In the article, “Shadow Warrior and its Impact on Me”, I spoke about my Packard Bell Multimedia D135 PC and how it was this machine that introduced me to PC Gaming. Fast forward to Christmas of 2000, I got my second computer. It was a Dell OptiPlex GX100 with a 466mhz Intel Celeron, 64 MB of RAM, Intel i810 8 MB Integrated graphics, a 6GB Hard Drive, 56k modem, a 48X Speed CD-ROM, and a 15-inch monitor. This was a far cry from my 133mhz Packard Bell. My oldest brother gave me a $15 Walmart gift card. The next day, he drove my other brother and me to Walmart, where I headed straight to the $9.99 Jewel Case PC Game section. At my Walmart, it hung right above the more expensive boxed PC games. Keep in mind I haven’t been in the PC space much since the death of my Packard Bell. I haven’t picked up anything PC related and played games on my PlayStation. I had no idea how PC games had evolved since Build Engine games. I spotted Unreal Gold, I picked it up, looked at the back, and man, I was floored. I couldn’t believe how far PC graphics had come. I looked at the system requirements which were, Pentium II: 233mhz, 32 MB RAM (64 Recommended), 4 MB for software rendering, 8 MB for 3D acceleration, and 100mb HD (450 Recommended). I figured my new PC should be fine. I went to find my brothers to rush them, so I could check out, get home, and pop this disc in. On the ride home I had already removed the shrink wrap. This being the budget version, the book wasn’t a book. It was just a folded insert with the install instructions. So, there wasn’t much to see there. But I read the back of the case over and over.
I got home and rushed in to install the game. I chose the full installation rather than the 150 MB because I had a HUGE 6GB hard drive this time around. Once it was done, I was met with rendering options such as Software, Glide, and Direct X. I chose Direct X and hit play. The screen went blank. I could hear my 6GB Maxtor hard drive working, along with the yellow hard drive light flashing erratically. The noise stopped; the yellow hard drive light went dark. I wasn’t prepared for what I was seeing. I was fully expecting a menu. What I got was a fly-by scene of the Nali castle. Beautiful textures and amazing lighting. The lightning flashes and the puddle reflections on the ground were incredible. Remember, I came from Build Engine games like Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior. I let this loop a few times before I moved on. Once I hit escape, I was greeted with a gold menu along the top, that resembled a file menu. I went through the options and proceeded to start a new game.
“What I got was a fly-by scene of the Nali castle. Beautiful textures and amazing lighting. The lightning flashes and the puddle reflections on the ground were incredible”
The game starts with you being dropped in, facing up. I didn’t think too much about that back then but now I find it interesting. Once the camera panned down, I could hear the screams and explosions. My character is unarmed with just a bit of health. The feeling is akin to how I felt starting a new game of Alien Isolation, nervous and unsettled. As I started moving and looking around the place began to quake, setting my character off balance. Pressing the arrow keys, I was able to keep from falling off ledges during the quakes. I found a flare and picked up some sort of device with a screen on it. It began to translate text on signs and read logs left behind on computers and survivors when I approached them. I made my way down a small vent and through more areas. I still have no weapon at this point. Thankfully I found the armory where the floor was slick, and my character slid around as if the floor were ice. I’m still not sure what the material was supposed to be, but the reflection effect was something to behold for the time. Sadly there’s no weapon here. Just an armored vest. After passing some large fans and grabbing more health I went into a room where the doors closed on both sides leaving one door left open enough to see light at the bottom. That’s when I heard a person yelling, “No, no!”, followed by gunshots. I was quite spooked, to say the least. Quiet set in and the door began to rise. As it rose, blood and limbs flopped around with a gruesome sound effect. It was then that I finally got a glimpse of the creature that was terrorizing the ship. It grunted and began to run. I didn’t bother attempting to chase it since I didn’t have a weapon. But I was in luck as the dead man’s gun was left behind. I picked it up and continued, this time with less anxiety, being armed and all. I went through the rest of the level without firing my weapon as I never caught up with the creature or any other enemies on the ship. At the end was a handle behind a glass pane. I broke the glass, and the handle turned followed by a hatch in the floor rising. I went through the vent and was met with a loading screen, signaling the end of the first level.
After the loading screen, I found myself in another vent-like area. I could see sunlight at the end which put me at ease. Making my way out of the small vent I was met with some sort of wildlife creature, green grass, birds flying above, and swelling synth music that perfectly matched the scene. It was majestic. I walked to the edge of the cliff spotting a waterfall directly across on the other side. The depth here was astounding. I’ve never seen depth translated this well in a game before now. Looking down, I was met with vertigo, as I realized just how high up the drop was. There aren’t many games in recent memory that have intros like this. Half-Life was one of them. The one recent one that I can recall is the 2017 version of Prey. The first two stages of Unreal were an experience that would stick with me for the rest of my life.
Unreal was followed up by Unreal 2: The Awakening in 2003, the final product was a letdown. It lacked a lot of what made the original game so great. It had a more dialog-driven, mission-focused story. That would’ve been fine, but this was a major change from the original game which was more about the feeling of isolation and story bits being drip-fed. Unreal 2 introduced an NPC crew whom your character worked with. As someone who followed the development via the Unreal website and PC Gamer magazine, I was anticipating something even bigger than Unreal. What I got was a short and quick experience. I was expecting more of the first Unreal but with a new engine.
Before Fortnite, we had the Unreal Tournament games. The first Unreal Tournament was released shortly after the first Unreal game, followed by many sequels and Unreal Championship spinoffs on XBOX. I thoroughly enjoyed these, especially Unreal Tournament 2004, which is peak UT. Fortnite, being the major hit it is, took the place of Unreal. I understand this from a business and creative perspective. Arena shooters have changed and evolved. My issue with this is that Epic seems, at least outside looking in, to not care, which is odd since the legacy of Unreal is massive. Unreal Engine has become a standard for game development and has even been used in Hollywood productions. I feel it’s a disservice that some folks have no idea of the origins of Unreal Engine and Epic doesn’t seem interested in celebrating Unreal Engine’s legacy. And it should be celebrated. While some, including myself, would argue that Unreal Engine fatigue is starting to set in, it’s still undeniably impressive. There was an attempt to revive the franchise with Unreal Tournament in 2014. The idea behind it was to develop it with the community. This was an interesting idea. Sadly, development ceased in 2017 followed by the other Unreal games being delisted in December of 2022. I still long for a single-player Unreal experience akin to the first game. I know we’ll never get it, though I am still holding out hope for a fan-made remake in a new version of Unreal Engine or something.
For now, there’s a fan-made HD Texture Pack made by Ahaigh01. There’s also an Unreal Redux Project being developed by Krull0r and other talented developers and artists. It has no released date yet, but seems current based on the website being dated, 2025. As of writing this Epic has granted permission for Unreal to be distributed for free over on Old Unreal.
