The first SP FPS game I really become addicted to was Unreal. I loved it like a puppy. Then after playing hundreds of maps and mods and Return to Na Pali, Unreal 2 was finally released and while the concept art and visual were great I felt no connection with the original. For me the biggest mistake was not continuing the story somehow. So this weeks poll question is
Do you think there will ever be another single player Unreal game?
I’m not entirely sure why they called the engine the same as the game but that’s not too important except when I see a news headline that states “Unreal 3 to be released soon” or words to those effect.
The industry sees rife with sequels and follow-ons. FarCry 2, Dues Ex 3, etc etc. Why not Unreal: The Return?
I wonder if the developers are afraid of the response, both critically and commercially, after the relative flop of Unreal 2. My advice is go back to basics; the prisoner, the environments, the atmosphere and don’t worry about introducing radical weapons or gameplay improvements. Give me, and the other players, what we love from the original Unreal as well as monsters like the image above and I’m sure you will have a great game on your hands.
I’d love to hear your story ideas for another Unreal game, so please feel free to post them hear.
Tye best Unreal SP site without doubt is UnrealSP.org. The site focuses on the original Unreal and a team is currently working on an ambitious SP project that will no doubt be excellent. So, if you still love the original and want to be reminded of its pleasures, then visit the site ASAP.
Even though there’s a good chance I will eventually remove the Unreal maps and mods listed on the site I will leave them on the Filecloud server, so if you want maps and mods to play visit: The PlanetPhillip Filecloud Unreal Server.
Unreal was a beautiful game. It sported rich outdoor environments, ground breaking AI, and displayed creativity up the wazoo in its arsenal and monsters.
Then Unreal Tournament came a long and took a huge dump all over it. Unreal 2 is a travesty, Tournament is boring and over-rated, and even if there ever was an Unreal 3 I’d likely be the biggest boo’er of all.
by the way, the guys that worked on Unreal 2 had no hand in the original. Thats why the sequel sucked and there’s no way a decent third game could ever come out of that company. They’ll keep pumping out Tournaments, and you UT cows will all herd up to get the next rehash of the same old boring stuff.
I went for “no, and I don’t care”: I do REALLY want some sort of non-sucky Unreal sequel, but I just get this impression that Epic in their current form aren’t the right people for the job. Of course, I may be wrong.
To add to that, I also don’t think the current FPS climate is a good time for another Unreal. I’ve noticed that a lot of FPS’s within the last few years (and games as a whole for that matter), seem to be focused on linear “experiences” that take you from event to event without really giving level design that promotes exploration (being focused as they are on constantly driving people forward). That doesn’t sound like the kind of game an Unreal sequel should ever be, however good the result is.
I’m not going into some rant about “older-style” games dying because of this or something though; based on experience I’ve got a big hunch that this is just a phase the industry is going through, and sooner or later things will back to a bigger mix of design methodologies (with various lessons learned that will help with whatever style is being used). Actually, I think games are already beginning to move away from this in some way, still, as well as not feeling a trust for Epic right now, I’m also not sure whether this is the right time for a new SP Unreal anyway.
I didn’t vote because you need another category “I hope so”. I agree Unreal 2 was disappointing for the fact that it didn’t have anything to do with 1.
I have an idea and I will give it free so somebody can make a lot of money. Have a crew go up and retrieve the spaceship like they did in 2010 Space Odyssey , wake the guy up and build the story from there.
Build better graphics because of the times but don’t go overboard where you have to buy new everything to play it.
And hurry up. I’m 68 and a lot of us are still hard core gamers as long as the core is not to hard. We can only kill about 20 bad guys at once you know
Im very dissapointed, because it really is sad not to have the same pleasure as the same first Unreal. I didnt played any before it but I almost finished the 1st, when I got to some big tower and some city, dont know where… Anyway, I would like to see the Unreal 2 linked in story but it got no. I dont think that nowadays tendencies tend to produce much more sequels though. Even Deus EX!! I did looooooooooooooooooooooooooooved it without hesitation, but what they presented in Deus EX 2 is not even close.
