Unreal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Unreal | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Developer(s) | Epic Games, Digital Extremes |
| Publisher(s) | GT Interactive |
| Designer(s) | Cliff Bleszinski, James Schmalz |
| Engine | Unreal Engine 1.0 |
| Latest version | 226f |
| Release date(s) | May 22, 1998 |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ELSPA: 15+ ESRB: Mature (M) |
| Platform(s) | Mac OS, Microsoft Windows |
| Media | CD-ROM |
| System requirements | Windows: Pentium 166 MHz, 16 MB RAM, Windows 95/98/NT, 1 MB video card, sound card, CD-ROM drive, 100 MB hard disk space. |
Unreal is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Epic Games and published by GT Interactive (now owned by Atari) on May 22, 1998. It was powered by an original gameplay and computer engine that now bears the game's name, one that had been in development for over three years in founder Tim Sweeney's garage before the game was released. Since the release of Unreal, the franchise has had one sequel and two different series based on the Unreal universe.
Unreal Mission Pack I: Return to Na Pali was released on May 31, 1999, and added new missions to the single player campaign of Unreal. Unreal and Unreal Mission Pack I: Return to Na Pali would later be repackaged as Unreal Gold. On August 30, 2001, Unreal was bundled again as Totally Unreal featuring the contents of Unreal Gold and Unreal Tournament that contained the mission pack and some bonus content.
Unreal has been most recently included in the Unreal Anthology. This collections contains Unreal Gold, Unreal Tournament, Unreal 2, and Unreal Tournament 2004.
Contents |
[edit] Premise
The player takes on the part of a criminal (Prisoner 849) aboard the prison spacecraft Vortex Rikers, designated NC114-85EKLS, which has crash-landed on the lip of a canyon on the planet Na Pali. The natives of this planet, the four-armed, pacifist Nali, have been subjugated by a collection or alliance of alien races in thrall to the Skaarj Empire. When the Vortex Rikers crash lands, Skaarj board the downed prison ship, killing all survivors that could be found. Since almost everyone on the prison decks is killed upon impact or soon after, the player is presumed to be marooned on an unknown planet. The primary goal of the game is to locate and destroy the Skaarj mothership and escape the planet.
Unreal features a broad range of settings and artwork. In the course of the game the player explores the Nali Iron Age culture, a crashed research vessel (the ISV-Kran), the dizzyingly tall Sunspire, a floating city, Nali castles and villages, Skaarj bases, and ultimately the Skaarj mothership. Several Nali documents refer to a messiah who will deliver the Nali from the Skaarj, with the implication that the player is that messiah.
Two novels, titled Hard Crash and Prophet's Power respectively, were published that expanded on the premise and story first introduced in Unreal.
[edit] Original storyline
The game begins with the player waking up inside their prison cell on the ship Vortex Rikers, badly wounded. The chaos around them suggests that there's been a prison break, however as the player reaches the bridge they learn that the prison ship was caught up in the gravity field of a strange uncharted planet. Whilst on the ship, the player often catches glimpses of a large reptilian-like creature. At one point a battle between some survivors and this creature occurs behind a door - the player can only hear what's happening, however the door soon raises to reveal a scene of chaos as the monster runs down the corridor. It is here that the player finds their first weapon, a Dispersion Pistol. Eventually the player finds the exit to the ship, and steps out onto the surface of the planet in what is widely considered one of the most memorable scenes in FPS gaming.
As the player travels further in the game, they soon learn that the monster they saw on the ship was from a malignant alien race called the Skaarj. Also having crash landed on this planet like the player, they have enslaved and killed many of the planet's peaceful inhabitants, a four armed race called the Nali. The Nali are a deeply religious group, and utilise technology similar to our Dark Ages. However, the level Dark Arena suggests that the Nali were not always a peaceful race. They worship a number of Gods, such as Chizra being the Nali Water god, and Vandora being the God of Thunder.
Also evident around the planet is a strange crystal called 'Tarydium' which is the cause of the gravity field around the planet. It appears to generate power and so the Skaarj have built mines to extract it.
