Unreal

Unreal is the first game in the Unreal series and was the first 3D venture by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. The game was approved by GT Interactive in 1996 and released on May 22, 1998 to the world, however by several accounts work on the engine actually started sometime around 1994. Unreal provided a single player experience along with a multiplayer mode that allowed for up to 16 players. It was rated 'M' for Mature by the ESRB for intense violence.

History
Work on Unreal began in 1994 when James Schmalz, founder of Digital Extremes, showed Cliff Bleszinski a side project he had been working on. At the time, Schmalz was creating all of his own content, and programming the game all by himself. The game had not yet been fully realized, and Schmalz was creating all of his levels on paper.

A short time later, Schmalz showed what he had been working on to Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic MegaGames (later renamed to Epic Games). Tim was impressed and began working on a level editor for Schmalz to use to build his engine. As time went on, many people became involved in the process. Mark Rein was brought in to do PR, Steve Polge was hired to work on the AI. For a time, many of the people working for Epic were doing so remotely.

Originally the game was scheduled to come out in April 1997. A few months after this date slipped, pressure started mounting from GT Interactive to get the project completed. Epic moved all of its remote employees to Digital Extremes Waterloo, Toronto, Canada offices to complete the final push of the game. Roughly one year later, the game was released and its level of detail put video game publishers on notice: a new age of gaming had arrived.

Demo
A demo was alluded to many times by various people at Epic Games throughout the life of Unreal, however the only demos that were ever released came bundled with various hardware. Many people saw this as a negative to Unreal as there was no real way to try the game before you bought it.

Release Details
A full version of Unreal was released with certain S3 Video Cards to show off Unreal's S3TC capabilities. This version came with several S3TC showcase levels that can be found online.
 * May 22, 1998 - Unreal (PC) - 1 CD
 * January 21st, 2000 - Unreal Gold (PC) - 1 CD
 * Included Return to Na Pali.
 * August 29, 2001 - Totally Unreal (PC) - 4 CDs
 * Included Unreal Gold, Unreal Tournament - GOTY and an Unreal Championship/Unreal 2 preview disc
 * November 6, 2006 - Unreal Anthology (PC) - 1 DVD
 * Included Unreal Gold, Unreal Tournament - GOTY, Unreal 2, and UT2004.
 * Published by Midway Games, who took publishing rights from Atari

Another version of Unreal was released with certain Creative products to show off Unreal's EAX capabilities.

Reception
Unreal was given very good reviews and was generally accepted very well by gamers. However, shortly after the game's release it became apparent that the multi-player network code was not up to scratch for the 56k modem connections in wide use at the time. Due to this, the Epic MegaGames message board filled up with hundreds of posts of complaints about the poor quality of the Unreal netcode and the general need for a patch. This led to Epic's message boards being nicknamed the "Epic FlameBoards". In response, Epic released dozens of patches to the game, later including Direct3D and OpenGL support to the Software Rendering and Glide support.

Weapons

 * Dispersion Pistol
 * The first weapon you acquire, fires small energy bolts or can charge up a larger bolt. Automatically recharges ammo.  Able to be upgraded with special pickups.
 * Automag
 * A basic pistol.
 * Stinger
 * Rapidly fires tarydium shards, or a group of shards in a spread pattern.
 * GES BioRifle
 * Launches blobs of toxic goop. Can also charge up a large blob.
 * A.S.M.D.
 * Fires an instant hit beam, or a moving core. Shooting the core with the beam causes a massive explosion.
 * Minigun
 * Rapid fire machine gun.
 * 8ball Launcher
 * A rocket launcher that can charge up multiple rockets. Alternatively, grenades can be fired.
 * Flak Cannon
 * Fires shrapnel in a spread pattern or launches a shell that explodes on contact, releasing shrapnel.
 * Razorjack
 * Launches fast spinning cutting blades. Blades can be guided with alternate fire.
 * Assault Rifle
 * A High powered zooming sniper rifle.

Characters

 * Ash
 * According to the manual with the game, Ash was one of the prison guards on the prison ship.
 * Prisoner 849
 * The main character of Unreal, who must find a way to escape the Na Pali planet. The true identity is unknown, but a story indicates it to be a girl, the default character.
 * Kira Argmanov
 * Science officer aboard the ISV-Kran, Kira was captured by the Skaarj and imprisoned at Bluff Eversmoking, pursued across several locations by some of her crewmates, who died before they could rescue her. Freed from a cell by a Nali, Kira took refuge in the bell tower, where her body is later found by Prisoner 849.

Races

 * Skaarj
 * The Skaarj are an alien race who enslaved the Nali on the planet you crash land on, Na Pali. They are divided in various sub-classes: warriors, troopers, Pupae stage creatures, Warlords and Queens.
 * Nali
 * The Nali are a race indigenous to Na Pali but subordinate to the Skaarj as they have been enslaved.
 * Humans
 * You play as a human prisoner whose prison ship crash landed on a mysterious planet, Na Pali.
 * Brutes
 * Heavy infantry beasts genetically engineered by the Skaarj, wielding handheld rocket launchers.
 * Krall
 * A race of unknown origin that has been enslaved by the Skaarj and act as their guards.
 * Mercenaries
 * A mysterious race of robotic aliens, seeking Tarydium on Na Pali for power. They are rival to the Skaarj.
 * Slith
 * Skaarj's amphibian cousins. Green serpents that roam in land and underwater. Use powerful claw and acidic saliva to attack their preys.
 * Titans
 * Enormous creatures, native of Na Pali. Found in large lands or inside various temples and fortress dedicated to the god Velora, they like to destroy any living beings in their sight with boulders and incredible physical strength.
 * Gasbags
 * Balloon-like creatures with five eyes. They roam various environments from above, and use fire projectiles called Belch to kill their prey.
 * Mantas
 * Flying creatures with a shape similar to Earth's stingrays. They are very aggressive and use their tails as weapons. Highly territorial.
 * Fly
 * Na Pali's oversized flies. Attack everyone with their tails. They aren't territorial as the Mantas, and it is possible that battles between the two flying races ensue.
 * Underwater creatures
 * Na Pali's seas and lakes are filled with three types of creatures, plus the Slith: Biterfish, Devilfish and Squid
 * Tentacles
 * Creatures living in cold environments. They are attached to roofs and fire teeth-like projectiles as weapons.
 * Bloblets
 * Space Vermins. Captured into the ISV-Kran Deck1, UMS Prometheus and MotherShip Lab. Highly aggressive

Gametypes

 * Deathmatch
 * Team Deathmatch
 * Coop Game
 * King of the Hill
 * DarkMatch

Bonus Content

 * Fusion Map Pack
 * The only official bonus content for Unreal.

User Created Content

 * RealCTF

Trivia

 * A dragon, gargoyle, "chameleon" and a hawk were all mentioned in previews for Unreal but were all cut from the game because they didn't live up to the "cool factor". A Minotaur creature was refined to the point that it became the Krall.
 * A typo in the Unreal manual listed the alternate fire of the Rifle as a three-shot burst, when it is, in fact, a zoom function.

Previews and Reviews

 * GameSpot Review (8.4/10)
 * IGN Review (9.0/10)