Well,i guess we all had our experiences with
sequels that sucked big time. Some of them
killed the franchise thoroughly for a few years.
I guess Unreal falls in this category. I have
my doubts that we will see another Unreal-SP in
the near future,but there are still some great
fanprojects in the pipe.
I read alot of moaning and groaning(can’t use the words I’d like to!) about a game that supposidly flopped! Am I missing something here?? Granted it didn’t follow the first game (Unreal)wich I played over and over, like Doom, Duke Nukem (original) and others! So what! What’s the problem?? I personaly don’t read these (as I feel) one sided reviews, I buy ’em because they look interesting to me! I bought “Unreal 2” when it first came out in 2003 and have played it many times and enjoyed it as much. I haven’t bought “Bioshock” didn’t like the demo at all, too much like a cartoon! I don’t think I’ll buy Farcry 2 either, that one won’t follow the Jack Carver story line! Who knows maybe I haven’t played games long enough, only since 1982. I realy hope they create a Unreal 3 should be interesting!! Amen!
I have fond memories of Unreal. It was the first game that I played with a decent graphics card (nvidia).
I don’t think we will see another SP Unreal -at least for a long time. It’s too easy to wimp out and pump out yet more UT crap.
I reckon we have a better chance of someone modding U3 into an SP…..at least I sincerely hope so.
You don’t like all the squaking about Unreal 2 not being like 1 but you aren’t buying Farcry 2 for the same reason!
Well a refreshing note and from someone in my age range (I’m 61– almost 62 myself). Now my comment as quoted above says “I don’t think I’ll buy FarCry 2 either” but it does not say that I won’t buy FarCry 2! There is a difference, and I haven’t played a demo (if there is one yet?) I bought “Unreal 2” on the spur of the moment, thinking that it did follow the first ones! As I found out tho it didn’t, but I was not dissapointed! Now I’m a little more picky (play demo first)! With my updated computer system, the graphics and everything else, realy stand out! So I’ll still say “If a new version of Unreal or the supposed unfinnished DukeNukem Forever ever come out (before I’m dead) I’ll give ’em a shot!!”
Unreal was so atmospheric and immersive it set the bar high for its successors and competitors. Half-life did matched up, but this level of storywriting comes along only too rarely. If you told me U3 or any new game was as good a story as U1 – I’m there. (And by the way AI – there are more of us out there than you may think).
Unreal game players or almost older than dirt players?? I haven’t tried the orginal Unreal on XP yet, but soon! Cause now I can control the graphics level better! I still enjoy the originals!
Hmmm I’m a little confused about your wording but enough about that.
Glad to chat with another older gamer although I like talking to anyone about sp games.
Lets hope for whatever reason that Unreal does do a sequel to unreal 1 or at least some single player game. If there’s a Unreal 3 in the works I haven’t heard about it.
I loved original Unreal (played it like 4 times). As for Unreal 2, I must say it was quite dissapointing, I didn’t even finish it.
Now, I think the developers should release Unreal 3, but only if they have a good story (and good gameplay).
An eye candy gfx engine is NOT enough.
Thank god you can play Unreal 1 on UT99 by using the OldSkool mutator 🙂
Before I forget, U1 can be played on XP but it needs final patch 226 to do so.
Thanks JC! I still have all the patches!
Hello all,
Funny that someone now opens a topic about the original Unreal, not so long ago I tried to run the original game again to see if it was still fun to play, and while the concept might still be good I have to say that some of the gameplay has suffered slightly. (or it was my computer)
Of course I would also like to see a sequel to the original Unreal singleplayer.
Unfortunate I can’t say that I like most sequels to games these days, the Half Life 2 ones were fun but Quake 4 IMO was terrible bland.
* * * *
Well I have been thinking of storylines for a real sequel too but I am sure that my first idea strays to much away from Unreal.
