I love Unreal Tournament, but I never played Unreal

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BassXX
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I love Unreal Tournament, but I never played Unreal

Post by BassXX »

Hi people, I love UT99, but I always wondered about it’s predecessor Unreal.

I never tried it and thinking about buying Unreal Gold.

Can you guys tell me anything about it? Is it as amazing as UT? Worth to try it? I know there is a single player campaign.

Can I play it with a friend in COOP?

We both love UT, and we played some COOP campaign mods like Operation NaPali. We actually liked it quite a lot.

Will we have fun in Unreal Gold?

Please give me a bit feedback of what you think of this game :) Thanks!
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ExpEM
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Re: I love Unreal Tournament, but I never played Unreal

Post by ExpEM »

First of all, this is a retrospective review by LGR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjS6rLKnU0c I recommend giving it a watch.

If you are just looking for gameplay like UT then no, don't bother. I personally have never enjoyed Deathmatch in Unreal (others will argue that Unreal Deathmatch is superior to UT).
For all intents and purposes, Unreal Multiplayer was a beta for UT.

Unreal is a great SP game but it dose show it's age (much like UT). On your first play through of unreal it will take you a long time, particularly on a select few levels, you will get lost, you will have no idea what is going on or what you are supposed to do on your first play through (any one reading this who has played unreal will know the levels I'm talking about). However if you have the mind to explore and work through it then overall you will absolutely enjoy it.
If you don't like reading then Unreal isn't really for you, in saying that, a large chunk of the community weren't able to read English the first time they played and still loved it.
Parts of the SP campaign have stuck in my mind from the very first play through and if I could I would go back and experience them for the first time again.

GreatEmerald dose a lets play on his YouTube channel if you want to get the feel for it's gameplay. (But don't watch too much, spoilers etc.).

As far as COOP goes, yes you can play with friends. However, the vanilla COOP isn't great. I personally have not played around with the various mods people have made to improve upon COOP, someone else here will be able to tell you about the different versions.

Operation NaPali isn't much like Unreal at all, it was built for more powerful computers by people who knew how to really push the engine. Do not expect Level geometry like ONP in Unreal. ONP was also built to be as much a comedy as a FPS (IMHO), Unreal takes itself much more seriously. ONP also contains ALOT of custom code and content (Cut scenes, followers, modified monsters etc.).

Will you have fun? In my heavily biased opinion yes! (I have been playing it for 17 years or so...)

+--------------------------------+
If you are into mapping at all then Unreal with the 227 patch is far superior to UT. The 227 patch introduces a whole bunch of new content for map makers and modernises the engine a bunch. Personally, while building a map for UT I will build the first 80% or so in Unreal227 then finish it in UT. I cannot recommend the 227 engine enough for mapping.

You can also play UT in unreal (sans the actual Tournament) by using Dots port of Botpack (also a staple for building UT maps in 227).
+--------------------------------+

Sorry about my vague rambles...

What you should take away from this is if you are unsure then wait until Unreal is discounted on GOG or Steam to purchase it. Otherwise if you have the money to burn then just go for it!
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Re: I love Unreal Tournament, but I never played Unreal

Post by Gustavo6046 »

I used to be the same way for much of my childhood. But when I picked up Urneal, I didn't regret it. Rather, I turned to wonder how I could have let this amazing singleplayer campaign slip through the cracks.

It isn't the most fast-paced gameplay, but it is quite immersive, and in terms of being fiction, it's really good at setting up a mood, an environment, a place; it's really good at making you feel there. Heck, it's a lot better at immersion than most 3D movies, if you ask me!

You are Prisoner 849, and you are in this situation. What would you do?
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Re: I love Unreal Tournament, but I never played Unreal

Post by Red_Fist »

It will give you the start of Unreal legacy and the engine and the pawns and what maps were used and the story and for other home made levels. And why you see what weapons in other maps, etc etc.

A must buy if you own UT, like a set, then you will see better how they messed around in the newer versions, UT2004 .

