Navy SEALs Get Unreal

Yosemite Entertainment, a branch of Sierra On-Line, announced Friday that it will make use of the Unreal engine developed by Epic MegaGames for a number of 3D titles, including the recently announced Navy SEALS game based on the exploits of former SEAL and author Richard Marcinko.

Epic's Unreal engine has been licensed and is in use in a number of current and upcoming games, including MicroProse's Klingon Honor Guard and X-COM: Alliance, Legend Entertainment's Wheel of Time, and 3D Realms' Duke Nukem Forever.

The Navy SEALs game will have a more tactical and strategic feel to it, where the player takes the role of a team commander, doling out assignments and equipment crucial to the success of each individual mission.

"All of us in the industry have been intensely interested in the potential of the Unreal engine," said Craig Alexander, general manager of Yosemite. "But we are taking more than a 'wait and see' position. We are moving ahead."

"We knew from the start that the developers at Yosemite Entertainment really 'got it,'" said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic MegaGames. "The Navy SEALs title is obviously going to be a superior game, so it's extremely gratifying to us to be a part of the team that's bringing it to life. We know that Sierra took a long, hard look at all the various technologies out there, and we are nothing less than thrilled that they chose to utilize Unreal."

Navy SEALs is due for release in summer 2000.