Unreal 2: The Awakening Preview

The first thing I think to myself is "Man...he's SHORT."

I am standing in a darkened room, surrounded by computers that are pulsing a technology demo that is showing off the capabilities of the graphics engine that is driving Legend Entertainment's latest project, Unreal 2: The Awakening. There are various members of the press, some of whom I know, most of whom I don't. I make my rounds, greeting, networking, and talking shop - games, naturally. And the Legend staff is there, shaking hands, feeling their chests rise in pride of this technological wonder they have created. And sitting in the center of the room, drinking coffee and eating a bagel, is the creator of Unreal - Cliff Bleszinski. His pink, spiked hair and loud button-down shirt draws all the light in the room to him, as the projection screen at the far end of the room displays the endless, spiraling descent into a game that is so damn good that it can only be described as...well...unreal.

Attack of the greenish Clones.

The mean-looking spider has a rather old-fashioned stylish hairdo... Therefore, he must die! Take that!

The Unreal franchise has become a one-stop source for all FPS enthusiasts with the two next-generation Unreal games - Unreal Tournament 2003 serving the entire multiplayer set, with its highly customizable game arenas to slake the thirst for white-knuckle twitch-based deathmatches and beautiful settings that whiz by under the smoke trails of endless rocket blasts; and now Unreal 2: The Awakening, the next chapter in the Unreal universe delivering a wonderfully engaging single-player adventure that is challenging, interesting and filled with more gorgeous scenery than the law should allow.

When we spoke with the Legend staff, we learned some interesting tidbits of information - specifically that the game's long-time lead designer Mike Verdu (and co-founder of Legend) has left the company to join EA and work on a real-time strategy game for that company, and that Wheel of Time lead developer Glen Dahlgren was filling the void left by Mike's departure. We also were made very painfully aware that there would be NO (zero) Multiplayer in this game. At all. None. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that there wouldn't be a release in an expansion pack of some sort in the future, but for the game's initial release, there is no multiplayer component. We were informed that we happy few would be the first to see this game played outside the Epic and Legend studios. After a quick reflection of our good fortune, we scrambled to find an open machine.

And then...we played.

The game's engine is very much like that of Unreal Tournament 2003, but re-modified for emphasis on single-player gaming. The pace is slower, the textures and scenery are more colorful and rich, the models are higher on the polycount, and the weapons are a whole lot wilder. The game will include the full mod tools that the developers used to create the game's massive levels, which will allow for the mod community to create levels as grand as their imaginations will allow (and Cliff noted these tools will allow for the naked Aida models to be created and released by the mod community in roughly three hours - if that). The engine and development tools are roughly the same as UT2003's, but the differences between the two are such that there will be no native crossover between the two titles.

The systems (provided by Intel) were very high-end - P4, 2.4 Ghz CPU's with 512 MB RAM, with GeForce4 Ti 4600 video cards. But Mark Rein, the technical lead for the game assured us; the recommended hardware for this game is a 1.2Ghz CPU, with 256 RAM and a GeForce3 (or equivalent) video card. The game's engine is scalable to lower-end hardware, and is playable on systems that run at 933 Mhz or less, but the game will run with no problems a 1.2 Ghz system or better.

According to the developers, the game is complete - content wise. The game is being run through the paces to squash any bugs, refine any glaring story errors (one of which I found), and fix any quirks with the engine - for example, the build that we were playing had shadows disabled, so we didn't get to see the game in its full glory - yet. But what we saw was breathtaking.

The storyline is deeply engrossing and complex. The player takes the role of Terran Confederate Authority Marshal John Dalton, a disgraced ex-Marine, who desperately wants to rejoin the service he was discharged from. In his role as Marshal, he patrols what he calls "the ass-end of space" in the Atlantis - his ship that serves as home, headquarters and haven to him and his misfit crew. John's first officer (and resident eye-candy) is Aida. Aida is as intelligent and cynical as she is beautiful. She relays the mission briefings to John and stays in constant contact with him as he goes gallivanting through the galaxy. The ship's engineer and weapons master is Isaac, who wears the scars of his past on his grizzled sleeve. Isaac and Aida don't care for each other much - the reasons for which will be revealed as the story progresses. The last member of the crew is NeBan, an alien pilot who speaks 500 languages, including English...poorly. Together, this intrepid team is dispatched to recover 7 pieces of a highly coveted ancient artifact strewn about the galaxy that (rumor has it), when assembled, makes an incredibly powerful super-weapon. Factions of Skaarj, the Liandri and Izanagi corporations (as well as the TCA) are all vying to collect all 7 pieces to discover its true potential. But who is truly pulling the strings here? The story takes several twists and much is revealed about the crew of the Atlantis in several interludes in between the game's 13 missions.

