Why do you still play Unreal?

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Kerr Avon

Member
Jan 22, 2008
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I'm a huge fan of Unreal Tournament (and it's mods and mutators, such as Soul Harvest, Weapons Factory UT, Unreal Fortress, and a stack of maps, especially Goldeneye conversions, and the brilliant XMaps), but I've not really played Unreal, as for some reason I missed it the first time round. I did buy Unreal Gold some time back, but when I tried Unreal it didn't hold my attention, so I just gave up on it. Anyway, I love modding the Unreal Tournament games (well, UT1 and UT2004, I'm no fan of UT2003 and UT3) and I've always meant to try the single player campaigns for UT1 that I've read about on UT forums, such as 7 Bullets, and Spacial Fear, so I thought I'd try Unreal again.

So I was wondering what it is about Unreal that makes it so popular with fans, even after all this time? Do people still play it, time after time, and do you attempt speed runs, 'handicapped'* runs etc? What do you like about the game, and do you prefer it to more modern games. Personally, I love some older first person shooters, such as Goldeneye, Perfect Dark (my favourite game ever), Duke Nukem 3D, and Doom, and I think that for the past few years especially the first person shooter has been in a rut. The last really good FPS to be released I think was Singularity in 2010 (which sadly very few people played, and I think the official reviews really under-rated it), it's sort of like Bioshock crossed with Half-Life 2, and the few people I know who played it loved it, although like both Bioshock and Half-Life 2, the scripted events that move the story along also contribute to the lack of replayability, as they make the levels more memorable, so you know what's coming next.

Also, what single player campaigns for Unreal Tournament would you recommend? Is there anything I should know, any order I should play them in, etc?

Thanks for any answers.




* 'Handicapped' runs are where, when you replay a game you known inside out, you make up your own rules about how to play the game to make it more difficult for yourself, to give the game extra challenge. Like in Perfect Dark or Goldeneye, where you set the enemies health, speed and damage-to-player settings to maximum, or non-lethal playthroughs of Deus Ex, where you deliberately don't kill anyone (except for the few people who must die, as dictated by the game), or the Thief games, where you 'ghost' the levels (i.e. you don't let anyone see you, or even suspect your presence, at all).
 

NeoNite

Starsstream
Dec 10, 2000
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In a stream of stars
Reason why I love(d) playing Unreal was because you could mess around in it so much. Fire up any level, play it from scratch, add tons of monsters and let them fight it out or change their properties on the fly, build table towers etc. Just get really creative.

Exciting gameplay and the Skaarj used to be a real challenging enemy. (Once you see through their attack/dodging patterns it's game over for them though)


http://www.unrealsp.org/

Custom maps review section:

As for single player UT campaigns, you should definitely try:

- Xidia gold
- Operation Napali
- Deja vu
- Seven bullets
- Project Zephon

Seven bullets stands out from the others, mainlyb because at a given point you'll be facing human enemies aka bots. So keep that in mind. But it's worth playing.

My favourites were Xidia and Onp. Though, I wasn't a great fan of the new gameplay extras. Still, they're great campaigns and you should try them out. ONP is a big campaign, it gets better iirc around map 20 or so. Voice acting in these campaigns isn't really all that. The guy in onp just sounds odd. But that's personal.

As for shorters campaigns try these:

- Skaarjtower shadow and fire.

This is a big one. Long, huge maps filled with dozens and dozens of well placed enemies. Keep in mind that you'll run into lots of unsuspected enemy fire, meaning don't rush through this one. Though I remember this one being more fun in cooperative.

- Peril on mars: Short campaign. Personally I've enjoyed playing this one. Installations and castles iirc. Weak ending though.

-Nak'halinra peak: Maps made by El chico verde, who also made some maps for ONP.
I think he's made some real great looking environments. Big, open maps with lots of fauna and flora, and some nasty skaarj iirc :p

-Napali haven Redux: Bake to Napali haven, and it's undergone quite a transformation. By mister propher. Been a while I played this, but it uses the sp mode style from Xida/ONP iirc. Also adds some modified monsters.

-Ortican: Think this was one of Hourences first sp maps. You're about to invade a huge skaarj ship. Crawl through airducts, run into mighty skaarjtrooper patrols, explore a hydroponics section iirc and ride the lighting etc.

