Unreal is an exciting game that no First Person Shooter fan should miss.
The visuals are very nice. The Unreal Engine is equivalent (if not superior to) the Quake II engine. The textures are detailed and diverse. Even in the Mothership, you almost never see the same set of textures twice. The lighting is pleasing to the eye. When you fire laser weapons, light is given off and travels with the beam. The way the character models react to the lighting is realistic. The animations are smooth. The models are detailed. Unreal is a good looking game indeed.
The gameplay is indeed similar to the game play of other First Person Shooters like Quake and Marathon. You run around and shoot people. However, Unreal does some things different. These differences though, can draw in or push away players. For one, every weapon has an alternate firing mode. By pressing the Middle Mouse Button (the default binding) your weapon can unleash a different attack. For example, the Stinger's primary attack is similar to that of the Machine Gun from the Quake games, and the secondary attack takes five rounds and fires them in the same fashion as a shotgun. Also, you never have to look for a key. Instead, you solve puzzles (usually consisting of a system of levers used to pull off a great event.) in order to progress. The downside to this is that you can spend a large amount of time trying to find a switch or lever. Sometimes, you might have to take an entirely different direction, or even start a level over. Impatient players may want to have a guide handy. The enemy Ai is decent. Every once in a while, you might run into an enemy who'll run to the start of a level to get away from you.The levels are interesting with different ways to get around obstacles, secrets that only the natives can unveil, and plenty of traps to impede your progress.
While the audio isn't the best in the world, it is more than enough for a Shooter. All of the weapons have an individual sound. The game has some tunes that will get stuck in your head for a while. The enemies each have distinct voices and grunts. The grunts also differ depending if they are attacking, running, or just talking to their alien chums. The only real complaint is that some of the guns sound the same whether it's hitting a wall, a tree, or an alien.
Overall it is a well-made game that would make a worthy addition to a shooter fan's collection. If you like shooters, then you should definitely take a look at Unreal.