After travelling through the Raijigar mines and then the Temple of Chizra, the player reaches the Dark Arena. Nali have been crucified around the area, and screams can be heard from inside. After fighting off numerous Skaarj, the player comes face to face with a Titan, a behemoth of a creature who can shake the ground, sending the player flying. It can also hurl large boulders at the player which do tremendous damage. Eventually the Titan is slain and the way forward is revealed, leading to a small village complete with a church and cemetery.
The player encounters a crashed spaceship called the Terraniux belonging to another alien race who are simply referred to as Mercenaries, and are hostile to both Skaarj and the player. After navigating the maze that is the Terraniux, the player finds an exit. A large temple built for the Nali Goddess Vandora appears to be the only way forward. Eventually the player reaches a Human crashed spaceship called the ISV-Kran. Its crash gouged a large portion of land out resulting in a trench being formed. Any hopes of finding live humans inside are shattered when the player sees a corpse in the airlock along with a translator log about the Skaarj invasion, along with information on how to exit the ship. After struggling through, the player arrives at the Spire Village - a small town at the base of the Sunspire, a colossal structure visible practically everywhere on the player's journey. The Spire itself is no less contaminated by the vicious Skaarj and other creatures, and only a few Nali remain there. As the player steps onto the Bridge leading to the Sunspire, a poor Nali plummets past from the top of the tower to the lava below. After struggling to reach the top, a 'Tarydium' crystal beacon signals a strange box from the skies to which the player enters.
The player then arrives at the Skycities - a chain of beautiful islands floating in the sky. Despite being called a Haven, this place is no longer safe as the player sees a Nali being forced to walk the plank by some Krall, a strange creature who utilizes a energy firing staff. It appears that these creatures are also slaves of the Skaarj. After entering the City above, the player soon discovers that the Skaarj have the town under occupation, and have built a base inside the nearby mountain. Taking a teleporter built inside of it, the player arrives at a strange ring of stones, and soon battles a monsterous Stone Titan who is far more durable than the regular Titan. After defeating this creature, the player moves on to the Nali Monastery, Bluff Eversmoking. The suffering of the Nali due to the Skaarj is more present here than ever, as numerous Nali can be seen at the top of the surrounding cliff walls crucified. After battling his way past the Skaarj here, the player passes through a Cellar system, and eventually reaches a river system where they take a peaceful yet brief boat ride to the Nali Castle. Again, this location is under occupation by the Skaarj, as well as a large 'Gasbag' creature in the Castle's main tower. At the base of the Castle lies a dungeon with a few torture devices as well as a guilotine and the exit of the castle. In a Hellish cave the player does battle with a Skaarj Warlord - a large demon-like creature with wings and a large rocket launcher. Before the final blow can be struck the creature suddenly teleports away, and a beam leading to the exit moves into position. The player takes a lift up into a warehouse type facility, where they eventually reach the Control room for a Teleporter. Outside of a Window they see an incredibly large spaceship, bigger than all the ones before, in the base of a crater named Demon Crater - The Skaarj Mothership.
The Mothership itself proves to be a vast labyrinth, with large numbers of Skaarj patrolling at all times. After finding a huge reactor, the player does battle with the Skaarj Warlod once more and emerges victorius, and promptly destroys the Ship's reactor, plunging it in darkness. After navigating the ship in the dark, the player arrives at 'The Source' - A vast chamber with only one entrance, seemingly guarded by a large number of Pupae. Inside the player comes face to face with the Skaarj Queen, and the two fight in the bowels of the ship. After the Queen is defeated, the entire ship begins to shake, and the player jumps into an escape pod. Although they managed to escape the ship and the planet's atmosphere, the ship's entire fuel supply is consumed and the player is left floating in space. The Story contines in the expansion pack 'Return to Na Pali'
[edit] Expansion Storyline
The story picks up not long after Unreal's ending; the player is picked up by a large Human Warship titled UMS Bodega Bay. Upon learning of the player's identity as Prisoner 849, the player is given the choice of returning to Na Pali as part of operation 'Talon Hunter' to locate the downed UMS ship Prometheus, locate a secret weapons log and activate the ship's ELT Transmitter, or to get a one-way trip out of the ship's airlock without a spacesuit.
