Hey fellow gog'ers. I wanted to try something new for a while now and I just finished the amazing Unreal (and it's expansion) and figured i might as wel start Unreal 2 and this topic.

The goal of this topic is to create a discussion about the entire game. I will play a mission and report in this topic what i liked and didn't like. I will try to keep it short because it's not a review or a blog, but sort of a starting point for a discussion. Do you agree or disagree? What are your experiences/ memories of this game? Did you love or hate this level and why,...

I just completed the tutorial and i plan to do the first real mission later this evening and will report back then.


Introduction

I Always loved Unreal and was at release (early 2003) a bit disappointed with Unreal II. I had nothing to do with Unreal except for the Skaarj. It was slow and i remember it to be heavily focused on rocketbased weapons and defense mission (2 things I really don't like in shooters). Let's see if i still feel this way about the game now.

Avalon

This mission just sets the stage and offers a tutorial. First section is a conversation, second is the tutorial. First thing: It still looks great! Impressive graphics and lipsync. It must have been amazing at release. I remember it to be difficult to run on my rig back then, and that was the same with Unreal 1. Did you guys manage to run it at release?

The loading time are still suprisinly long for these small sections. I must say i appreciated the speech and exposition a lot more back then (story was still a bit new in shooters I think), but now i found it a bit boring. Also the tutorial is really basic and boring but has some nice references to unreal 1 (almost the only onces in the game) and funny critisism about Epic games ("an epic wait for the tech update").


Not much to say or discuss about this part i am afraid. But this serves as an introduction. How are your general thoughts and memories of Unreal 2? Did you like it back then? How impressed where you with the graphics and how do you think they have aged?


(if you have any ideas for improving Unreal 2 and this topic/experiment, please let me know. Also if you guys feel this has no place here, also let me know and this will be cut short and not be repeated for an other game)

Atlantis

I really liked inspecting the ship, talking to the crew, getting the mission briefing from Aida,... Makes the crew interesting and i made me think about Mass Effect (in a very very simple version). Only thing I didn't like was how slow you walk through it.

Strange thing: encountered a seagout and after some dialogue trial and error it said "lincoln is pleased". During the briefing the guy that i was supposed to save was replaced by a lincoln head. Never saw that before and it was definitely very weird.

Overall I liked this interlude a lot and give it 8.5/10 (Merely for reference at the end so i can compare the levels, this score is more a feeling then anything else, fun has a huge share in it)


Sanctuary

The First Level has 3 short sections. I liked the mysterious approach of the first section (what happened here?) and i reminded me a lot of the first level in Unreal (I bet it was intentional). I loved the music (reminded me a lot of Unreal) en also the first Skaarj encounter on the elevator was a fun nod to Unreal but not as well executed (no danger).

The levels were nice looking but too lineair with no exploration whatsoever. They were also very sterile as in no interaction with the world. I loved that in the Original Unreal there was a lot of exploration and story or world info through your translator. I really missed that here.

I didn't like that the Bodies dissapeared and again you run too slow. You run at a speed that i would associate with walking. It becomes a problem when encountering multiple enemies at once since strafing is a bit to slow to dodge the bullets and combine that with a small hud at the top of your screen and i lead to a few deaths because I wasn't minding my healthbar (since I had to really look to see it).

Overall I had fun with this level, a few annoyances but an entertaining first real mission (if this was anything but the first level it would have been too easy or simple, but as it was the first combat level i'm willing to overlook that ;) ).

7.5/10 (Merely for reference at the end so i can compare the levels, this score is more a feeling then anything else, fun has a huge share in it)

I was always very fond of the Unreal Games. Solid engine, good shooter in general. I rember Unreal 2's story and characters very well, even after all these years. The ending even made me a bit sad.

Nice idea btw, and good job. Hope you keep this thread going until the end!

Yeah they did a great job with Unreal 2 making your crew more then just window dressing! Sure we get this now without exception but back then it was rather unique in the FPS genre.

Thanks for the compliment. I've been wanting to do this with some gog games for a while now and I was afraid people would react negatively (blog it ;) ) or wouldn't react at all. Unfortunatly not many people are participating but the few who answered (you in this one, and two others in the awareness topic in the general section) were positive. I intend to keep this going til the end but when there is almost no interaction with other community member it will probably only stay with this one. (i might stop if i get a whole lot of negativity though).

I don't think this is common even with today's FPS. Unreal 2 was far from perfect in this regard, but you got a bit attached to your crew and I always liked the idea that you could just chat with your crew before most missions.

As for this thread, I'll definetly going to check it out to see how far you've got.

Swamp

Hmm not much to say about this very short mission really. Except that i don't like it. It's one of the missions that I dreaded before i started this because it's basicly a defense mission. You have to meet up with some marines and defend the LZ until your ship arrives. It's 5 minutes long and as always it feels way too long for me. It's not a hard mission, it's actually really easy but it just feels so pointless. This is likely due to my dislike of these kind of mission but even then it's not a good mission.

