Review: Unreal II – The Awakening

If working on this blog has taught me anything, it is that time can certainly get away from you. Can you believe that it has been TEN YEARS since I reviewed an Unreal game? It’s true. I posted my review for the original Unreal back in December of 2013 and my review for Unreal Tournament followed in February of 2014. Wow! It doesn’t seem that long ago. With that in mind, I’m proud to announce that my review for the next entry in the Unreal series is finally here! Today, I will be talking about Unreal II: The Awakening. But before I get into the details I want to take a moment and mention that this review is very special to me. This is a post that I have been looking forward to making for a very long time. You see, Unreal II holds a bit of a special place on my backlog. It is a game that I originally purchased on the day it was released. However, shortly after, my wife discovered that she was pregnant with my oldest son. This caused my focus to shift away from gaming for a while. Unreal II stayed on my to-do list, but I just never made the time to sit down and actually play it. Then, when I started this blog and decided to work through my backlog chronologically, it just kept getting pushed further and further back. There’s a handful of games like this, Doom 3, Quake 4, Half-Life 2, to name a few… I have a new plan to conquer these games sooner rather than later – but that is a whole other post that will be coming soon. For now, let’s get back to the topic at hand.

As the title suggests, Unreal II is a sequel to the original Unreal game. It was released for the PC in 2003 and ported to the Xbox a year later. As was the case with the first Unreal title, Unreal II was infamous for being incredibly demanding due to its state-of-the art graphics. This was the first game that I ever owned that required a 1.0 GHz processor. Of course, by today’s standards that’s nothing. But at the time, to max this game out, you needed an absolute beast of a machine. And even today, it’s easy to see why. While Unreal II certainly appears dated, it’s still quite an impressive looking game.

Of course, being an older title, it can be a bit tricky to play on modern machines. The biggest technical issue is widescreen support. At the time Unreal II was released, widescreen monitors were still extremely rare. Thankfully, this is easily solved by simply editing a config file. Sounds pretty easy? Well, the real challenge is actually finding a copy of this game. About a year ago, Unreal II (along with all of the legacy Unreal titles) was pulled from digital stores and are currently unavailable for purchase. But, if you want to find a copy of this game bad enough, it’s certainly still possible to get your hands on it. Thankfully, I own both my original physical copy and a digital copy from Steam before it was pulled.

In this game you play as Marshall John Dalton, a former soldier in the war against the Skaarj who now serves mainly as a patrol officer for the Terran Colonial Authority. During a routine mission, Dalton discovers that a mining company has unearthed an unusual artifact of alien origin. This artifact quickly attracts the attention of the Skaarj – the race of hostile aliens from the first Unreal game. It soon becomes clear that this artifact is just one of many. If all of the artifacts are recovered, they can be used to create a powerful weapon. Now it becomes Dalton’s mission to travel through the galaxy and retrieve the artifacts before they fall into the hands of the Skaarj.

If you’ve played the first game, then it will be pretty obvious from the summary above that this game isn’t a direct sequel to Unreal. Instead, it takes place in the same universe, incorporating story elements from both the first game and also from Unreal Tournament. The game starts out on a small interstellar spaceship. It is here that you meet a number of NPCs. As you play the game, you’ll come to know these characters very well, as the ship serves as a home base of sorts between the game’s playable levels. Each of these crew members have their own backstory and personality that slowly unfolds are you progress through the game. Seeing the relationship dynamic between the crew grow and change as the game progresses was one of my favorite things about the game.

In the early parts of the game, your character has a very limited arsenal. However, as you progress, your character will discover new weapons. Often times, these weapons will be given new abilities by one of your crew members in between chapters. By the time you reach the end of the game, you’ll have a total of thirteen unique weapons at your disposal. (Fifteen if you count the turrets and force fields that appear on certain levels). Many of these weapons are things that player’s have come to expect from a classic FPS title: machine gun, rocket launcher, grenade launcher, etc. But there’s also a number of really cool and unique weapons as well. For example, Unreal II features a flame thrower and an alien spider gun…? Cool!

