Unreal II Preview

Who says that id Software is the king of first-person shooters? With the 1998 release of Unreal, Epic Games (and Digital Extremes) fell into favor with a huge number of action gamers, and when Unreal Tournament came out the following year, Epic Games gained even more fans who were looking for more than what Quake III Arena was offering. Fans of Unreal will have something even bigger to look forward to in 2002, when Infogrames will release the latest game in the first-person shooter series: Unreal II. The game, which will officially be announced by Infogrames later this week, is currently in development at Legend Entertainment and not at Epic Games, surprisingly. The two companies have been working together for almost five years now, and their collaboration has resulted in a couple of projects, one of which was the critically acclaimed Wheel of Time, an action game based on the works of author Robert Jordan. This dynamic duo will continue its collaboration for Unreal II; according to Legend Entertainment Studio head Mike Verdu, Epic is handling development on the new 3D engine while Legend is taking on the responsibility of shaping the actual game. While specifics of the game are still a closely guarded secret, Verdu was able to give us a few details about Unreal II.

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Unreal II is based on the same universe as Unreal, but it doesn't take place on the same planet nor does it involve any of the characters from the original game. In fact, the only constant between the two games will be the return of the deadly Skaarj predators. You'll play the role of a Terran Colonial Authority Frontier Marshal who is in charge of keeping the peace in a desolate and quiet region of space that slowly but surely is being colonized by humans. Verdu describes your character as a "24th-century equivalent of a sheriff in the Old West." Your patrol ship is called the Atlantis, a rusty 50-year-old craft that's on its last legs, so to speak. You share the Atlantis with a crew of three others: Aida, who is your female intelligence officer; an engineer who maintains the ship's armory; and a navigation officer, who pilots the Atlantis. The game starts out on a day like any other: quiet, mundane, and uneventful. When it is discovered that seven planets in the area are home to seven ancient artifacts, the entire region is suddenly thrust into a series of battles between five alien factions, your own military's troops, and warriors from numerous mercenary armies. It seems as though every living creature in the universe is after these seven relics. Soon after the fighting starts, you take it upon yourself to find the artifacts before they fall into the wrong hands. Verdu wouldn't say what the importance of these artifacts is, but the single-player campaign of Unreal II will have you hopping from one planet to the next in hopes of finding these relics and unlocking their secrets before anyone else does.

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Beyond that, little else is known about the game's plot. We do know that you'll encounter a wide variety of alien species like the shian warrior, a floating crablike creature that resembles the Invid from Robotech fiction, and izarian hunters, which have six wicked weapons for limbs and razor-sharp teeth. Additionally, you'll also run into mercenaries of varying strengths--some will don medium armor while others will be wearing heavy suits with massive energy weapons. The game's 13 missions will take place across 25 distinct levels that include ancient alien ruins, underground caverns, the surface of a volcanic world, a dense rainforest, an industrial city, and an enemy starship. In all, there will be 10 unique environments in Unreal II, each with its own look and feel.