of gun turrets which players can take control of.
Unreal Tournament 3
Unreal Tournament 3 (UT3) is a first-person shooter and online multiplayer video game by Epic Games, and is the latest installment of the Unreal series. It is published by Midway Games, and was released for Microsoft Windows on November 19, 2007, PlayStation 3 on December 11, 2007, and Xbox 360 on July 3, 2008. The Linux and Mac OS X versions of the game were planned to be released as downloadable installers that work with the retail disc. Ryan C. Gordon has uploaded screenshots of the game, dating from September 2008, running on both platforms. On May 22, 2009, Ryan stated that the UT3 port for Linux was still in process. On December 16, 2010, Steve Polge announced that the Linux port would never be released, making it the first Unreal Tournament game not to be released on Linux. Although there is no official version for Linux, the Windows version can run on Linux through Wine.
Unreal Tournament 3 is the fourth game in the Unreal Tournament series and the eighth Unreal game, but is numbered in terms of the engine it runs on. The original Unreal Tournament uses the first Unreal Engine, while UT2003 and UT2004 use Unreal Engine 2. Since 2004 incorporates all of the content from 2003, they are regarded as part of the same generation. UT3 is the third generation, as it runs on Unreal Engine 3, and does not reuse any content. In March 2008, Midway announced that UT3 had sold over a million copies worldwide. Similar to the prior entries of the series, the game is primarily an online multiplayer title offering several game modes, including large-scale Warfare, Capture-the-Flag, and Death match. It also includes an extensive offline single-player game with an in-depth story, beginning with a simple tournament ladder and including team members with unique personalities. The following game modes are included:
Deathmatch
Team Deathmatch
Capture the flag
Duel – A one versus one game mode. It uses a queuing system: the winner stays, and the loser goes back to the end of the queue. A typical match lasts fifteen minutes with the winner being the player with most kills.
Warfare – A mix of Onslaught and Assault game modes. While basic game rules are equal to those of Onslaught, Warfare adds countdown nodes (which, after being captured and defended for a certain period of time, create a vehicle or trigger an event helpful to the capturing team) as well as the orb, which can be used to instantly capture and defend nodes.
Vehicle Capture the Flag – Capture the Flag, with vehicles as part of the map; this game mode is distinct from the standard Capture the Flag mode. Also, players are given a hoverboard rather than a translocator.
Betrayal – This game type places freelance players on teams, and when the members of each team kill enemies, the pot for that team grows. Anybody on a team with a pot can betray the rest of the team by shooting them, thus taking the pot, but they must defend themselves from the betrayed teammates for 30 seconds after that, or the teammates receive extra points.
Greed – Greed is a game that (like the UT2004 mod of the same name) focuses on collecting skulls dropped from dead players and capturing them in the opposing team's base. For Greed, the game uses all Capture the Flag and Vehicle Capture the Flag maps.
Modes not returning from the prior Unreal Tournament games include Invasion, Mutant (having been later on partially replaced by the Titan mutator in the UT3 Titan Pack), Onslaught (replaced by Warfare), Bombing Run, Last Man Standing, Domination, Double Domination, and Assault; Assault was removed from the game during production.
Expansion - Unreal: Return to Na Pali
Unreal Mission Pack: Return to Na Pali (also known as Unreal: Return to Na Pali) is a first person shooter video game released by Epic Games and is an extension of the game Unreal. Return to Na Pali was released on May 31, 1999. Both games were sold together as Unreal Gold on August 30, 2001. In this game the player, Prisoner 849, has more weapons to choose from than in the first Unreal. There are also more enemies.
The tour begins on Na Pali with the search for the crashed Prometheus. On this mission, the player is not driven to return to Earth, but leave the planet. Once he/she has found the Prometheus, he himself/she herself is a target. The goal of the game is to escape and find another way to leave the planet.
Unreal Championship (totally not seeing a pattern here)
Unreal Championship is a first-person shooter video game co-developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. It was published by Infogrames and released on November 12, 2002, for the Xbox. Unreal Championship is essentially a console version game of the PC-based Unreal Tournament 2003, developed specifically to take advantage of Xbox Live, Microsoft's online gaming service. In 2003 Unreal Championship was added to Microsoft's "Platinum Hits" line of Xbox games. It was followed in 2005 by Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict also for Xbox. The gamemodes are:
Deathmatch
Team Deathmatch
Capture the flag
Double Domination – In Double Domination both teams must control two points on the map for ten seconds in order to score. A point can be taken by walking into its symbol, A or B. NPCs can be ordered to go to a certain point.
Survival — 1 vs 1 deathmatch with more players than usual. As each round ends, the losing player is made to join a queue of spectators while the winner remains in the game until killed. The winner is the first player to reach a predetermined score.
Bombing Run – Unreal-style football where the player's team must score by placing the ball in the enemy force's goal. The bombing gun regenerates health as the offensive player moves, giving him additional lifespan to reach the enemy goal. Once the enemy goal is reached, the offensive player can run into it to score seven points for their team. Shooting the bomb into the enemy goal earns three points.
Unreal Championship 2
Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict is a first-/third-person shooter video game in the Unreal series of games. It was developed by Epic Games and published by Midway Games for release on the Xbox game console as a direct sequel to the 2002 game Unreal Championship, which itself is an Xbox port of Unreal Tournament 2003. Unreal Championship 2, much more than its predecessor, is designed from the ground up for the Xbox console and takes full advantage of the Xbox Live gaming arena. The game is backwards compatible on the Xbox 360. Unreal Championship 2 began development after Unreal Tournament 2003 was released and a planned sequel was in the works for the PC. Epic Games decided to move the game over to the consoles and became a three game contract between Midway Games and Epic Games. Marketed as a sequel to Unreal Championship even though the original has almost nothing to do with the game itself.
The list of characters can be found
here.
Credit goes to Wikipedia.