The player is dropped off in a remote facility along with some basic equipment, most notably a self-recharging scuba gear kit. After traversing a small section of the planet, the Player comes across an old Nali well that has been dried up. Filling the well up again, the player takes a boat ride similar to the one on their last visit to the Planet, and winds up at the Nali Village of Glathriel. Not only is the village under Skaarj rule, but many people have been killed due to the supply runs carried out by the Bodega Bay. There is also a 'Spinner' infestation, which appear to be small spiderlike creatures. Soon the player catches sight of the UMS Prometheus, a colossal miltary spaceship.
Upon arriving at the only entrance available, the player is attacked by a group of Mercenaries - it becomes apparent that they are salvaging any useful supplies from this ship for themselves. Upon locating a way deep inside the ship, the player retrieves the weapons log, but hears a transmission from the UMS Bodega Bay. The Player is to be terminated due to the fact this assignment is 'Deep Ultra' classified. The player reaches the bridge, activates the ELT transmitter, and does battle with a platoon of Marines. After a hard battle, the player manages to escape into a nearby mine system where they emerge at the Spire valley, which is located right next to the Sunspire.
After battling a group of Titans, they arrive at Nagomi passage. A large facility lies to the east, however it is locked down and the creature holding the key is nowhere to be seen, and so the player must instead go through Velora Temple. Upon navigating the trap-ladden temple, the player finds an exit and realises they've traveled in circles - however the creature 'guarding' the facility is now present. Upon killing it and getting the key, the Player then travels through a large Tarydium plant, as well as a foundry. Eventually the player reaches the upper arctic regions of Na Pali, where they find a large building surrounded by a large abyss, the bottom of which is not visible. Traversing a slippy path, the player fights all opposition before them, and activates a teleporter inside the building.
This teleporter takes them to another Nali Castle, where they learn of a small spacecraft ready to take off. After defeating numerous Krall and another Skaarj Warlod, the player finally leaves the planet once again. However, the UMS Bodega Bay is waiting, and after the player fails to identify themselves, fires a seeking missile. The player's small scoutship out maneuvres the missile, and manages to lead the missle straight back into the UMS Bodega Bay. As the large ship suffers extensive damage, the player flies away into Space.
[edit] Creatures
There are many creatures throughout Unreal. They are either friendly, such as the Nali, or enemies, such as the Krall or Brutes. There are also a wide variety of enemy Skaarj units such as assassins, lords, and scouts. Additionally, there is also wildlife scattered in Na Pali such as Nali Cows or rabbits. Also, there are carnivorous monsters which attempt to kill the player but are unaffiliated with any league such as the devilfish, cave manta, and "blob".
[edit] Weapons
|
|
|
Dispersion Pistol - The player's first weapon, the Dispersion Pistol is a slow energy based weapon that fires weak blasts of energy. Its alternate fire mode is a Charged shot which does more damage. The Dispersion Pistol has infinite ammo which recharges over time. It can also be upgraded with Canisters that increase the weapon's power and how much ammo it uses per shot, up to 4 times.
Automag - A accurate Pistol weapon that the player acquires early on. It does more damage than the Dispersion Pistol, and has a magazine of 20 bullets. Its alternate fire mode fires the gun sideways, which is faster but is also far less accurate.
Stinger - A rapid-fire weapon which shoots small Tarydium crystals at high speeds. Although faster enemies can dodge the attacks, it is useful for wearing down large enemies. Alternate fire shoots a spread of crystals at a slower rate, in a Shotgun style attack.
ASMD - An instant-hit energy weapon. Although its primary fire is relatively weak, it is effective at pushing enemies back and can give the player breathing room. Its secondary attack mode fires a slow ball of Energy which deals more damage. The ASMD also has a third combo mode of fire - if the secondary mode ball is shot alongside with the Primary beam, the combination explodes with a powerful blast. This consumes some ammo, however it is very effective and does high damage. This attack combo is known as the shock combo.