These are all UT campaigns. I enjoyed playing these. I'm a bit out of it, though. So there might be other nice ones on that page.

As for Unreal map/packs I liked:

- Illhaven: Looked really cool back in the day. Interesting gameplay. Plenty of skaarj and krall iirc to overcome. Some modified skaarj monsters. Friendly titans as well...
I preferred the UT coop optimised version.

-Tower of Shra'kita: This is a memorable one. Play it, that's all I can say. Imaginative maps. First map can be really dark, though.

-Strangeworld: About eight maps of exploring skaarj bases and sky cities. Another one you shouldn't skip.

And more:

One day, Hexephet.. and Panic2. Probably the most errrr.... originally looking mod. Total conversion. Now you're fighting the music industry iirc.
 

Kerr Avon

Member
Jan 22, 2008
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Wow, thanks for all the info! I'll definitely try out the maps you mention, but what do you mean by "add tons of monsters and let them fight it out"? Is it like Quake, where you open a console, type ADD [monster name], or is it different? Is there a master list of commands (if that is what you mean)?
 

UBerserker

old EPIC GAMES
Jan 20, 2008
4,798
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The command is called "summon"

summon skaarjwarrior
summon mercenary
summon krall
...
and more
You can summon about everything... decorations, monsters and items. You can see the actor names in the Editor.

Some of them require players to be in Ghost mode (type Ghost in the console; type Walk to return to normal) due to collision problems.

Example:
Try to summon a SkaarjWarrior. Then without being noticed, summon a Mercenary right over him. Enjoy the riot!
 
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Kerr Avon

Member
Jan 22, 2008
198
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The command is called "summon"

summon skaarjwarrior
summon mercenary
summon krall
...
and more
You can summon about everything... decorations, monsters and items. You can see the actor names in the Editor.

Some of them require players to be in Ghost mode (type Ghost in the console; type Walk to return to normal) due to collision problems.

Example:
Try to summon a SkaarjWarrior. Then without being noticed, summon a Mercenary right over him. Enjoy the riot!

I'll try it! I've found a list of cheats at:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/39722-unreal/cheats

but I don't know if it includes all of the available commands.
 

UBerserker

old EPIC GAMES
Jan 20, 2008
4,798
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There are pretty much all of them in that list
Still, be sure to be in Ghost mode when summoning monsters.
 

BashBox

Just a casualty of unreal
Feb 26, 2011
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I have friends That still play the game and are hardcore fans. we usually play once a week , or i even play a few days a week. I dont usally play just vanilla unreal or rtnp , I play on modded out servers or make mods to share and mess around . Its fun,
 
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UBerserker

old EPIC GAMES
Jan 20, 2008
4,798
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I really do recommend Shrakith'a. It's plain amazing. And also Shinigami Pack 1.
 
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Apr 21, 2003
2,274
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Europe
What do you like about the game, and do you prefer it to more modern games.

I love Unreal and it is probably my most played game.
To me Unreal was never just a sci-fi shooter, but more of a survival adventure game. You go and explore ancient temples, ruins and all the fantastic locations. You take a look around, the Sky looks so real and at night you realize you are not on earth, because the night sky is so different on NaPali, there are several suns and you can see the stars clearer than on earth (no light smog on NaPali).
I love the atmosphere in that game, you take a look and see the rocky formations on the horizon, strange (probably giant) animals roaring from afar. The clouds moving fast (higher planetary rotation?). I can almost feel the tropical humidity of NaPali.

Unreal feels both, real and surreal, it is "unreal".

I remember the Sun Spire was a blast, seing the tower in the distance in the previous level, the Kraan crash site, added alot to the depth of the world, like you are really moving through the planet.

I'd love to have a game that is like Unreal (Unreal 3 perhaps), but focusing less on Quake style action gameplay, but the "tomb raiding", exploring the temples again, finding secrets and being immersed in a so realistic, yet strange world. I'd like a more adventeurer movement style, where you can jump and grab ledges and pull yourself up, mantling over things, climb ropes, jump into water, swimm through an underground cave and emerge in a giant well in a ruined temple devoted to an ancient water god who was forgotten aeons ago. Explore the ruins, find out secrets, fix things to set mechanisms to work once more. Unseal gates, awake old creatures, fight through dungeons and all these things.

