Unreal II The Awakening Game Review Steve Blossom CIS 487 Maxim Basic Information Title Unreal II The Awakening Developer Legend Entertainment Publisher Infogrames Game Type Action Shooters Release Date February 4 2003 Release price 40 00 System Requirements Minimal Windows 98 2000 Me XP Pentium III or AMD Athlon 733Mhz 256MB RAM 3 0GB of free hard disk 8X CD ROM 32MB NVIDIA GeForce2 MX Windows compatible sound card DirectX version 8 1 Recommended Pentium II or AMD Athlon 1 2Ghz 384 MB RAM 64 MB NVIDIA GeForce3 ATI Radeon 8500 NVIDIA nForce or other motherboard sound card containing the Dolby Digital Interactive Encoder Sound Blaster Audigy series sound card recommended Overview Unreal II is the sequel to the original Unreal game from Epic though the main character and maps are different than first game The game utilizes the common shooter game narrative of lone individual who has come into the task of protecting the world from utter demise The details of the story are given to the player via briefings cut scenes and user controlled in game dialog The core of the game is in the missions that feature different tactical situations including hostage rescue civilian escort assault on enemy bases with a squad of friendly troops and defense of structures against attacking enemy waves After every mission you return back to your ship in which more of the story line develops and the next mission is tasked out to you Story Line Eight years after the Strider Wars ended Earth resumed its expansion into space The central government grew weak and power passed to the major corporations funding the exploration and exploitation of new planets Each of these corporations maintained a private force of mercenary soldiers to enforce its will and law became largely a matter of Might Makes Right As Unreal II The Awakening opens you are John Dalton a Marshal in the Terran Colonial Authority The TCA is an undermanned police force that patrols the outer reaches of space Your job is similar to that of a Marshal in the Old West you are the lone representative of governmental law and order charged with keeping the peace in a vast and unruly territory Unreal II The Awakening Manual You patrol your sector in the creaky but serviceable starship Atlantis a Spirit class patrol vessel built fifty years ago and retrofitted for civil government service after the Military decommissioned her You are accompanied by a support crew of three Aida Isaak and Ne Ban Unhappy with your lot Patrolling the ass end of nowhere your monotonous tour of duty is violently interrupted by a chilling distress signal plunging you into harsh combat situations against terrifying enemies Violent turmoil among alien races and rival corporations has erupted on your watch Thrust into a conflict that will determine the fate of the galaxy you are humanity s only hope for salvation http www unreal2 com Installation The installation processes is similar to most Windows based game or program installation If AutoRun in enabled on the target computer when the Installation CDROM is inserted it will bring up a splash screen pictured here Clicking on the Install button on the splash screen launches a InstallShield setup The only input for installation process is the destination for the source files to be copied and where the shortcuts should be placed in the user s program menu The installation requires both disks that comes with the game asking for the 2nd CD ROM Play Disk at 49 of a complete installation After the files are copied to the hard disk setup then verifies that DirectX 8 1 or higher is installed If this check fails the installation process will then start the installation process for DirectX 8 1 User Interface The user interface is simple and shares many characteristics of standard first person shooter UIs In the upper left corner are two bars that represent the available health and shield energy available In the upper right hand corner are two more bars that represent the current number of ammunition loaded in the current gun and the amount of ammunition currently available in the player s inventory Under this is the UI for selecting weapons Unlike the other player related gauges the weapons UI only is displayed when the player presses the hotkey to switch weapons It boasts features like displaying the available ammunition for weapons and a quickly recognizable icon representation of the weapon In the bottom left corner of the screen new objectives are displayed not pictured when they are assigned to the player The current gun is always displayed in the lower right hand of the screen A cross hair type object remains in the center of the screen to aid in shooting accuracy Game Play Though the base of this game is a shooter the developers have extended the type of game play from just running around and shooting until you reach the end of a level In order to complete a level you typically have to find your ways into rooms through or around locked doors Each level has a list of initial objectives which grows as the player encounters new parts of the level Objectives are as numerous and diverse as hostage rescue civilian escort assault on enemy bases with a squad of friendly troops defense of structures against attacking enemy waves to locating certain rooms and objects There are various ways to obtain items standard to the shooter type games Health and shield power ups are found in power up items found on the map Extra shield energy can be obtained by standing on top of a newly killed organic object friendly or foe while there is a blue cloud radiating from their body Weapons are obtained by killing enemies that posses weapons Unreal II adds an element of change by allowing the ships mechanic Isaac to reconfigure weapons found in the field giving a more diverse spread of available weapons For the basic game play you control the player from a first person view like all other first person shooters You have at your hand the ability to tell friendly AI players where to station themselves and what type of defense they should use You can interact place with designated items such as sentry guns and force shields to aid in completing the objectives for the missions Scoring There is no scoring for this game The purpose of the game is to make progress toward the end goal This is achieved by completing short term small objectives Completed objectives result in completed missions completed missions result in a completed game Special Feature There are
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