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Review: Unreal - Part 1

© Dan Finkelstein

Well, here it is. After almost three years of waiting, waiting, and more waiting, Epic Megagames has finally put their finishing touches on their ultimate Quake "Killer", Unreal. This first-person action (ala Quake) game has been in development for so long, many people (myself among them) had begun to hypothesize that Unreal is exactly what it's name says -- Not real.. However, the game is finally out, I have played the entire thing and beaten it, and I can say, without a doubt, that it is the best thing to happen to computer gaming since.. well, since Quake.

Unreal has had a rabid following on the Internet for more than two years. Indeed, it's perhaps the only computer game that has had webpages dedicated to such topics as Unreal level editing and add-ons years before the game even came out! Many of these webpages came and went in the time period it took for Epic to wrap up the game. Many people talked about how Unreal would be one of the many "Quake Killers", but in reality, the only game that ever beat Quake was it's own sequel.

That is, until now...

Like most superb computer games, I feel strange calling Unreal just a "game". Because it seems to be more than that.. The best thing I can equate Unreal to is a ride at Disney World. There is so much detail in this game, and so much ambiance, it's obvious that hundreds upon hundreds of hours of effort and hard work went into making Unreal. It's a horrible cliche, but Unreal is more than a game, it's an experience..

Lots of factors go into making Unreal a near-perfect computer game: First and foremost is the stunning graphics engine. This engine is lightning fast, detailed, and supports special graphics effects that Quake 2 couldn't accomplish, or required 3D acceleration. I'll just put it this way: For the most part, the non-accelerated version of Unreal looks as good as the 3D accelerated version of Quake 2. It's hard to find words to describe 3D accelerated Unreal. I never have used the adjective "beautiful" to describe a computer game, but this particular game truly has earned it. In Unreal, you'll see rolling clouds, colorful sunsets, waterfalls, bright coronas around lanterns, and candle-lit hallways, not to mention strange "volumetric lightning" effects like smog and eery green haze.

However, the graphics engine is just a very small part of what what makes Unreal such a great game. Level design is also top-notch. A new level starts where the other one leaves off. Dozens of huge, well made levels combine various motifs like castles, huge spacecraft, underground sewers, and villages, just to name a few. There is always something new and interesting around the next turn in Unreal, be it a mill, a strange alien object, or, of course, a large monster.

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