Nice work mate, congratulations! I love this game, of all old school shooters I usually replay nowadays, I think Unreal is the one who gets cozier as time goes by. Maybe it's just my nostalgia, but everything from textures to soundtrack in Unreal makes me feel at home.
Thanks so much for stopping by! Yeah it's interesting, I actually played Unreal Tournament first so my nostalgia is a lot more burned in for that game! But going back to Unreal all these years later certainly brings back some memories!
5:00 Dodging is vital to movement, even more vital in multiplayer or bunnyhop. And yes, you can just disable it in the settings. Don't understand the criticism at 10:35. There is only "underground", "above ground", "on a ship". What? That's the same for most games. That said, it's not "underground" or "above ground"... its a crashed Terran spaceship, mines, the Chizra temple, A titan arena, A desolate village, a marine base, the vandora temple, a trench of the ISV Kran, the ISV Kran itself, a huge tower, a section between the clouds (Na Pali haven), an outpost, a Nali castle, a crater with a demon and a huge alien mothership. To be honest, I think Unreal has more variety in its levels than Half Life and certainly far more than Quake 2.
You've got a really valid point... looking back on it now, I perhaps should have expanded that I'm more referring to the textures that support these areas. I feel that Half Life as an example felt a lot more 'different' between areas. The Lamba Labs felt very different to the Sector C test labs and what not. I plan to cover Half Life in the very near future... just deciding if I play through Source of Black Mesa... both have their pro's and con's but I feel that an angry mob may come after me if I play through Black Mesa for a Half Life retrospective & they are probably right... regardless, perhaps this will prove or disprove about how I felt about the texture similarity in Unreal.
Nice video, I played the Original's Singleplayer recently (modded) and I gotta say that at least to me the game still holds UP both modded and Vanilla. What was kinda surprise to me is that you used the v226 of the game and not one of the OldUnreal community patches (227k is the latest if I'm not mistaken), but yeah nice video
MY favorite game. Pacing in the beginning is a bit off but improves over time. I think you miss it at the levels. They can be very different and awe inspiring. Levels are amazing for me. Also music and atmosphere are yet to be matched.
Think maybe you burned through this one a bit too relentlessly or something - the environmental variety in Unreal was fantastic, ranging from sweeping exterior vistas to caverns and mines, to ancient temples, austere fortresses, floating villages, creepy alien ships (of two varieties), a human ship, mountain passes, rivers and lakes of lava... each with their own distinctive audio and atmosphere (compare the meditative vibes of the water temple to the forlorn, desolate feel of the titan arena and accompanying fortress later on). But the fact that it's a continuous journey probably has the knock-on effect of blending areas together when you're trying to remember where you've been and what you've seen. As for the general presentation, I'd say the whole game has aged like fine wine really. The mirrored surfaces easily surpass modern technology (which can only perform such feats by cheating and using screen space reflections that disappear when the reflected object is no longer in view, or crippling performance with raytracing), the lighting is more colourful and interesting than a whole lot of "realistic" looking titles these days, and the audio feedback was far superior to modern titles (this is true of most games from the late 90s and early 2000s) with far more readable and distinctive cues. Oh, and it should be mentioned - the multiplayer has bots that are only one step behind the excellent ones in Unreal Tournament. This was a pretty huge deal if you didn't have a good internet connection back in the day - you had access to all the multiplayer maps and could actually have a blast on your own. Pretty big deal now too, since you can't rely on people still playing it. Also, I'd recommend playing the actual original version if you can. A big part of the joy of the original game was how immersive it was from the moment you loaded it up - the main menu being the flyby of the Nali castle level, with that epic music... Also, playing it at higher resolution means the HUD is smaller, which can be a big problem if you're not paying attention to the environmental storytelling (which perhaps explains why you felt a bit lost with some of the puzzles; all of them are anchored in environmental storytelling, but you may have missed some). I would say play it at 4:3, even if you have to run it windowed to do so. It was built for 4:3. Finally, I very much doubt they removed the entire Unreal franchise from all digital stores due to pending remakes. More likely, they removed it because the Unreal Engine itself is now their big money-maker, more than ever before, and the old Unreal games were basically becoming an internal trademark infringement, if you can wrap your head around that one - they wanted to clean house and make sure nothing else with the "Unreal" name existed concurrently.
Great video and homage to a true game changing FPS. The sense of exploration accompanied by the soundtrack is just pure gold. By the way, double tap dodging can be turned off in the controls settings. I believe it's a checkbox called dodging or dodge movement. Keep it up!
Cheers for the super kind words… and you are 100% correct. I went back and checked and “Dodging” can be unticked, however, it’s not in the “Controls” or even “Input” menu, rather the “Game” menu 🫠
@@azordash_games This is why the original menu system is superior. The UT menu system is great... for UT, but the original game had that simpler Doom-style centred menu with fewer options.