Eightball Gun - A six barreled Rocket launcher which can also double as a Grenade launcher. By pressing and holding the Primary attack button, the gun loads up to six rockets and fires them in a line, making it very hard to dodge and avoid damage. By clicking the Right mouse button whilst holding the Primary, the gun fires them in a tight pack instead of a line - this attack mode is useful against large enemies. By holding the Secondary attack button, the gun again loads up to six rockets - however they are fired as grenades which bounce several times before exploding. Enemies often don't dodge against grenade attacks which makes this mode useful for taking out large, fast enemy such as Skaarj.
Flak cannon - A powerful weapon which shoots out a spread of shrapnel, in a way similar to a shotgun. Up close, it deals tremendous damage and also reduces the enemy's chance of avoiding the attack. The Secondary attack mode lobs an entire shell which also does very high damage. Using a combination of these attacks, it's possible to take out most enemies in very little time.
Razorjack - A Skaarj weapon in origin, and fires small spinning blades. Although the damage they do is not very high on its own, the weapon does more damage on headshots, is capable of decapitating foes, and can also be fired quite fast. The blades richochet and can be bounced around corners. Its alternate fire mode tilts the weapon to the side and fires the blades slower. However, the player can aim projectiles fired in this manner by turning their screen, however its turning speed is very slow.
GES Biorifle - The GES Biorifle fires small blobs of sludge which deal considerable damage, and also stick to surfaces. The alternate firemode charges the weapon up and fires a much larger blob which deals very high damage. On contact with a surface it explodes into many little blobs.
Rifle - The Rifle basically serves as a high powered Sniper. It comes equipped with a zoomable scope that is activated by clicking or holding the secondary attack button. The weapon does much more damage with headshots.
Minigun - The Minigun shares the same ammo as the Automag but does less damage, and fires bullets at high speeds with relatively low accuracy. Secondary attack fires much faster, but at a detrimental cost to accuracy.
Combat Assault rifle - The CAR is a very fast firing weapon comparable to the Minigun, although less powerful. Secondary fire mode is a Shotgun style blast similar to the Stinger. (Expansion only)
Grenade launcher - The Grenade launcher launches a grenade more powerful than the Eightball that bounces around and explodes. It explodes instantly if it hits an enemy or creature. Secondary fire launches a similar grenade, however upon clicking the Secondary fire button again this grenade explodes. If combined with the primary fire mode it can do considerable damage. (Expansion only)
Rocket Launcher - The Rocket launcher launches fast rockets which do more damage than an individual Eightball rocket. Secondary fire launches a rocket that can be guided by looking around. (Expansion only)
The Unreal and Unreal Tournament series have been notable in introducing novel weapon concepts, its arsenals relatively different from FPS at the time - rather than having a basic set of weapons such as Pistols, Shotguns, or Machine guns, Players could utilize weapons that fired alien material such as crystal Tarydium, Sludge, and even Ripper blades. When using the ASMD, the player can detonate the secondary fire energy ball by shooting it with the weapon's primary fire. This creates a purple shockwave, causing heavy damage to any opponent nearby. This combo attack is now a staple feature of the shock rifle in the Unreal Tournament series.
When shooting rockets with the Eightball, if the player holds down the secondary fire button as well as primary fire, the rockets are launched in a small area as opposed to being spread out. The Dispersion Pistol has several upgrades available. The upgrades are in the form of white capsules hovering above the ground, and once picked up, transform the pistol. When fully upgraded, the pistol's secondary fire does an incredible amount of damage.
[edit] Cut material
Originally Unreal was going to be a Quake style shooter - earlier screens showed a large status bar similar to Doom and Quake's, and the Weapon models were centered in the middle. The main character was also going to be a woman, however in the final version the main character's gender is never specified, although the player can choose to play as a male or a female. The storyline was essentially the same.
One of the weapons shown in early screenshots is the 'Quadshot' - a four barreled shotgun. It still remains in the final version, however there is no weapon model for it. Another weapon shown was a different pistol, however this may of just been an early version of the automag. Also worth noting is that the rifle could fire 3 shots at once. Many of the enemies in the early versions are present in the current version, their models have been updated. One monster that didn't make it was a Dragon type creature.
As progress moved on, many levels were cut from development. However a few levels reappeared in the 'Return to Na Pali' expansion pack.
