An attempt at following greatness, but it lacks the innovation to pull it off.
Since its move towards multi-player games, Unreal has tried another foray into single player, story driven gameplay with competent results that leaves me feeling that it is an overall lackluster experience given what I have come to expect from the Unreal name.
The story is your typical space marine single handedly saves the day type stuff. Few revolations truly present themselves throughout the experience, and over-all it feels tacked on to the last. Voice acting is competent and the presentation is decent given its age, but it certainly didn't blow anyone away when it came out in 2003 and won't make impressions now either. The graphical presentation is decent given its age. Even a less than steller machine today can run this game at top settings and the effects and character designs are fine, but nothing to write home about. The enemies tend to be plain and uninspired for the most part. You typically encounter the same low level creature over and over and then the occasional big baddie that is harder to kill, but mostly they just swarm you and run straight at you, showing little in the way of AI scripting. Even when the action heats up, it runs at a decent speed, making it fun enough for a fps. The poly counts are pretty low and the textures are repeated and ugly in parts.
The music and sound effects get the job done, but it doesn't really leap out at you. The weapons fire is a little weak and explosions and other sound effects are done just well enough.
The game plays well enough, although there is not much in the way of variety. You begin a stage with a mission to kill or be killed, move your way through outdoor or indoor environments, use keys to open doors, and blast bad guys. You've seen it all before, and these days better. The weapons that you are given don't seem to offer much in the way of excitement. You will typically use your own machine gun more often than anything else, at least until you run out of ammo and have to resort to picking up a lame enemy blaster. They don't excite much to shoot, and the combat can seem a bit hollow.
This is not a bad game through and through. Those wishing to pick up a cheap older game will find enough fun to justify the purchase. Just don't expect to be wowed and if you do finish it, you most likely won't touch it again.