The graphics are boring, there isn't much visability and instead of leading to tension it just leads to a monotonous looking level. The only good thing that I can think of is the fact that your marine allies are very capable of defending themselves and killing the enemies. On easy difficulty you can probably just sit the 5 minutes out, they are that good.

One thing that i forgot to mention is that i find it quite pointless to have a leaning function in a game like this if you can't shoot while leaning...

How do you guys (and girls) feel about defense mission? Do you like them or hate them just like me?

At least i got a fun interlude after this mission back on my ship with some nice hints of actual hatred between crewmembers!

Level rating: 2.5/10

I actually like rail segments and just like you said they can be implemented right. When it's a smal, spectacular, fun, and not too hard diversion i find them a nice change from the rest of the game. But there are far too many examples of games that overuse them or make them frustratingly long or hard.

I know the sections in half-life two you are talking about and again I don't like them. I Always feel they drag on too long. I really hate the once that feel too random or trial and error based making it more luckbased rather then skill based. I really don't like the one in the prison area of half-life two (it seems to fit all my criteria of dislikes), the one in episode two is okay but a bit too long in my opinion.

Hell

This mission is without a doubt the best yet. I consist out of 4 sections. But the first one is rather pointless. It's just a 2 minute walk to the base and nothing really happens. It looks great though. It's a snowy planet (somehow i alway like snow levels) with a great skybox, you can explore but you get nothing for it. A missed opportunity to hide a secret or some bodies with logs just as in Unreal. They could have includes lots of logs in this entire mission because of the many bodies inside the base and it would have been an interesting way to learn what happened here. The banter with Aida provides the backstory here and it works too but i would have prefered the logs.

I really really liked this level even if it's a bit too straightforward. Everything comes together in this mission: great graphics, the flamethrower is amazing to huse against the spiders and the flame effect's look really good, the music and ambiance is good and the enemies sound creepy and it tops it all of with a fun bossfight agains the spider queen.

There is also a fun enviroment traversal puzzel with debris and laserbeams that looks harder then it is, making it a fun little section

Too bad this level has no secrets, but i think this is somewhat true for the entire game. A big loss for me in an oldshoolshooter game for me. This is also the part in the game where you start to realise that this game really has nothing to do with Unreal and could have been called anything else....

But I loved this level!! I remember back then all big shooter had to have a flamethrower and this must have been the most impressive one. Do you guys think so too? And how do you feel about secrets? And lastly how about snow levels? Snow levels are for some reason Always fun for me and i don't even like skiing....

Overal: 9/10

Solaris Base

Okay what is this you might ask. Well after Unreal 2 was release, Matthias Worch, once of the lead developers of Return to Na pali and Unreal 2 made this map as some kind of tutorial level for the editor. It's a bit of a stand alone mission but if you would fit it into the game it would be right after Hell so here it is.

Disclaimer: i will discuss this level as part of the main game so some critisims are not really fair!!!

First off: this level doesn't really fit here well at all. Sure it makes sense because it's also a indoor laboratory with the spiders but it doesn't feel like it should be played here: for the first time you get human enemies and they can deal a lot of damage and can take some too. That makes the difficulty jump a bit high till you get used to it. You also get the magnum. You shouldn't have this powerfull pistal here because if memory serves me right it's Aida's gun so it's more meaningful when you get it in the main game. And last negative: no music whatsoever.

The map itself is really good. It's a small map but a lot more complex in it design then any of the levels so far in the game. It's like a small doom level: everything connects nicely but you'll have to open some doors to make the connections. ALSO secrets, yes!

I thought it was a really well made level but since it doesn't really fit (and i said i would discuss it as part of the game) here and it's lacking a proper beginning or end (Worch said he would have made a different start and ending if he would have put more time in it) and doesn't have any music or ambiant sound i will only give it 7/10.

"Hell" is my favorite level in the whole game. It's satisfyingly long and has a good story. I especially love the slow build-up: first the tension ("wtf happened? no enemies, but something killed everyone..."), then the sudden revelation ("spiders!!!"), then the frantic fighting throughout the base - punctuated by some jumping sections -, and finally, the climactic battle with the giant spider-monster. Also, it's one of the few levels where the combat is actually enjoyable (no enemies with instakill weapons or rockets, no annoying defence missions). The graphics and the level music are great, too.
I wish that every Unreal 2 level were as long and detailed like this... (sigh)

WOW that sums it up perfectly. It's exactly how I feel. All in all i must admit I am enjoying the game more then i remember it. That happens a lot lately though. Seems that I enjoy a lot of shooters from this period more now then when they came out. I mean the time when fps started to change in what we haven now. I hated the slower, linear (without exploration), setpiece driven shooter when they started to come out but now when they seem to have evolved more in more into shooters I do not like, these are actually enjoyable. Unreal 2, Fear, there are more but can't remember them now.