[edit] Reception
Upon release, Unreal was praised for not only for its graphics and environments, but also for above-average AI and gameplay. Enemies would dodge out of the way of projectiles, and pose a competent threat as well. Headshots would do more damage as well, and the player could even decapitate enemies with weapons such as the Ripper and the Sniper rifle. The planet of Na Pali was rich in atmosphere compared to many other FPS out at the time - outdoor levels were populated by many small creatures and birds, who did not attack the player. Its engine was considered revolutionary at the time, boasting huge environments and colourful lighting available in software as well as hardware-accelerated mode.
[edit] Competition with Quake series
The Unreal game engine was seen as a major rival to id Software's Quake engine, and the Unreal game itself was considered to be technically superior to Quake II, which was out on the market at the same time. Since Unreal came packaged with its own scripting language called UnrealScript, it soon developed a large community on the Internet which was able to add new mods (short for "modifications") in order to change or enhance gameplay. This feature greatly added to the overall longevity of the product and provided an incentive for new development. A map editor and overall complete modification program called UnrealEd also came with the package.
Epic Games has encouraged its community to contribute to creating modifications through sponsoring big dollar contests, including one for Unreal Tournament for $150,000 in cash and prizes, and another for Unreal Tournament: 2004 for $1,000,000 in cash and prizes.
The all-new Unreal engine provided a plethora of possibilities to third-party content producers.
[edit] Graphics
Unreal is known for boosting the expectations of 3D graphics considerably. Compared to its peers in the genre, such as Quake II, Unreal brought to life not only highly-detailed indoor environments, but also easily the most impressive outdoor landscapes ever seen.[1] This graphical splendor brought with it the side effect of requiring powerful hardware to run the game fast enough to enjoy. The minimum requirements stated that a Pentium 166 MHz with a mere 16 MB RAM and no 3D accelerator would be capable of running the game. This was not realistic, however, and many gamers were very disappointed when they tried to play the game with such a system.[2]
The Unreal engine brought a host of graphical improvements, including colored lighting. Although Unreal is not the first major release with colored lighting (see Quake II), it is the first to have a software renderer as feature rich as the hardware renderers of the time, including colored lighting and even a limited form of texture filtering referred to by programmer Tim Sweeney as an ordered "texture coordinate space" dither.[3] Early pre-release versions of Unreal were based entirely around software rendering. SIMD technology is integral to allowing the software audio and 3D graphics engines to perform as well as they do. Unreal uses several SIMD technologies, including AMD's 3DNow! along with Intel's MMX and SSE (known as "KNI" within Unreal).
Unreal was one of the first games to utilize detail texturing. This type of multiple texturing enhances the surfaces of objects with a second texture that shows material detail. When the player stands within a small distance from most surfaces, the detail texture will fade in and make the surface appear much more complex (high-resolution) instead of becoming increasingly blurry.[4] Notable surfaces with these special detail textures included computer monitors and pitted metal surfaces aboard the prison ship, and golden metal doors and stone surfaces within Nali temples. This extra texture layer was not applied to character models. The resulting simulation of material detail on game objects was intended to aid the player's suspension of disbelief. For many years after Unreal's release (and Unreal Tournament's release), detail texturing only worked well with the Glide renderer. It was, in fact, disabled in the Direct3D renderer by default (but could be re-enabled in the Unreal.ini file) due to performance and quality issues caused by the driver and present even on hardware many times more powerful than the original 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics.
Because of Unreal's long development time, the course of development occurred during the emergence and rapid progression of hardware 3D accelerators. So, along with the advanced software 3D renderer, Unreal was built to take advantage of the 3Dfx Glide API, which emerged as the dominant interface towards the end of the game's development. When Unreal was finally released, Microsoft's Direct3D API was growing almost exponentially in popularity and Epic was fairly quick to develop a renderer for their game engine. However, the Direct3D renderer, released initially to support the new Matrox G200, was less capable and slower than the Glide support, especially in the beginning when it was unstable, slow, and had many graphics quality issues.[5] The Glide renderer's superiority can be seen in a review of the 3dfx Voodoo 5, where it outperformed every other card in Unreal Tournament (same engine as Unreal), due to its native Glide support. Even video cards which consistently defeated the Voodoo 5 5500 in other games could not win against Glide's greater efficiency.[6] Unreal also had limited official OpenGL support, but its compatibility was very limited, due to poor OpenGL client drivers from most hardware vendors at the time and Epic's resulting disinterest in furthering development. OpenGL could perform better in some rare situations, but Glide and Direct3D were usually the APIs of choice.
