What Went Wrong With UNREAL 2's Development?
- Thread starter Vortex Convict
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I agree, evilgrins, that aspects of the game were fun.
By the way, evilgrins, that image is quite funny.
Thanks!
Also, after I beat U2 the first time I played it by summoningg in Skaarj. Instead of fighting the game directly, everytime a new threat popped up I sicked Skaarj on them.
I think the game became dull after a few of those seemingly similar missions. Sure, the environments tended to look cool, but.. the mission itself. Get in there, fight some heavy armored guys or aliens, defend an outpost and protect some scientist.. again. And I never really felt a connection with the characters, despite the heavy dialogue. Flat voice acting for most, tbh. Dodging felt awkward as well.
Overall feel of the game didn't leave a good impression on me. Don't think I'll replay this game. Well, at least not for the first couple of years .. or more. Maybe fire up some map and spawn some monsters for shits and giggles I guess. But that's the thing, the monsters didn't real feel that great either. Some were too irritating (izarian iirc), the skaarj were super beefed up but.. just so different. And those human opponents ...they were very bland.
Only plus points I can come up with are the varied environments, the cool intro, ehmm...
some of the weaponry .. some. Just not my thing this game, I guess.
Overall feel of the game didn't leave a good impression on me. Don't think I'll replay this game. Well, at least not for the first couple of years .. or more. Maybe fire up some map and spawn some monsters for shits and giggles I guess. But that's the thing, the monsters didn't real feel that great either. Some were too irritating (izarian iirc), the skaarj were super beefed up but.. just so different. And those human opponents ...they were very bland.
Only plus points I can come up with are the varied environments, the cool intro, ehmm...
some of the weaponry .. some. Just not my thing this game, I guess.
Izarians would be incredible, better replacements for Krall in U1. Seriously, I am so bored by those moving shooting targets :\
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Lot of things were wrong, many people leaving Legend, Infogrames/Atari taking over and acquiring full rights for Legend. Then the braindamaged decisions of Atari which they thought would make the game acessible to everyone. First scrapping multiplayer and then making the game extremely linear and easy and shorter, so they would be acessible to "dumb" american players. Yes, that was it. That was their marketing trick. With multiplayer games they weren't that terrible but still terrible enough. UT2004 was a sucess but I dislike the game generally, because it was just another money pump for Atari and contained lots of crap and bland content that was just put there for the sake of having more content, a mashup of all sort of things, a chaos. That is why I think UT3 or UT2003 are better games because they were planned for years, unlike the mashup stuff in UT2004 which doesn't make much sense.
I am not trolling, it's what they said basically once, Atari, while presenting the game. Not exactly like this but it meant it. They mentioned american players and that it needs to be linear and easy or some BS.
I hope you did not just say UT2003 was better than UT2004.
You understand that UT2004 was only 40$ to start and you got 10$ back if you owned UT2003 rite?
30$ for about double the content I think is a fair deal, especially considering all the mods. I basically had 10 extra games in the form of mods.
You understand that UT2004 was only 40$ to start and you got 10$ back if you owned UT2003 rite?
30$ for about double the content I think is a fair deal, especially considering all the mods. I basically had 10 extra games in the form of mods.
UT2k3 is better in some ways than UT2k4.
Personally.
Better weapon switch speed, great UI (probably the best UI of all the Unreal titles IMO), and the gameplay felt overall better... more fun? Yes, it was.
Also I didn't like almost anything that UT2k4 added, mainly Onslaught and vehiclols.
Not saying that UT2k3 was anything special, of course...
Personally.
Better weapon switch speed, great UI (probably the best UI of all the Unreal titles IMO), and the gameplay felt overall better... more fun? Yes, it was.
Also I didn't like almost anything that UT2k4 added, mainly Onslaught and vehiclols.
Not saying that UT2k3 was anything special, of course...
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Yes I did, just as Uberserker said, these were the reasons why I preferd UT2003 over that. UT2004 addon content like Onslaught was planned as mod for UT2003, so psyonix and streamline studios worked on that, streamline studios having much less influence though.
But the new models were crap, at least you could switch to old ones mostly. The skaarj were pathetic too, even not using the alien voice by default which was made for gen mo kai originally, thankfuly there was voicepack made which allowed its use, but still. It felt stretched out, all the new dm maps looking same too, the gameplay was bland and slower than UT2003 due to different air control and jump etc, also weapon damage was changed etc.
I didn't like UT2k4 that much period. The level scale was godawful and made every level feel like you were in a Rats version of a regular level, the over-reliance on hitscan weapons made every match a dull Shock Rifle/Minigun/Lightning Gun festival instead of the orgy of chaos that UT99 (and UT3 to an extent) is, the bots felt dumber at times and they didn't really adjust their AI for UT2kx's scale and reliance on hitscan weapons, and all of the cool modes were all dead because of Onslaught, which people treated more like Vehicle DM than what it was supposed to be (not saying that Vehicle DM is bad, but you get the point). I prefer UT99 and UT3 anyday over it.
Mind you there are some old screenshots hidden within Unreal 2 files, too. One of them is even briefly seen in the Ne'Ban freakout showcase. Another old screenshot is found within texture files in one of the older atlantis textures on a computer terminal...if you scale it up you'll get an old screenshot in a dimly lit corridor with player having an equipped unknown weapon, its model can be found in the unreal 2 e3 alpha files though, untextured. Though this is from before that alpha.
To me, many of the game's problems stemmed from the fact that it was just not Unreal. It was almost as though they were developing a sci-fi RPG/FPS mashup and decided to license the name, threw in a few familiar beasts and called it a day.
Unreal was special to me because of the mix of mystery, exploration and isolation. Unreal 2 had none of that.
Unreal was special to me because of the mix of mystery, exploration and isolation. Unreal 2 had none of that.
You're replying to a 2018 post with just that? OK. Well I'll tell you what I believe in....
SHIT HAPPENS.
That's the reason there anything went wrong. But in all seriousness? Unreal 2 is a great game, especially now after seeing and comparing other games in developement at the time. It was ahead of time in graphics it had polish, it just wasn't ready for its scope so they made the game into like a novie experience more-like. But it's just the quality of the models and textures, it's so much better than other titles, even Epic's Unreal Warfare couldn't compare and it had way too less polish, I've seen a 2003 demo of Unreal Warfare, I mean actually running game and it was a broken mess that was almost as bad as Sonic '0fucking6.
There, I said it.
SHIT HAPPENS.
That's the reason there anything went wrong. But in all seriousness? Unreal 2 is a great game, especially now after seeing and comparing other games in developement at the time. It was ahead of time in graphics it had polish, it just wasn't ready for its scope so they made the game into like a novie experience more-like. But it's just the quality of the models and textures, it's so much better than other titles, even Epic's Unreal Warfare couldn't compare and it had way too less polish, I've seen a 2003 demo of Unreal Warfare, I mean actually running game and it was a broken mess that was almost as bad as Sonic '0fucking6.
There, I said it.