Yes, I am not a big fan of the technological levels in Unreal, but I like decayed crashed ships resting on a mountain side. It's another form of exploring an ancient ruin.


These are the things I love about Unreal and these things are rare to find in modern games. There is no exploration anymore.
 
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AMmayhem

Mayhem is everywhere
Nov 3, 2001
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There are many reasons for me, some listed above already, but I think put simply: Unreal had (still has in most cases) the best atmosphere in any game. The sights in combination with the sounds. Not sure if I can name any game since that comes close to the ambiance Unreal gives. Anything else I've played may have some general ambient sounds, but it sounds/feels like just filler. You walk by a swamp in Unreal, you'll hear swamp-like critters; walk across some boards hundreds of feet above lave and you'll hear it creaking. Steam, machinery, computers, animals, waterfalls, rivers, you hear it as you come to it; feels like I'm there.

Something like Mass Effect, sure it looks awesome, better graphics than Unreal, but go to a random alien planet and all you hear is wind. Big whoop.
 
Apr 21, 2003
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Yes, the sounds made a large portion of the game. All the insect swarms buzzing around when you walk past a swamp or dead creature, sometimes they begin to swirl around you untill they "lose interest" and move on. Sometimes you hear water splashing near you, you turn around and see a swarm of fishes near the water surface. All these things made the world so unbelievably immediate and immersive. You are really there.

It is funny how you try to sum up all you like about that game and there are still things you forget to mention.
 
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dr.flay

Dr.Flay™
Sep 19, 2011
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I recommend updating your renderers, and installing as large a replacement texture pack as your GFX card can handle.
Then combined with UsAaR33's Oldskool mod (and Unreal), you can play the old Unreal looking like a dream.
If you're feeling brave you can always install ENB bloom, and add bloom, depth-of-field, bump-mapping and more!

As for a good SP mod for UT99, I'd easily recommend "Spatial Fear"
http://www.moddb.com/mods/spatial-fear

For links to the stuff I mentioned at the start, check the essentials list half way down this page.
http://my.opera.com/Unreal-Tournament/blog/dr-flays-links
Then have a look here.
http://www.moddb.com/games/unreal-tournament/mods
 

Arnox

UT99/2004 Mod Crazy
Mar 26, 2009
1,601
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Well, half because my computer can't run UT2004 competently and half because I like the general feel of how UT plays to put it very generally.
 

gopostal

Active Member
Jan 19, 2006
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Where the hell were all you guys when I was running my coop server with all these maps?:lol: I'd have kept it up if I knew anyone cared like this.
 
Apr 21, 2003
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This is for me Unreal. Exoctic temples, rocky formations, palm trees and constantly cloudy sky reflecting various colors.


screenie1.jpg


The screenshot is from a mission pack currently in development.
 

Kerr Avon

Member
Jan 22, 2008
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Thanks for all of the answers, I'm downloading the suggested files now.

Regarding Unreal, one of the reasons I wanted to try it again is that I feel current FPSs are stuck in a rut. I'm no fan of the current trends for graphically great games with no depth or replayability, where the campaign is too short and too easy, where you have re-chargeable health and a weapon carrying limit (I hate limits to the number of weapons you can carry - yes, it's more 'realistic' to only be able to carry two weapons, but it's much less fun, I think), where your allies are immune to your weapons (so you can happily spray your bullets and explosions everywhere without worrying about harming your allies, to me this spoils it as you need less skill to play this way), quick time events (I REALLY hate those), unskippable cutscenes or non-interactive scenes that just remind you it's a game, where there are invisible walls blocking your exploration, endlessly respawning enemies (not always a bad thing, but if it's done badly then it can be very bad indeed), etc. Unreal is old enough to have missed the invention of most of these cliches, so hopefully it won't contain many (or any!) of the things I detest so much about modern day FPS games.
 

Exus Tecius

like diamonds in the sky
Sep 24, 2003
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any new sıngleplayer mappacks/mods released lately guys ?
can be that ı mıssed alot news...beeıng far from unreal/UT nowadays.