Later in 2004 and onward, OpenGL drivers developed by independent programmers and offered for free online began to supersede the official drivers for speed and quality. Perhaps the best of these releases was Chris Donhal's enhanced OpenGL renderer for Unreal Tournament, available for Unreal at OldUnreal.Com, which enabled native support for anti-aliasing, advanced multi-texturing including single-pass detail texturing, and hardware T&L, amongst a selection of other advanced and experimental features.
[edit] Sound effects
Unreal's "Galaxy" audio system is highly optimized for speed and quality, utilizing Intel's MMX extensively. It manages both music and sound effects. For sound effects it uses uncompressed waveforms in 8-bit or 16-bit monaural format. The engine is capable of playing back at all common sample rates but is set by default to 22 kHz playback to reduce CPU load on computers available at the time of release. One can change the unreal.ini file's sample rate setting to 44.1 kHz ("44100" in the file) and receive a boost in quality for both music and effects.
Galaxy supports rudimentary software-based 3D audio positioning as well as hardware 3D sound support (although this is quite buggy.) In software mode, sounds are only stereo-panned. Phase shifting and band-pass filtering are used to imitate changes in position and distance. The sound system is limited to mixing and playing back a maximum of 64 channels, but the default is 16 channels because of CPU power limitations. This option is also user configurable within the unreal.ini file.
In hardware 3D audio mode, the engine is designed to support sound cards with hardware 3D audio mixing and positioning capabilities. At the time of release this included primarily the Aureal Vortex line of audio cards. In this mode, the sound card takes over sound placement with the game providing only positional information to the hardware. If the game uses more channels than the sound card supports, then the extra channels will be run on the game's software engine; this can cause sound consistency problems.
If the processor Unreal is running on lacks MMX support (i.e. a Pentium Pro), then the game will automatically reduce sound quality to low. Quality can be turned back up to full, but the audio engine is less efficient without MMX support. On non-MMX machines, the sound code does make some quality and speed trade-offs by limiting sound effects to having only 64 volume levels. We can hear this limitation by setting up an ambient sound effect with a high radius in an otherwise quiet area; the discrete steps between volume levels are quite audible. Epic also noted nearly a twofold speed boost with MMX code.[7]
The sound system supports both the legacy WinMM sound system, and DirectSound. DirectSound generally achieves the lowest latency, while WinMM works on Windows 95 without DirectSound or Windows NT 4.0 machines.
[edit] Music
While many game companies went from FM synthesis or General MIDI in the early 1990s to CD audio and pre-rendered audio, many of the Epic games were unique in their use of module music, composed with a tracker, which used stored PCM sound effects sequenced together to produce music. Epic had been using this technology for other games such as Jazz Jackrabbit and One Must Fall 2097 which allowed relatively rich music to be stored in files usually smaller than one megabyte. Naturally, this technology allowed easy implementation of dynamic music for mood changes in Unreal. The Unreal soundtrack was written by MOD music authors Alexander Brandon and Michiel van den Bos with a few select tracks by Dan Gardopée and Andrew Sega. Alex Brandon and Michiel van den Bos were also responsible for the soundtracks for Unreal Tournament and Deus Ex, which also use the Unreal Engine; Michiel van den Bos also produced the soundtrack for Age of Wonders.
Unreal's music engine also supports CD audio tracks.
[edit] Map editing
Unreal's method of creating maps differs in major ways from that of Quake. The bundled UnrealEd map editor uses the Unreal engine to accurately render the exact scene, as opposed to external editors like Worldcraft attempting to recreate it with different methods. Whereas Quake maps are compiled from a variety of different components, Unreal maps are inherently editable on the fly. This allows anybody to edit any map that is created, including the originals from the developers. Though UnrealEd loads quite a bit slower than most map editors, it runs maps smoothly and swiftly: hitting rebuild automatically finalizes the level within minutes (or even within seconds, on a modern day computer), as opposed to the hours or (at the time) even days with a full Quake map compile.