I thought it would be perhaps to contrived to have the player return to Na Pali again after having done so much his/her best to escape from the planet.
Returning as some form of liberator of the Nali seems a bit absurd, and in my take the Skraaj colony on Na Pali failed after the dead of the Queen.
Instead the player made it back to the Human territories where he or she has been keeping low, the player may have been some lowly prisoner but he/she was responsible for the destruction of the Bodega Bay and the theft of the Prometheus weapon files.
The Terran Authorities are still looking out for the player.
One day the player is contacted by a representative of one of the big interstellar corporations, they know who the player is.
They are rather interested in the player as he managed to survive everything an alien world threw at him/her, not to mention the Skraaj and their soldiers and they would like to recruit him/her for a mission.
If the player is successful they will arrange a new ID for the player and enough cash for him/her to start over.
This corporation would like the player to assist an exploration team to some distant exotic planet which according to long range probes might be rich in exotic resources, something the corporation might be interested in to mine.
However the probe survey also indicates that there is the possibility of the planet having life, to what level it has developed is unknown.
The player would be one of the scouts on the planet and watch over the rest of the expedition.
The player agrees and several months later they arrive in the system, however when they approach the target planet sensors indicate that there is something wrong.
Large amount of energy activity is taking place on the planet, when a shuttle with the player onboard tries to pass through it is forced to make an emergency landing; trapping the player and several other expedition members on the planet’s surface.
While exploring the planet the player meets the indigenous people; large beings who are in general sympathetic and whose level of technology is that of early industrial age.
They are threatened by beings or creatures that originate from another place; not another planet but another plane of existence.
The original inhabitants had been experimenting with some of the exotic materials for which the corporation expedition had come, trying a crude attempt at space folding.
However their experiments had drawn the attention of these creatures who now want to invade for some reason, and they are as much a threat to the player and the expedition members as well as the local people.
The player’s only way to get of the planet is to locate the source (some machine) of the invasion and shut it down so the player can use it to escape.
* * * *
I made this up a long time ago and I now see that a lot of these elements have already been used in games like Half Life 1 & 2 as well as the console game Metroid Prime 2 Echoes, and as I prefer originality in game stories this stuff really isn’t that good.
Not to mention that it doesn’t feature the Skraaj which most people probably also don’t like.
I guess perhaps a better setup for a storyline might be that the ship of the player after the escape from Na Pali is intercepted by a Skraaj warship or perhaps mothership.
The player is taken captive (yes, I know, cliche) by the Skraaj who decide to punish the player by making him/her work to death in one of their operations on another planet.
The player might escape when he/she is on this other planet, or perhaps for a change the player manages to escape the cell of the ship where he/she is being held, makes it to an escape pod and heads towards the nearest suitable planet to escape the Skraaj.
The Skraaj discover the player’s jailbreak and they soon send hunting squads after him.
Only moments after having made planetfall the player must make a run for it as the Skraaj are only moments behind him/her.
* * * *
I admit, perhaps not the best, but I think a lot of people might agree its not fun to bring in a whole load of new characters with which the player is forced to interact with, all kinds of various organisations, and a load of planets or locations where the player has to perform all kinds of missions.
In this case the mission would be simple; survive long enough and find a way to escape, again.
* * * *
Sorry if my English is off, its not my native language.
Simply put, I think it is very unlikely to see on. It is just plain cheaper to make a multiplayer game. The engine is expensive enough to make, add on the costs of the artists and coders.
Now, making a SP is going to cost even more than that.
Why would you do that, when you can make a metric arseload of cash off a multiplayer only game?
I hope so… I hope so.
IIRC Cliffy stated that they would like to revisit the old Unreal universe again. I don’t have that quote though.
Yes, it’s hard to argue with that but if they used everything they have for UT3 and somehow wove a story around that then maybe development costs would be reduced. Of course, it’s not that simple but some of the assets must be reusable.
Let’s hope so.
I’ve never played unreal, but from what I’ve heard, I get the impression that there’s not much chance of it making a single player comeback.