It is for coop not DM, and for single player.
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OjitroC
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Re: I love Unreal Tournament, but I never played Unreal

Post by OjitroC »

It's certainly worth trying out, that's for certain.

UG includes two SP campaigns - the original Unreal and Return to Na Pali. SP is, of course, different to UT gametypes - it has a slower and steadier pace and requires patience and the desire to explore, read instructions, look for clues and to solve puzzles (plus stamina to play through the lengthy campaigns). If you've played any SP campaigns with oldkool in UT then you'll have an idea of what to expect, though it should be said that Unreal does have a wider range of atmospheric/environmental effects so the experience will be rather different. Again, if you've played a lot of UT (MH, DM or SP), then you're likely to have already encountered some of the maps in the UnrealGold SP campaigns which may, or may not, impact on your enjoyment (though, of course, the gameplay will be rather different in the UG maps).

Going beyond that, as with UT, there is much community made content for Unreal though nowhere near as much as for UT. There are mods like Infiltration or Serpentine, quite a few weapons and other mutators that bring some 'stuff' from UT into Unreal or create new 'stuff', custom scriptedpawns, and many maps (DM, CTF, MH, SP etc - though, again, those that don't use Unreal specific assets can be played in UT and you may have played some). So there is a degree of cross-over with UT and you can, if you want, basically play UT in Unreal. You can even play quite a few UT DM and MH maps that have been ported to Unreal - these can be found on the SnipersParadise website and in the other wellknown file archives.

Two areas of significant difference are (a) custom models and (b) voices. There are some custom models for Unreal on the SnipersParadise site - these are conversions of UT models like Abbey, Jarhead, Rumiko etc - but nothing like the range available for UT. The standard Unreal bots don't have voices though the bots in Botpack do of course.

For what it's worth - because I enjoy playing against monsters, MonsterSpawn works in Unreal and I have several 'rosters' of Unreal-only monsters to play against - examples include lots of enemies from Doom, some Klingons, Izarians from Unreal2, some spectacular dragons, and Unreal-only variants of the standard Unreali/Unrealshare scriptedpawns.

So, as with UT, with UnrealGold you can just play the vanilla UG SP campaigns and gametypes or you can explore the range of content available (or do both of course). Any of these alternatives is a worthwhile diversion, as it were, from UT - you just need some time to get in to it and get used to the differences you will encounter.

As for Coop, I'm afraid I have no idea at all about that.
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Re: I love Unreal Tournament, but I never played Unreal

Post by SteadZ »

In terms of the coop scene for Unreal, most of what you'll see is servers cycling through vanilla/custom maps with little difference from singleplayer gameplay aside from respawning inventory, additional monster spawns - sometimes adding a certain threshold of monsters you need to kill before being able to progress to the next map - and other slight modifications (it varies from server to server).

There are two key exceptions I know of though: first is Bleeder's "level-up rpg server" which I believe is pretty much what it says though I've never actually tried it out myself - so your typical rpg kinda stuff even including farming lol. The second is "RlCoop" (literally meaning "Real Life Co-op") which turns standard Unreal coop into a brutal survival experience including features such as parkour, stealth, hand-to-hand combat, inventory management and most importantly only one life! What I think really makes this mod special is that co-operative gameplay is actually important to completing levels, and it makes for a whole new way of experiencing Unreal with the new paths the parkour gameplay opens up.
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Re: I love Unreal Tournament, but I never played Unreal

Post by Hook »

Here is another Old, Tried and True ( literally thousands of times) ut99 Manual.
This is what I, and a whole lot of other admins have used.
http://hermskii.com/files/Hermskii's_UT_Manual.zip
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Re: I love Unreal Tournament, but I never played Unreal

Post by BassXX »

Thank you for your feedback guys.

I decided I will give it a shot and buy the game!
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ExpEM
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Re: I love Unreal Tournament, but I never played Unreal

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One of us! One of us! One of us! One of us! One of us! One of us! One of us!
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Re: I love Unreal Tournament, but I never played Unreal

Post by EvilGrins »

I played ut99 1st, then I tried U1... but I didn't like it.