Acheron

This is a small single section mission. The planet and setup for the level is rather cool: a living planet where we have to descent into it's bowels to get an artifact and get out.

Big problem: the first half is terrible. Getting in is terrible because you have to fight humans in an open area and in the bowels. There is no real cover, they attack from very far with very good accuracy and still do an amazing amount of damage. Then they have some kind of Unreal Tournament AI making them run around like headless chickens making them very hard to hit. And there are almost no health or shield pickups (only at beginning and midpoint). You could say luckily they drop some shield when then die but since their bodies disappear in a couple of seconds so does the shield and since you have no choice to go into long range combat (with no real long range guns...) till you get to them they have disappeared....

This part is just no fun and it doesn't help that the quickload is as slow as the normal load, and it's frustratingly hard. I'm pretty good at shooters but i really think this may be next to impossible on hard ( I certainly won't try).

When you finally get to the artifact the level turns. You just need to run back to the entrance but since you used an explosion to get the artifact you hurt and angered the planet. No the planet attacks you with spores and spits acid while you franticly run to the exit: this part is really fun.

This whole mission reminded me a lot of that part in Star Wars where they fly into a cave but then realising they actually flew into a giant creature's mouth. And another Star Wars referencë: The entrance really looks like the sarlacc pitt.

I would have givin this level a lower score then the swamp mission but the second have just barely manages to bump the score to 3.5/10

The thing that annoyes me the most about this level is probably the AI of the enemies. Mostly i can deal with highly accurate ennemies but I really don't like Unreal Tournement like AI in a singleplayer game. How do you feel about that? Do you hate it as wel or do you like the challenge even if it looks a bit silly and unrealistic (maybe uncommon is a better word) ;)

Severnaya

Another short, 1 section level. And again against humans BUT here it actually works and it's a great level. It's way too short but it's a good level none the less. How is this possible? Well the terrain is very uneven and rocky so you have a lot of cover and have the possibility to easily get close without getting shot. Furthermore you get a awesome sniperrifle so the enemies that are far of can be picked off. They don't force you to use it so you have some imput in how you approach the dam. I love that!

It also helps that this is another gorgeous level with great music. The second half of the mission is inside the dam and here you get some good corridor shooting. Again the close combat makes fighting the human fun instead of frustrating.

Main citisism: I said i before and i won't say it again (since it will be true for the remainig game i'm afraid): no secrets, no exploration and this has nothing to do with Unreal.

It's a short but sweet level but it feels so underwhelming when you go to a new planet just to have a single short level for an entire mission. I like short levels but this is too short. How do you feel about short levels and secrets? it's no secret by now that i love secrets and I love searching for them.

Overall a good level that comes close to the Hell mission: 8/10

It's followed with another interesting interlude on your ship with very interesting back story of the crew and "shudder" they explain that the next mission is a defense mission...

Kalydon

Like i feared: a defense mission. They did try however. You can put up a defensive grid and turrets where you want, but it's still unimaginative and boring. There isn't even any pumping music to make it more exciting. It's not difficult so that's a plus: it doesn't take long and you get unlimited health and shield powerups to replenish between (or during) the waves.

It must have been quite interesting back then to put up the defenses yourself but nowadays it's not that interesting and all that is left is boring and thankfully short mission.

4/10

No interlude and it is straight to the next planet/mission.



Sulferon

The next mission is on a desert level reminescent of tatooine (sand and giant animal skeletons ;) ) You have to approach a base and kill anybody in there. The approah gives you a nice opportunity to once again use the fun sniper rifle and inside you get some fun corridor shooting. All against humans. I don't understand why these levels are so short...the indoor shooting is fun so why not make some bigger bases or multiple levels down into the base (and some more sections). Again it feel so short and underwhelming.

One thing that starts to annoy me though is that half of the human enemies you encounter have rocketlaunchers and the other half feels like they are hitscan enemies....two types of enemies i generally don't like.. How about you guys? I think hitscan is generally not liked but how about rocket launcher enemies? I usually don't mind them but here it starts to get a bit too much.

This mission has two parts but the second one is on the same map and you have to defend the base while alllies gather intel. This defense mission was actually fun though because you had some marines to help you and you could command them witch part of the base they would defend while you could get into the tower to snipe the incoming enemies.Three short waves and the mission ends.

Fun mission but a bit basic. It doesn't do anything wrong but it doesn't really do anything memorable: 6.5/10

I must say I remember these defense mission as a lot harder and more annoying. There aren't too bad, not great but not too bad.

Interlude

Another great little interlude on your ship with a some more backstory about your crew. It's very nice that your crew isn't as black and white as in many games even these days. And while you get more info about them the objects in there quarter start to mean something and you start to care for them. It's really well done and i really enjoy these sections. it must have been very impressive when the game came out. On the other hand it's a shooter so maby people didn't want this in their fps. I already had some people mention they liked it too but are there people who didn't like it??

The voice acting is also good accept for the protagonist. He's not so convincing.