Hahaha I loved the first Unreal game. So did the devs, lol. That first armor room you went to with the shiny floors? You just know there were some game devs somewhere jumping up and down very happily and excited that they could showcase shiny floors. That same excitement carried down into the end user as well. Shiny floors holy crap look how shiny! It looks so real! It's unreal!! Hey why don't we call it that!? EDIT: But this game came out when "story mode" wasn't a big deal. You made up the story as you went in your own mind, or didn't if you didn't want to. Engrossing, compelling storylines were not the way of the first person shooter until... shit... Halo? Um, trying to think. Doom 3 maybe? I've played quite a few, doom, hexen, heretic, quake, q2 ctf, q3, unreal, ut 2k4, none of them had shit for a story other than "oh no you're in hell with the demons somehow you are strong enough to fight them all with guns keep at it soldier" I actually remember Unreal's story being interesting at the time. You were a prisoner. lol. On a ship, in space. Oh wow aliens! What's going on? I don't know but this here gun shoots snot. Neat!
You know I hate to admit it but I never actually worked out how to access that armor... clearly I was too busy looking at the amazing floor! Agree with you on the story comments, maybe the Quake's and Doom's of the world were just more realistic for me to invent a story in my head? I do remember Unreal 2 having quite an engrossing story complete with a hub (the ship I think?) I need to get back to that someday. I haven't played it since launch!
Epic Games doesn't care about Unreal. They delisted from digital stores on pc all the Unreal and Unreal Tournament games back in 2023. Nightdive Studios could remaster the original Unreal/Gold for both current consoles and pc. But So far, nothing. Epic only cares about their inferior digital storefront and Fortnite now.
I'll be honest. I've never played through this one, but later one. But for what I've played first, technically it's an absolute masterpiece. But there was something in level design, enemies and something I can't pinpoint that made me dislike game. Ironically I loved the sequel that almost everyone universally hate 😀
This game scared me so so so much
Yeah I remember younger me not being too keen to explore the insides of those huts!
@@azordash_games I was referring to the bit at the start in the spaceship when the lights go out
Nice work mate, congratulations! I love this game, of all old school shooters I usually replay nowadays, I think Unreal is the one who gets cozier as time goes by. Maybe it's just my nostalgia, but everything from textures to soundtrack in Unreal makes me feel at home.
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Yeah it's interesting, I actually played Unreal Tournament first so my nostalgia is a lot more burned in for that game! But going back to Unreal all these years later certainly brings back some memories!
5:00 Dodging is vital to movement, even more vital in multiplayer or bunnyhop. And yes, you can just disable it in the settings. Don't understand the criticism at 10:35. There is only "underground", "above ground", "on a ship". What? That's the same for most games. That said, it's not "underground" or "above ground"... its a crashed Terran spaceship, mines, the Chizra temple, A titan arena, A desolate village, a marine base, the vandora temple, a trench of the ISV Kran, the ISV Kran itself, a huge tower, a section between the clouds (Na Pali haven), an outpost, a Nali castle, a crater with a demon and a huge alien mothership. To be honest, I think Unreal has more variety in its levels than Half Life and certainly far more than Quake 2.
You've got a really valid point... looking back on it now, I perhaps should have expanded that I'm more referring to the textures that support these areas. I feel that Half Life as an example felt a lot more 'different' between areas. The Lamba Labs felt very different to the Sector C test labs and what not. I plan to cover Half Life in the very near future... just deciding if I play through Source of Black Mesa... both have their pro's and con's but I feel that an angry mob may come after me if I play through Black Mesa for a Half Life retrospective & they are probably right... regardless, perhaps this will prove or disprove about how I felt about the texture similarity in Unreal.
Video essays are hard so props and sub, nice work.
Thanks for the kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. I'm working on Quake next, hopefully you will enjoy that too :)
Nice video, I played the Original's Singleplayer recently (modded) and I gotta say that at least to me the game still holds UP both modded and Vanilla.
What was kinda surprise to me is that you used the v226 of the game and not one of the OldUnreal community patches (227k is the latest if I'm not mistaken), but yeah nice video
Thanks for making this
Really cool to see and learn a little bit about the original game
Cheers for the kind words! Glad you enjoyed it!
MY favorite game. Pacing in the beginning is a bit off but improves over time. I think you miss it at the levels. They can be very different and awe inspiring. Levels are amazing for me. Also music and atmosphere are yet to be matched.
Think maybe you burned through this one a bit too relentlessly or something - the environmental variety in Unreal was fantastic, ranging from sweeping exterior vistas to caverns and mines, to ancient temples, austere fortresses, floating villages, creepy alien ships (of two varieties), a human ship, mountain passes, rivers and lakes of lava... each with their own distinctive audio and atmosphere (compare the meditative vibes of the water temple to the forlorn, desolate feel of the titan arena and accompanying fortress later on).
But the fact that it's a continuous journey probably has the knock-on effect of blending areas together when you're trying to remember where you've been and what you've seen.
