Unreal 2 Impressions? (1 Viewer)

[Dean Martin]

I see Unreal 2 is out now. Anyone play it? How does it comepare to the last one? (not Unreal Champ, of course but the original)

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

I'm curious about the framerate - the chief complaint with the original Xbox release was a lot hiccups when the going got tough. That aside this sounds like a different game entirely - am I correct in that there is a campaign single player mode as opposed to a more deathmatch orientation?

 

[Dean Martin]

IGN reviewed this one and they gave it a 7.8.

 

[Brian Kleinke]

It's been out for a while, I got it some months ago for $30 or so. I've gotten through a decent number of missions, it runs great on my 2.4 ghz with a ATI Raedon 9200 (sounds right)

If you're looking for a fun first person shooter that's single player and you've got a decent machine I suggest picking it up, I've had a lot of fun.

 

[Brian Kleinke]

Oh and Jay,

It's 100% campaign style, there is no deathmatch at all. Just a bunch of missions you do in order off your ship

If you want deathmatch get Unreal Tournament II

 

[Dean Martin]

Is there a demo of this you can downlaod? At least you can try it that way.

 

[JamesHl]

It's been out on the pc forever, you can get a pc demo at epic's site.

I can't imagine it would be too fun on the xbox, the only thing that was good about it was the eye candy, which I would imagine is somewhat diminished. And maybe that sniping part at the end.

 

[Romier S]

You would be suprised. The Xbox version visually is actually a really well done port from the PC game. The level of detail was maintained and the only apparent reductions were made in some texture resolution and overall reduction in resolution from the PC. Not too mention the framerate is /VERY/ solid.

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

Romier, how well did the control scheme translate?

 

[Romier S]

The control scheme in the game is very simliar to Halo. Anyone that has played that game should have little trouble acclimating themselves to Unreal 2. The enemy movement routines can be a somewhat confusing in that it makes it difficult to aim properly (mostly because they move so erratically) however this shouldn't be a problem after the first hour of play at which point you should be accustomed to taking down some of the smaller and fast moving threats.

The single player game is the very definiton of standard shooter. As I mentioned previously the graphics have survived the translation over to the Xbox suprisingly well but the game really doesn't do much interesting aside from that. The story is there to move you from mission to mission and isn't very interesting overall. One change from the PC game is that you no longer walk about your ship in between missions initiating conversation with your crew. All of the conversations have been condensed into one big cutscene that leads into your next level so anyone that enjoyed that aspect of the PC game is likely to be a little disappointed.

If your going to be buying the game you'll more than likely be doing so for the XMP mode on live which is identical to its PC counterpart. The Xbox version of the game supports 8 players online for a standard room and 12 players on a dedicated Xbox. Borrrowing elements from Wolfenstein the game also allows players to use different classes of characters ranging from a gunner (who can use high powered weapons and can supply ammo for the team) to a medic-type character that can heal and revive allies. The game itself is based around both resource gathering and capture the flag like gameplay. You and your team will need to "hack" spawn points, energy sources, field generators and turret command posts to beat the opposition. Energy allows you to use vehicles and use your artifact retrieval system. The main point of the game is to steal the enemies artifact and take it back to your base. Once you've stolen them all you will win the match. The problem in doing that lies in the enemy stealing back the resources you've already won.

The game runs fairly smooth on Xbox Live and with the correct amount of people can be very fun. There are 4 maps to play around in and they are HUGE. This could pose a bit of a problem since your limited to only 8 players however in the play sessions I've had the action has been pretty sustained and there was very little dead time. Keep in mind the game does not support lobby chat and you can only chat with your team. There is an option to turn Team Chat on or off so that may allows for full on chat but I have not tested it as of yet. Hope that helps those wanting to know a little more about the game.

 

[Dean Martin]

So far, I'm finding the graphics in this game to be a bit drab and there is not enough multi-player online game variations for me.

 

[Romier S]

The first few levels are full of earth tones and undustrial type areas. Lots of browns and such so I'm not suprised to hear that. Once you reach the Lab in the frozen mountains things get much more interesting graphically (lots of neat haze and fire effects).

Doesn't change the single player game from being boring as hell at times though.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Unreal 2 is definately not a game for Deathmatch or capture the flag if you are looking for that get Unreal Tourney. But as a Team based , objective based game it's pretty fun I just have to learn my various roles....

 

[Oliver Kopp]

Can you play through the storymissions in Coop like in Halo and RtCW?

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I believe there is a 2 player splitscreen co-op, I'm not a big fan of splitscreen thou.

 

[Dean Martin]

I'm glad the graphics get more interesting. I was impressed in the initial level where you look out over the land and see the mountains, and water. That looked very good.
I haven't tried the online portion but when I went to the menu I was dissapointed not to find the usual options like DM or CTF.

 

[Leo_P]

I must say I'm a little disappointed in this game so far.:frowning:
The single player campaign is, IMHO, a chore. It's just boring. A main character (a Marshall named Dalton) that I don't care about, enemies with jerky movements and stupid AI and graphics that are OK, but nothing to get crazy over. If I didn't have Xbox Live, I wouldn't even rent this game.
But, if you do go online, XMP is a blast (pun intended). Being able to play as different classes is sweet and an essential part of any winning team. Teamwork is of paramount importance. This game relies on teamwork heavily. There's NO WAY an individual will be able to take on and beat a well-organized team.
The 2 worst things about XMP are: 1) only 4 vs. 4 peer to peer. 4 on 4 just plain sucks. Do yourself a favor and find yourself a good dedicated room, that way you can play 6 vs. 6 which is WAY more fun and challenging. 2) Only one mode of play. It's artifact retrieval mode and thats IT! I can see where this'll get old QUICK! BTW, there's only 4 maps, but I heard a rumor that a few more are on the way.
A couple of other things that bother me are the fact that you can't talk in the lobby(!) and the fact that I kept getting dropped like a bad habit.
All in all, the game is alright (at best), but I feel it could've been better. IMHO, it's not as good a game, or even as "polished" as say, Return to Castle Wolfenstein. But it's a nice change of pace from Rainbow Six 3. I guess I'll play Unreal II until I get bored of it or until something better comes along.

 

[Dan]

I picked the XBOX version up last week, and it's just so-so. It's pretty, but, as stated earlier, the AI is dumb, the enemy movements are so jerky, they look like old-school graphics (I swear, they look super Nintendo graphics), the load times are agonizingly long and seems to happen every few minutes, there are very few enemies (I feel like I spend half the time simply walking through environments), and when they do show up, it's any easy kill with hardly any effects on your health. There's health and shield power aplenty, but no reason to use them.