T Interactive, the company that created the original Unreal, one of the most popular first-person shooter games of all time, did not produce Unreal II, because GTI is out of business. Instead, the engine for URII was created by Epic, and Legend Entertainment assembled the game itself. Both companies are divisions of Infogrames, the publisher that purchased GTI. Basically, Infogrames provided the franchise, Epic provided the tools, and Legend built the game.
In the original game, it was the 24th century, and players took the role of a convict escaped from a prison ship after it crash-landed on an alien world. URII is set in the same universe, but this time the player takes the role of the law: a Terran Colonial Authority frontier marshal named John Dalton. The ensuing adventures happen on 10 different worlds, each with its own alien creatures. The player battles armies of soldiers, both aliens and humans. In the times between missions, players return to the Atlantis, a ship where they can gain information and prepare for the next battle.
The Atlantis is a decommissioned military patrol ship. The crew is three misfits: two humans and an alien pilot. Players are supposed to protect the various colonists in their sector, and they need to do it with both the corporations and the Terran military running about.
The action of the game pits the player against corporate mercenaries, aliens and the Terran military. Everyone is looking for seven mysterious artifacts, and everyone is willing to kill to get them even as the player tries to protect the various human and alien innocents caught up in the shooting. The player also becomes a force in the conflict to find the artifacts.
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Legend has a reputation for making very strong, story-focused games, and more story is what URII has. Unfortunately, the mechanics of it are disappointing. On the Atlantis, the player can move Dalton about freely for the purpose of talking to the crew and getting mission briefings. The communication is done not with talk trees but with talk wheels: each character presents certain questions that can be asked, but picking one question doesn't change any of the options. Talking to the crew isn't mandatory beyond what is needed to get the next assignment, but done properly, the interaction should have helped build relationships with the crew, given a nice role-playing edge to the game and made a good break from all the killing. Instead, players will find themselves wishing that the information had been simply given in a series of cutscenes.
Much better implemented are the missions where Dalton finds himself in command of stranded marines and asked to defend a position, including an extremely cool level where he has to provide the cover fire with a sniper rifle. There are mobile barriers and robot turrets that Dalton can place as well. All of this is dandy and different enough from the standard shooter fare to be challenging. Its only flaw is that to command the marines and the robots and place the screens, Dalton has to walk right up to each one and "use" them. After that, they can be ordered or placed or whatever. It seems strange that this far in the future, with marines who are clearly wearing headsets, all communication has to be one on one and face to face.
By far the best part of URII is the actual killing in general, and the flame effects in particular. A third of the weapons will set foes on fire, and the smoke grenades by themselves are worth the price of admission. All this fire and all these environmental effects take place on huge, detailed levels with lots of bad guys. There is plenty to shoot and many great deaths to see.
I love all sorts of games, but I get the most consistent buzz from the simple joy of playing a state-of-the-art first-person shooter. The first Unreal was a game worth upgrading my computer for, and so is this sequel.
— Eric
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