Loved U2!
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Re: I love Unreal Tournament, but I never played Unreal

Post by OjitroC »

SteadZ wrote: Sun Jan 17, 2021 9:25 pm ... "RlCoop" (literally meaning "Real Life Co-op") which turns standard Unreal coop into a brutal survival experience including features such as parkour, stealth, hand-to-hand combat, inventory management and most importantly only one life!
I hadn't come across this before so have just got hold of it and started to get into it, though only playing SP rather than coop - it certainly adds a whole new dimension to the game. A pity in a way that there isn't anything similar for UT SP (or even MH).
EvilGrins wrote: Tue Jan 19, 2021 8:39 am I played ut99 1st, then I tried U1... but I didn't like it.
Loved U2!
If you like playing against monsters, then it's worth giving Unreal a go once in a while simply for the monsters you don't/can't get in UT - JackGriffin's Dragons are pretty amazing for example and the Klingons are fun.

U2 is enjoyable, up to a point (some of the defend/command set pieces are a bit limiting and difficult to get into, for example) - not sure about its replayability though and there is not a lot of community made content so it's not something I go back to very often.
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Re: I love Unreal Tournament, but I never played Unreal

Post by EvilGrins »

OjitroC wrote: Tue Jan 19, 2021 3:59 pmJackGriffin's Dragons are pretty amazing for example and the Klingons are fun
I know Jack said the dragons couldn't be imported into ut99, though that always seemed weird to me. I mean, they're from ut2004 so if they can go into the most primitive of the Unreal series... why not the original UT?

My main problem with U1 is it's so slow! It doesn't have a Turbo Mode in it, it's annoying.

Someone should export the Klingons into UT... along with their weapons!
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Re: I love Unreal Tournament, but I never played Unreal

Post by OjitroC »

EvilGrins wrote: Tue Jan 19, 2021 6:45 pm
OjitroC wrote: Tue Jan 19, 2021 3:59 pmJackGriffin's Dragons are pretty amazing for example and the Klingons are fun
I know Jack said the dragons couldn't be imported into ut99, though that always seemed weird to me. I mean, they're from ut2004 so if they can go into the most primitive of the Unreal series... why not the original UT?
Because they use effects only found/that only work in Unreal.

Yes, pity there's no Klingons in UT.
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Re: I love Unreal Tournament, but I never played Unreal

Post by Custer »

BassXX wrote: Mon Jan 18, 2021 8:47 am Thank you for your feedback guys.

I decided I will give it a shot and buy the game!
I can't recall any UT gamer that didn't like Unreal - you'll get to see earlier incarnations of the rocket launcher, razorjack, shock rifle, etc.

My experience was the reverse: I was given the Anthology and started on Unreal, finding it a hugely long and immersive game. Part of the enjoyment was working out the route (tip: you don't need to clear EVERYTHING to proceed), solving puzzles and finding hidden areas (tip: treat Nali well, and they'll be grateful) and enjoying the different scenes - old temples, churches, castles, caverns etc.

When I finished it, I went back and replayed it all over again a harder level.

Years later I'd been a UT player and forgot all about Unreal until I heard there was a way of playing Unreal maps in UT but with the improved renderers and textures - so I played it all over again. I never found it boring or frustrating; it was just the right level of difficulty, introducing weapons gradually and putting you into situations that required their effective use.

Even nowadays I find some MH maps that remind me of Unreal levels (some have been ripped straight off from the original game).

Recommended: bind a key to the items in use - translator, seeds and flares. UT doesn't have these (so limits you for some MH maps) but these items are useful along the way.

Also, consider a headset: the sound effects were way ahead for their time (and can often alert you to what's up ahead).

Good luck, and let us know how you get on!
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Re: I love Unreal Tournament, but I never played Unreal

Post by EvilGrins »

OjitroC wrote: Tue Jan 19, 2021 9:08 pmYes, pity there's no Klingons in UT.
I wouldn't say no Klingons, but you'd think if that Klingon game was made for the Unreal 1 engine it would be possible to port them outta that into UT.
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