System Requirements

OS: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP CPU: 733Mhz RAM: 256MB (256MB doesn\'t cut it, get 512MB) HDD: 3GB VIDEO: 32MB GeForce 2 MX or better SOUND: 16 bit Direct X 8.1 Compatible AGE: Mature

Unreal 2 takes place eight years after the Strider Wars. The central government has grown weak and space exploration is being done by major corporations with lots of cash. Each of these corporations has their own private forces which are kept in check by the Terran Colonial Authority (TCA). You are John Dalton an ex-marine hoping to get reenlisted. In the meantime you are a Marshal for the TCA and patrolling the outer reaches of space. Things are pretty quiet until you receive a distress call from a planetary base. You are about to embark on the journey of your life!

Gameplay

This game is a mission based first person shooter. There are 23 missions total in this game. Each mission has a briefing and objectives you must complete. Many times your mission objectives will change or you\'ll acquire more as you go along. A majority of you missions will be collecting ancient space artifacts. Other missions include search and rescue, hacking and infiltration. You are not alone, you have an awesome team on your ship Atlantis. Aida is your ship admin and she\'s very intelligent. She will brief you on most of your missions. NeBan is an alien learning English and pilots your ship. He provides comic relief although he doesn\'t mean to. Isaak is one heck of a technician, not only does he keep your ship in one piece, he builds you some kickin weapons.

Multiplayer?

Unreal II is single player only. If you want multiplayer action, they expect you to buy Unreal Tournament 2003. There are some plugs for UT2003 in the game which I found amusing. Unreal 2 does come with the Unreal editor so hopefully the MOD community will take off with this game. The game play is very linear, you can\'t do much exploration without hitting invisible walls and the levels are one-way as well. There\'s about 20 hours of game play, so make the most out of it.

Weapons

Unreal II has much cooler weapons than UT2003. The only repeat weapons are the sniper rifle and rocket launcher. Towards the end of the game you get some really cool stuff which I\'ll keep secret. * Dispersion Pistol-unlimited ammo, rapid fire but weak * Combat Assault Rifle (CAR)-automatic shoots uranium shards. alt fire shoots five. * Grenade Launcher-wide variety of grenades (frag, toxic, smoke, concussion, EMP), can specify waiting time * Shotgun-standard 12 gauge * Flamethrower-Napalm! * Magnum-.50 caliber explosive ammo * Rocket Launcher-self propelled rockets * Spider Gun-Cover your enemies with spiders * Sniper Rifle- comes in handy

How\'s the AI?

The AI is awesome in this game. In some of the missions the Marines will help you out. The are very resourceful and can hold their own quite well. They set up defensive turrets and field barriers. It\'s a good thing they are on your side! The enemies are quite intelligent too. They will team up on you, they communicate and know they how to call for help. When you attack your foe, they will oftentimes strafe and dodge your gunfire. Many of the enemies have weaknesses. Find them! Each level has a boss you will have to deal with. So be prepared for anything. Some of the enemies you\'ll encounter include skaarj, izarian, angel and ghost warriors, huge spiders and other alien life forms.

Appropriate?

From a Christian perspective this game has violence. John Dalton is a very reasonable guy who defends the innocent but knows how to protect himself. In this game you only attack those that will attack you. Fortunately you can turn the gore (and gibs) off. There is some mature language that cannot be disabled. There\'s even some blaspheming. As usual, some of the females can use more clothes. Aida your shipmate prances around in a little shirt that doesn\'t cover much. The female angel warriors have see through armor that shows much of their body. They are wearing cups where it matters. The males are fully concealed though. :P

Overall experienceEase of use

This game is easy to install and play. The interface is easy to use and maneuver. I don\'t like the save menu. You are limited on your save slots and some of them would not let me over write. Hopefully that will be addressed in a patch. The game did crash on me numerous times but the audigy fix cured that problem. For controls you use your mouse and WASD keys by default. The sound effects and music are very good. Excellent EAX implementation. The voice acting was top notch. I found NeBan to be quite humorous. The background music and ambient sounds were well done. I liked the techno musical score and the boss music really gets your adrenaline pumping. The music is in OGG format so you can play it in winamp if you wish. The graphics are beautiful like I expected. The maps are highly detailed as well as the characters. On the outdoor maps you can see individual blades of grass and the water reflections are gorgeous. The characters are realistic looking and there are many unique aliens as well. There are some nice reflective textures used. The movies were okay. Most of the movies are of your ship orbiting the planet you are about to take off or land to. Kinda of pointless if you ask me. You need a good video card to run this game with the highest details, but if you can it\'s so worth it!! This game has a decent story line. It\'s a sci-fi shooter/adventure game. I enjoyed playing it but many may find it repetitive. I\'ve beaten it, and for now it shall reside idle on my computer in hopes of reviving it with some cool MODS. Otherwise there is no replay value to the game. This is not a game for kids, hence the mature label on it.

Final Ratings

Graphics A+ Game play B Sound A Interface B- Stability B Offensive Content C-

Overall 80% B-