Apocalypse Then – Unreal II: The Awakening

Even though I did an article on this last year, I only found this out later, so I decided to still along and post this, seeing as it’s better.

On this day, the 3rd of February 2003, Unreal II: The Awakening was released.

The game was developed by the now defunct Legend Entertainment, not Epic, and published by Atari and used the Unreal Engine 2.0. The game saw a release on PC, and the Xbox a year later.

Unreal II, for short, is a FPS title loosely based on the Unreal series. The game bears no real relation to Unreal besides the Skaarj – the iconic enemies from the first game. They are bladed brutes which are reputed to stand eight foot tall, and unlike the first game, some wear armour and come in different colours, but are encountered only occasionally.

Besides this, it’s said that the ending bears some resemblance to the first game. And the company name “Liandri” crops up as well, and there is a glimpse near the beginning of the game which shows you how the Unreal Tournament was formed.

Unlike UT, Unreal II was initially singleplayer only until Unreal II: eXpanded MultiPlayer was released.

In the game you take the part of John Dalton, a former marine and now Marshal with the TCA (Terran Colonial Authority). Basically he’s like a police officer instead of a soldier, and in the game you go from planet to planet to retrieve pieces of an artefact. And along the way he fights different enemies, but also including others, mainly mercenaries or aliens of some sort. You even get to team with others against enemies at some points in the game.

                   Aida: the first officer and prime piece of ass on the ship

But to me the among some of the most interesting parts of the game were aboard the ship, the “Atlantis”, with the other characters, Ne’ban, Isaak, and Aida – the eye candy in the game. You could chat to them, and find out their insecurities as well as information on the game’s locations and weapons that you might not have otherwise have known. You find out that Aida has a strong dislike for Isaak because of a past incident that took place.

[spoiler alert] In fact, I was quite devastated at the end, after becoming attached to these characters, and having to watch them die. [spoiler alert]

Apart from all this, I imagine that the graphics in the game were a major selling point. It might not have been as highly regarded as its predecessor or the Unreal Tournament spin-off series, but it was still quite enjoyable to play, although quite short, linear, and little in the way or replayability, even though I did play it through two or three times years ago.

It wasn’t a bad game, but just kind of unrelated and disconnected in a way, because of its story. It’s still something that hasn’t been rectified to this day seeing as there’s been no Unreal 3 released, since Epic went on to focus on Unreal Tournament and Gears of War titles.

You can pick up Unreal II: The Awakening here if you want to play a classic.

Apocalypse Then – Unreal II: The Awakening

Apocalypse Then: Unreal Tournament 2004

On this day, Unreal Tournament 2004 was released. 

Any plans for an Unreal 3 single-player game were further put to rest.

Apocalypse Then: Unreal Tournament 2004

Games I want: Unreal 3

I was wondering about something the other day, and I decided to investigate a little bit: will there be an Unreal 3?

The answer for the moment seems to be “no”, with no official plans that anyone knows off, and if you Google it, you’ll most likely be inundated with results that show Unreal Tournament 3. Not only this, but on some forums, if you look for Unreal 3 threads, you’ll get some humans, that even after explaining your case, will still assume that you obviously mean Unreal Tournament 3 and not Unreal 3 without the Tournament. They just assume that you must automatically mean that, and that you’re a noob for not including the “T” word in there.

What I mean, and I’m sure others will want to clarify this to other people too, is that I want to see a sequel to Unreal, the first game, or possibly Unreal II: The Awakening.

It’s been years, and it’s a shame that this seems to be the case: that Unreal branched off into another franchise, that being the Unreal Tournament series, and that nobody has even bothered to think about the single-player anymore, with it essentially having just become one of those multi-player games that you find a new release of every other year. Why? Probably because multi-player games are more popular; in fact, I wouldn’t be that surprised if they announced an Unreal MMORPG sooner that an Unreal 3.

What happened to Unreal, the “Quake killer”, the game that “ate Quake II as a snack”? It had an excellent story and the graphics were great for its time. Strangely, I even dreamed of Unreal before I even played it. In the dream I had that ripper weapon that shoots the blades out everywhere and they can bounce off of walls and decapitate enemies. The original game was even left on a cliffhanger when the player was left drifting in space in an escape pod of sorts.

I think a great solution that would satisfy everyone is this: develop Unreal 3 along with an Unreal Tournament 2010 (you know there will be), and released them together. That way, people will buy it for the multi-player game and they can get this other thing called a ‘single-player game’ as well.

One studio could focus on Unreal Tournament 3 and another Unreal 3, so we don’t get any of that, “Oh, the single-player was just an afterthought”- just like Quake 3 or Unreal Tournament.

And just like in the forums, if anyone says, “Yeah, Unreal 3 is out now”, meaning Unreal Tournament 3, I’m going to scream as loudly as possible over the internet at them.

The above image can be found here in full resolution.

Games I want: Unreal 3