In terms of gameplay, there’s really nothing new to see here. Unreal II is a fairly standard FPS game. But admittedly it’s a cumbersome one. For starters, the movement speed of the character feels exceptionally slow. Also, some of the levels seem a bit too large. Normally, this wouldn’t be an issue, but combine it with the slow movement speed and you suddenly find that making your way from Point A to Point B can be rather tedious at times. Of course, there are commands that can be entered into the game’s console that speed up the movement of the main character, but technically that would be considered cheating.

When it was originally released, Unreal II was strictly a single player title. However, shortly after its release a multiplayer version of the game was made available for free. This Unreal II: eXpanded MultiPlayer pack added online matchmaking and various forms of online play to the game. But, the full online vision for the game was never fully realized as the original developer for the game went out of business before the final product could be released. Thankfully, the fan community has since stepped up and completed the project. If you’re interested, the Unreal II XMP Community Edition can be downloaded here: XMP Community Pack. But I’ll be honest, this “community” is extremely small. Even though I was able to connect to a number of community servers, I never found a single active player.

That being said, people don’t typically play Unreal II for its multiplayer. This is by and large a single player experience. The storyline for the game is well done and interesting, but I have to admit that it really doesn’t bring anything new to the table. Everything in this game has been seen before in one way or another. The one thing that Unreal II really had going for it when it was new was the graphics. I daresay Unreal II may have been the best looking PC game of 2003. Seriously. In fact, on modern resolutions this game still looks pretty good today.

Still, good looking graphics alone doesn’t make up for subpar gameplay. While I certainly found the story interesting and some of the levels compelling, by and large I found Unreal II to be a bit of a yawn fest. It’s not bad. But there’s not really anything about it that stands out. It’s certainly nowhere near as memorable as the original. Still, if you’re a fan of the series, it may be worth a look.

Version Reviewed: PC

Difficulty: Variable–  Unreal II offers multiple difficulty options: Easy, Medium, Hard and Unreal. I found these to be fairly accurate. For most players Medium will provide a pretty standard challenge.

Multiplayer: Yes (via free download)

Story: This game continues to expand on the lore presented in the first game and also incorporates elements from Unreal Tournament. Overall, I found the story to be fairly well done and it held my interest, even if it was a little predictable at times. Sadly, I highly doubt we will ever see a true sequel to this title, which is a bit disappointing since some of the NPC’s storylines feel a bit unresolved.

Originality: In terms of technology, Unreal II brought a lot of new under-the-hood additions to the Unreal Engine, but this doesn’t really do much for the gameplay itself. Everything in this game has been seen before, and nothing about the way it is presented here is revolutionary.

Soundtrack: The background music is very appropriate and well done. But overall it just doesn’t really stand out. The OST has a very “space opera” feel to it, which is fitting. But again, it’s not particularly memorable.

Fun: I enjoyed this game, but I have to admit that it’s not going to be for everybody. The sluggish controls and the generic feel of the level design just tend to dampen the excitement one might feel when first starting the game. Still, certain elements are enjoyable and some of the later levels can be pretty fun. It’s very much a mixed bag.

Graphics: Even today, the graphics hold up pretty well, especially the character models. This game makes pretty good use of dynamic lighting and the levels are filled with detailed surprises.

Playcontrol: The default controls are pretty much perfect in terms of keymapping. The modern standard of WSAD is included out of the box and is implemented flawlessly. Even the mouse-speed (which is customizable) seems to be exactly right. My only real complaint here has to do with the movement speed for the character. It feels heavy and unnecessarily slow.

Downloadable Content:  Free community multiplayer mod.

Mature Content: Violence, Gore

Value: At the time of this writing Unreal II is no longer available digitally. Used copies of this game can be found for anywhere between $5-$50 depending on the condition. Typically, you can a decent copy for around $15. This is fair price if you’re a collector. But it’s hard to recommend this game to a more casual player at this cost.

Overall score (1-100): 70 – There’s a lot to like about this game. But there’s also just as much to complain about. To me, Unreal II is the perfect definition of a mediocre game. It’s not bad. But why choose it when there’s a slew of other titles that offer the same experience, only better? Still, if you’re a fan of the series, there’s plenty to enjoy. More casual players will likely want to focus their attention elsewhere.

Original System: PC

Available today on:  Currently not available   – (Updated as of Late Winter 2024)

Best Experience: PC   – (Updated as of Late Winter 2024)