Well constructed gorgeous environments do well to mask the cheap story and characters, making the ending a surprise.
Action Gamers: It's a cool game, if you're die hard go ahead and shell out the 50$, but frankly it will be just as good for 20$ when you find it in the bargain bin in the future.
Everyone else: Would be a good buy if you ever see it in a bargain bin. But don't sweat putting it off to play something cooler.
Full Review:
The proof of the game cannot be found in the pudding of the code. Nor the fun in the graphics, though Unreal 2 tried desperately to show us all that it could be there. And to a large extent they succeeded. It cannot be denied that by the end of the game the awe inspiring eye candy still inspired pauses from active progression in the game to stop and smell the roses, almost literally. The environments flood the player with details and immersive locations, and here, I believe, lies the feeling of mediocrity that has been attributed to The Awakening. The action achieved both furious heights and intense firefights, and slower paced strategic fights that seem less than common in recent action titles.
It can hardly be said that Unreal 2 shines as the most innovative game in the world, but the polish glows a little. Some of the best missions left a little bit of the job of shaping the battlefield to your needs. Allowing you to put down destroyable, but strong enough to give you time to move around, laser walls as well as placing turrets for defending areas you don’t have the time to defend properly. Further innovation involves torturing the player with the personal lives of the crew in a truly, though sometimes interesting, soap with the crew of your ship.
Imagine playing Days of Our Lives in space. Dull and tedious and there was no way around half of it. Granted down time in a game gets complained about pretty seriously, however all of the downtime in Unreal 2 felt “extra”, and useless. The characters, god forgive the designer who put real “characters” into a hardcore action game, managed to be boring and useless as they never come into play anywhere but in the cut-scene material. After Half-Life a good many people thought cut-scenes were the way of the future, I tell you now that no they are not. Not when game-play reduces you to have nothing to do but run around the room goofing off listening to the other character as more of a voice over while you hop around and try to entertain yourself. To my pleasurable surprise the story line of said soap opera explored unfamiliar territory for modern games. The ending genuinely did something unique, with a bitter sweet series of events that suddenly made me feel for the characters I previously thought might as well be dead. And sadly it happened to be the only thing there is to say about this game that crossed the line defined by the word bad. Every other complaint attributed to this game is something good used in a less than stellar way, leaving the player with the feeling of playing something very good but very mediocre.
Some of the environments surpass the levels of expansiveness seen in any other pure first person shooter. And in fact, it might be said that this is both a blessing and a curse. Rather than holding the “cut-scenes” in these environments and perhaps giving you free time to waste while your crew members are yakking to you. Instead, experiences that should be fluid and fast paced are frequently spent lounging around admiring little details. It all serves to slow the game down that much more and pace feels important after all the dull time aboard your ship, The Atlantis. At least none of the weapons were pretty enough to just sit there and shoot at thin air to admire the special effects.
There is a lot of good material here. Unreal 2 has been loaded to the hilt with quality and visual appeal. The action is first rate and the story managed to compel even though you wont ever hold your breath wondering what’s going to happen next. What you love in this game, you will absolutely adore. But there is easily enough irritation and boring downtime to balance that out and leave you with an overall feeling of how okay the experience was.