Unreal
Digital Extremes / Epic Megagames

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Unreal has been around for quite some time, Rumour wise that is. For two (almost three) Years Epic have been dropping hints here and there about their Quake beater. I remember seeing that first screen shot of it about two years ago (the one with the little indoor pool). I also remember how Everyone got all excited, 24-bit colour, real-time effects and all the other stuff they mentioned could have been the cause. But then it vanished, Hardly a word was heard about it after that. Other games came, Jedi knight, Hexen 2, Shadow Warrior, Blood, and finally Quake 2. Then after Quake 2 hit the streets the word was out again, new screenshots included and well you know the rest. Well It’s here now and it’s received a (mostly) warm welcome. It has also caused alot of developer questions, what with companies dropping the Quake 2 engine in favour of the Unreal engine. Question is though how is the actual game.

Mucho Eye Candy:

MMMMM, as the Marabou advert goes, this can also be used to describe what unreal looks like, Nice isn’t the word. So now that we have established the general theme I can go on to tell you why it looks so good. To start with the textures are brilliantly detailed, even up close thanks to new textures being loaded. The lighting effects too are brilliant as are the characters and animation. But if you are thinking that it is just because of 3dfx that it looks the way it does, well then you are gravely mistaken. Even in software mode the game still looks lovely, in fact it’s almost exactly like the accelerated mode just not as tidy, and it moves well to. In the option menus you have lots of graphical tweaking options as well, nice for those who like to fiddle.

The levels are lovely too, and vast, definitely the opposite of Quake 2’s little levels and tiny outdoor sections.

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