As for the general presentation, I'd say the whole game has aged like fine wine really. The mirrored surfaces easily surpass modern technology (which can only perform such feats by cheating and using screen space reflections that disappear when the reflected object is no longer in view, or crippling performance with raytracing), the lighting is more colourful and interesting than a whole lot of "realistic" looking titles these days, and the audio feedback was far superior to modern titles (this is true of most games from the late 90s and early 2000s) with far more readable and distinctive cues.
Oh, and it should be mentioned - the multiplayer has bots that are only one step behind the excellent ones in Unreal Tournament. This was a pretty huge deal if you didn't have a good internet connection back in the day - you had access to all the multiplayer maps and could actually have a blast on your own. Pretty big deal now too, since you can't rely on people still playing it.
Also, I'd recommend playing the actual original version if you can. A big part of the joy of the original game was how immersive it was from the moment you loaded it up - the main menu being the flyby of the Nali castle level, with that epic music...
Also, playing it at higher resolution means the HUD is smaller, which can be a big problem if you're not paying attention to the environmental storytelling (which perhaps explains why you felt a bit lost with some of the puzzles; all of them are anchored in environmental storytelling, but you may have missed some).
I would say play it at 4:3, even if you have to run it windowed to do so. It was built for 4:3.
Finally, I very much doubt they removed the entire Unreal franchise from all digital stores due to pending remakes.
More likely, they removed it because the Unreal Engine itself is now their big money-maker, more than ever before, and the old Unreal games were basically becoming an internal trademark infringement, if you can wrap your head around that one - they wanted to clean house and make sure nothing else with the "Unreal" name existed concurrently.
Great video and homage to a true game changing FPS. The sense of exploration accompanied by the soundtrack is just pure gold.
By the way, double tap dodging can be turned off in the controls settings. I believe it's a checkbox called dodging or dodge movement.
Keep it up!
Cheers for the super kind words… and you are 100% correct. I went back and checked and “Dodging” can be unticked, however, it’s not in the “Controls” or even “Input” menu, rather the “Game” menu 🫠
@@azordash_games Ah that's not really the most obvious place. But hey, that's 90s gaming options for ya😂
@@azordash_games This is why the original menu system is superior. The UT menu system is great... for UT, but the original game had that simpler Doom-style centred menu with fewer options.
A classic for sure. Tragic how far Epic has fallen; delisting Unreal and UT from all storefronts is mind boggling.
Hahaha I loved the first Unreal game. So did the devs, lol. That first armor room you went to with the shiny floors? You just know there were some game devs somewhere jumping up and down very happily and excited that they could showcase shiny floors. That same excitement carried down into the end user as well. Shiny floors holy crap look how shiny! It looks so real! It's unreal!! Hey why don't we call it that!? EDIT: But this game came out when "story mode" wasn't a big deal. You made up the story as you went in your own mind, or didn't if you didn't want to. Engrossing, compelling storylines were not the way of the first person shooter until... shit... Halo? Um, trying to think. Doom 3 maybe? I've played quite a few, doom, hexen, heretic, quake, q2 ctf, q3, unreal, ut 2k4, none of them had shit for a story other than "oh no you're in hell with the demons somehow you are strong enough to fight them all with guns keep at it soldier" I actually remember Unreal's story being interesting at the time. You were a prisoner. lol. On a ship, in space. Oh wow aliens! What's going on? I don't know but this here gun shoots snot. Neat!
You know I hate to admit it but I never actually worked out how to access that armor... clearly I was too busy looking at the amazing floor!
Agree with you on the story comments, maybe the Quake's and Doom's of the world were just more realistic for me to invent a story in my head? I do remember Unreal 2 having quite an engrossing story complete with a hub (the ship I think?) I need to get back to that someday. I haven't played it since launch!
Epic Games doesn't care about Unreal. They delisted from digital stores on pc all the Unreal and Unreal Tournament games back in 2023.
Nightdive Studios could remaster the original Unreal/Gold for both current consoles and pc. But So far, nothing. Epic only cares about their inferior digital storefront and Fortnite now.
I think Nightdive would do an amazing job. I have loved every single one of their remasters.
I guess I'm lucky I got Unreal Tournament 2004 when I did. Such an awesome game and it holds up well even today. Especially with some mods
I'll be honest. I've never played through this one, but later one. But for what I've played first, technically it's an absolute masterpiece. But there was something in level design, enemies and something I can't pinpoint that made me dislike game. Ironically I loved the sequel that almost everyone universally hate 😀
this is a quality review!
Cheers for the super kind words!
Did making this feel the same as doing homework for English but more rewarding?
Yep!
Epic has become so terrible.. it's a shame! But that's what happens to all these companies; the bigger they get, the more they only care about money.
Your way off. Tim sweeney wants to distance the UE brand from unreal.
Hopefully they will consider licensing the product to another brand for a remaster then!
@@azordash_games nightdive has publicly requested it. Seems unlikely
Many would argue Tribes. Not me tho, i hated that game.
Oh wow, I had totally forgotten about Tribes! I never actually played it, although I do recall reading a fair bit of coverage on it.