Unreal is a first-person shooter videogame developed by Epic Games and published by GT Interactive, released 22 may 1998. It is the first to use the Unreal engine, which was completed in three years. An expansion pack for the game, called "Return to Na-Pali", was released 31 may 1999, which added other levels to the single player campaign. Years later, in 2001, Unreal and the expansion pack were put together in a cheap package called "Unreal Gold", followed by the "Totally Unreal" package which also included Unreal Tournament.
Story
The following sections contain spoilers: read at your own risk.
Unreal
The player takes on the role of a prisoner on the "Vortex Rikers", a space ship used to take criminals to penal colonies on various planets. For some unknown reason the ship crashes on a relatively unexplored planet called "Na-Pali", and almost everyone on the ship dies in the accident. The few who survived are killed by some mysterious predators, but the prisoner manages to get out of the ship, meeting an exotic world populated by strange creatures. Using a Universal Translator he manages to read the logs left by various other prisoners and guards who escaped from the ship only to die not much farther. The local inhabitants of the planet, a pacific race of four-armed aliens called the "Nali", have been enslaved by another race, the salamander-like "Skaarj", which came from another star system.
While looking for a way to escape from the planet, the prisoner is occasionally helped by the Nali, and learns something about their somewhat primitive culture and that of the technologically advanced Skaarj. Crossing through remote lands, villages, temples, castles, and great technological structures, the prisoner learns about some Nali prophecies which tell of a "messiah" who will came from the sky to defeat the demons that came from the stars.
Return to Na Pali
After having successfully escaped from the planet aboard a Skaarj vessel, the prisoner is intercepted by a Marine space ship called "UMS Bodega Bay". The Marines decide to send him back to the planet to retrieve an important object from another crashed ship, in exchange for his freedom.
After discovering that the Marines actually want to kill him to leave no trace of their illegal operations, the prisoner defeats the Warlord of the Skaarj inside a Nali castle, and finds a shuttle which allows him to escape from the planet once again. He manages to avoid being shot down by the Bodega Bay and flees towards an unknown destination.
Technical notes
Graphic engine
Unreal was the first game to use advanced effects by utilizing a software renderer (effects are rendered using the CPU rather than a 3D accelerator video card). Because of the stress put on the CPU, the renderer requires a powerful system. The game supports 3D acceleration, using Direct3D, OpenGL, and 3dfx Glide.
The Unreal engine has been licensed to other game developers. Some games which are based on Unreal technology are Deus Ex, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas, Wheel of Time and Clive Barker's Undying. A Duke Nukem Forever trailer produced in 2001 was based on Unreal technology.
Sound and music
Unreal uses a built-in sound renderer called Galaxy audio subsystem.
Unlike many other games produced in that period, Unreal used tracker music (formats: MOD, S3M, XM, IT). This kind of music allowed to have a larger compartment of instruments with relatively little cost in disk space (generally less than 1 MB for each song).
Tracker music also allowed to use dynamic segments which changed according to certain situations (for example the music could change between a quiet moment and a frenzy battle). The soundtrack was mostly composed by Alexander Brandon and Michiel van den Bos.
Third party patches
The source code for Unreal has been released by Epic Games and some fans of the series have developed add-ons and patches, which correct bugs left in the retail version of the game. People at oldunreal.com have developed an Unreal 227 patch which fixes some bugs and adds some new features, such as Direct3D 8 and 9 rendering capabilities, and improved OpenGL drivers. As of April 2011, the latest stable version is 227g, but make sure to check oldunreal.com for periodic updates.
Beta version
In 2006 a beta version of the game was leaked and posted on the Beyond Unreal forums. It was later clarified that the version was dated 1997, when the developers stated that the game would be distributed starting Christmas 1997. A video trailer was released which showed how the game looked at the time. http://www.unrealsp.org/gameguide/beta.html
The beta contained 35 maps. Some of them were either deleted later, substantially modified, or included in the official expansion pack "Return to Na Pali" after being reworked.
External links
* Beyond Unreal community
* Unreal single player news
* Old Unreal
* Hyper Unreal services
* Old Unreal Patches
*Overview of the beta version