In addition, Unreal starts with a completely solid world in which the user extract areas with primitives instead of starting with a void and building rooms by adding primitive shapes to fill it. Many map designers believe that this eliminates the tedium of matching up separate walls, floors and ceilings.
[edit] Updates
Epic continued supporting Unreal with patches and map packs for a short duration of time. A large amount of downloads are available on OldUnreal, including maps, patches, mods, media and an unofficial 227 update is currently being developed by the administrators at OldUnreal.
[edit] Gametypes (BotMatch and MultiPlayer)
The following mentioned here are called "GameTypes", which are special modes in a video game that offer different ways to play the same game other than its main story mode. Multiplayer is the main reason a game has more than one of these GameTypes. Botmatch is an offline way to play a GameType if a player cannot find a server to suit his or her needs or has no Internet access at all. Instead, the player may choose to play a GameType with or against skilled computer controlled players called "Bots". The GameTypes that are included in Unreal are as follows:
- Single Player
This is the main quest in Unreal. The player plays as Prisoner 849, and must escape from Na Pali.
- Coop Game
This is the same as Single Player, only it is optimized for play on a network game with other human players. Bots are said to be not supported, however this can be corrected by opening the console with the Tab button and entering 'admin set gameinfo bteamgame true' without quotes. The result is bots will no longer attack players regardless of their actions, but will not attack monsters unless they pose some kind of threat to them, a player, or another bot.
- DeathMatch
The object of this GameType is to kill other players, human or bot, as many times as possible. A predetermined score limit is usually set, followed by a time limit.
- Team Game
This has the same principal as DeathMatch, only players are divided into two, three, or four opposing teams. The team that gets to the score limit first wins. If a time limit has been chosen then the team with the highest shore when the time limit has been reached wins.
- King of the Hill
This is the same as DeathMatch, but one player is selected to be the "King of the Hill" and will have a red aura. Whoever kills this player becomes the next "King of the Hill". There is no King of the Hill tab in the game's default server browser. King of the Kill games must be found by either going to the Populated or All Servers tabs or by downloading a third-party server browser that adds a King of the Hill game tab along with numerous others.
- DarkMatch
Same thing as DeathMatch, only all players carry a searchlight, and it is played in DK (DarkMatch) maps, which have almost no lighting. Only one DK map was included in the game and no others were officially released subsequently, though custom DK maps can be downloaded from various Unreal sites.
[edit] Unreal as a modification for Unreal Tournament
There was no Unreal version for Linux but Unreal Tournament is available for Linux and able to play Unreal as a modification.
[edit] References
- ^ Shamma, Tahsin. Review of Unreal, Gamespot.com, June 10, 1998.
- ^ what are the minimum sys requirement for unreal? on Usenet, April 1999.
- ^ Yong, Li Sheng. Texturing As In Unreal, flipcode.com, July 10, 2000.
- ^ 6.20 Detail Textures, OpenGL.org, August 6, 1999.
- ^ MATROX OFFERS SNEAK-PEAK AT UNREAL DIRECT3D®PATCH, Epic MegaGames Inc., September 24, 1998.
- ^ Witheiler, Matthew. 3dfx Voodoo 5 5500 PCI, Anandtech.com, August 4, 2000.
- ^ Sweeney, Tim.Unreal Audio Subsystem, Epic MegaGames Inc., July 21, 1999.
[edit] External links
- Linux installers for Unreal, Unreal Mission Pack I: Return to Na Pali and Unreal Gold requiring Unreal Tournament.
- Gamespot's Blinded by Reality: The True Story Behind the Making of Unreal
- Old Unreal site with many useful downloads for and information about Unreal, including graphical enhancers and better audio/video renderers.
- Unrealsp.org The main site for new Unreal (and UT) SP projects, articles and interviews. It also includes a walkthrough for Unreal and its expansion.
- The Unreal Wiki @ Beyondunreal.com
- The Unreal Wiki