As one would expect, if it were an Unreal game, it would have to have vivid colors. Legend did not let us down when Scott Dalton and his team went about designing the game's levels. They are expansive, gorgeous and the emphasis is put on detail and intelligent design. (On a side note - the build we played was, according to the team, lacking in the final detailed textures. If that's the case, I can't wait for this one.) The game takes you through some breathtaking scenery with the jungles of Sanctuary, the deserts of Sulferon, the cold steppes of Janus, or the strange, alien landscape of Na Koja Abad (Arabic for "Land of Nowhere"), each with environmental effects that make you sit up and take notice. Half of the fun of getting through the levels is finding out what treats the developers have in store for you in the next world. Here's a teaser: For you Star Wars fans - Ever wonder what fighting inside the Sarlaac Pit (Return of the Jedi) would be like? Go buy Unreal 2 in January and you'll get a good idea.

Is that Earth. We may have missed the right turn.

Only one greenish clone left.

How dare you interrupt my feast!

The game also has an impressive set of sounds as well. The game uses various techniques like ambient music that changes pace as the player enters combat or skulks about, searching for the next battle, as well as impressive environmental sounds that draw you deeper into the action. But what shines here is the writing and voice acting. The characters can be the finest models you've ever seen, but if the voice actors that bring them to life are horrible, it all falls flat. That never happens here. Each character is written well, and the actors chosen to voice them have done their jobs flawlessly. You care about the characters, and want to learn more about them - if the writing and voice acting were not firmly in place, you wouldn't give more than a rat's ass about them. I can't say enough good things about this - after hearing so many piss-poor voice actors shredding what would be otherwise excellent characters, its so refreshing to see it done well.

The weaponry that is available to John through his travels are every bit as inventive and unconventional as you would expect in an Unreal title. Aside from the standard FPS mainstays of the assault rifle, shotgun and pistol (not your standard popgun), the game puts new twists on FPS favorites - the rocket launcher has three distinct modes of fire, and the grenade launcher now has six (count 'em - 6) different flavors of grenades for your pleasure. The smoke grenades are an interesting effect - unlike previous releases of smoke grenades, which just cloud a certain area of the screen, the smoke is made up of actual engine particles which are affected by external effects - like a rocket plowing through a smoke cloud will warp the cloud's shape, or a concussion grenade being detonated next to the cloud will actually push the cloud to another location. This effect has to be seen to be truly appreciated. The flamethrower (which has the best fire effects I've seen since Return to Castle Wolfenstein - better, in fact) can not only light up your enemies' lives, but also can lay down a napalm trap that can be ignited under your enemies' feet. Sweet. And then, there's the Spider Gun. It's a gun that shoots...spiders. This one's my favorite - I'll let you discover its hearty goodness on your own. All in all, the weapons inflict 6 different types of damage (Impact, Explosive, EMP, Toxic, Fire, and Biological), which have different effects on certain enemies. The rag-doll model effects from UT2003 have translated over to the enemy models, so you can knock down your enemies with certain weapons to incapacitate them long enough to finish them off. In certain situations, the game requires you to defend some installations from invasion, sometimes on your own. In order to help with this, there are also automatic turrets and electronic walls that can either block off or funnel enemies in a certain direction to create a kill zone. When all is said and done, the game boasts an impressive and very useful arsenal that is available at the player's fingertips.

So after playing this game for 7 straight hours, we were escorted to a banquet hall, when the developers posed the question to us: What did we, the respected (ha! - Ed.) members of the press think of the game?

We turned to each other, speechless. We had spent the day poring over our monitors, seeking out those little idiosyncrasies of what makes a game great - and finding them. We immersed ourselves once again in the Unreal universe, finding excitement, challenge, and the knowledge that when this game is released in January, this game will not be climbing to the top - it will already be there. We looked at each other - we who express ourselves on paper, rather than with words, and we said....

"The general consensus is: This game rocks. And we're hungry."

I can truly say that Legend has done right by Cliff and Epic, by taking the Unreal franchise to the next level. UT2003 has a stranglehold on the multiplayer realm; while Unreal 2: The Awakening is the best single-player game I've seen since Half-Life and Return to Castle Wolfenstein. For you fans of single-player FPS games, watch out. There's a new 800-lb Gorilla coming. You have been warned.