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Inside Mac Games Volume 6 #3
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IMG 54 Vol 6-3.iso
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IMG Volume 6, Issue 3
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IMG Volume 6, Issue 3.rsrc
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TEXT_134.txt
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1998-06-12
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13KB
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272 lines
  
 
 
 
 
 
by Todd Stauffer
I popped the Unreal Beta 1 CD-ROM into my Power Macintosh 7600
(augmented by a Sonnet Crescendo 266 MHz G3 card) and took a gander at
the contents. At about 500 MB, it was too much to copy to the drive, so I ran
it from the CD. After some unoptimized beta-level drive churning (this
pre-release version requires tons of RAM and at least 100 MB of Virtual
Memory), the game popped on the screen. It looked good.
I played with the settings, checked out the keyboard layout and started up my
first go at the game, after a cool little fly-through of a castle that showed off
the graphical wonders of the game. After landing in some sort of prison
cell/holding area, I started moving about the cabin testing the controls,
refresh rates and other settings.
Then I lit upon it - in many games, Command+numbers equals different
views or allows you to switch between weapons. In this case, those key
commands switch between video modes. When I hit Command+3, the game
went into 3Dfx mode, taking full advantage of the Power3D card installed in
that 7600.
 
Yowza.
"Honey!" I called down the hall from the computer room. "We better put the
dog up for adoption."
"What?!" came the reply.
"Sorry," I cried. "But I won't be leaving the house ever again!"
Viewed in its 3Dfx Voodoo splendor, Unreal is all too real.
G'orious Graphics
After picking my jaw up off the ground, I began to fumble around with the
other settings. While performance and frame rates can't really be fairly
tested at this early beta stage, let me say that the Unreal team has a good
start. The walking-around experience is good, with only a few rough edges. I
saw very few rendering artifacts - overall the screen is clean and crisp,
even when you swing around quickly. There's a high level of detail, with
textures that can only be described as better than what you've seen before,
especially in an enhanced 3-D mode.
Even dropping back into QuickDraw RAVE acceleration gave good results in
the graphics department (on both the test machine and on a 180 MHz
PowerPC 604e PowerCenter Pro), and the lesser machine also offered good
performance for moving through this world. Unreal is certainly the most
grown-up 3D shooter I've ever played, with sophisticated textures and
incredible visuals, including impressive outdoor landscapes. Movement in
the game is very fluid, too, with ultra-realistic bird-like creatures and
monsters that take each step with a believable swing to their arms. Even
your character has a few nervous ticks, sometimes rolling the gun around in
his (or her) hand, twisting and cocking it idling as you decide your next
move.
 
Shocking as it may seem, there's a little gore, too. Blood splatters as the
occasion warrants - the bigger the fall, the heartier the smear. Weapons
fire is fun to watch - especially the relatively ineffective laser pistol you'll
likely stumble upon first. And a number of other effects - like a flowing
waterfall, underwater scenes and the rumbling of earthquakes caused by
hidden machinery - are certain sources of delight.
Beyond the graphics, Unreal has a feel to it that I certainly haven't felt much
while gaming in front of a computer. It's the level of immersion that you can
feel in a sitdown coin-op...sometimes. You'll more likely feel it on a themed
thrill ride where effects are more important than speed - like Disney's
Space Mountain or a really good haunted house - where lights flash, sounds
overwhelm and your pulse races a bit. If playing Quake or Duke gets you a
little paranoid with your trigger finger, then Unreal will feel downright
spooky. In a good way.
But wait, there's more
Blood-curdling screams, electronic voices and dying gasps accost your
senses as you arrive, somewhat shaken, in the game - in an open prison cell.
Stumbling about to find some health (bandages, health kits), you watch as
the room around you begins to crack up. After finding a lift, you arrive on a
similar cell block, stepping over a dead prisoner, reaching into cells for
flares and health, all the while reading diary entries apparently left by your
fellow brig-mates. You climb into a ventilation duct, where fire blooms,
electricity arcs and the screams from somewhere below echo even more
eerily. A lot of people on this ship are dying.
That's right - there's a plot. As the prisoner on the Vortex Rikers, your cell
opens as the ship, a prisoner transport, encounters a gravity well, with
power being diverted to avoid falling into a nearby planet's atmosphere. The
planet grabs hold, though, and rips into the ship. As it's pulled into a crash
trajectory toward the planet's surface, the crew puts the ship into a shallow
decent, burning a crater down the side of a mountain before coming to a rest.
A lot of your shipmates and cellmates don't make it through the landing. And
the few who do survive the crash are soon pulled into bloody parts by -
something else.
 
 
The game unfolds as you move about, reading the words of crew members and
guards as you encounter new areas. The interface is good for this sort of
interaction - you hit the Return key to pop up the entry and read, but you
can continue moving with limited visibility. You can even fight around a
diary entry, although I wouldn't recommend it. Read during your quiet time.
After escaping the ship, you explore the planet, apparently in search of a
way to get home. The natives aren't particularly friendly, with a penchant
for tossing a barrage of hard-hitting missiles when you least expect it. As
you move through the levels, you will need to do a little thinking - it's
mostly exploration, with the right amount of levers to pull and things to
twist to make you think you might be missing a clue.
Although there are levels, they seem to be very linear, moving you from one
part of the game to the next - for instance, you might suddenly stumble upon
a new level in the middle of a long, dark corridor that find after a strong
fight. Stopped suddenly, you wait for the next section to load. There's no
score, body count or "secrets found" numbers. (At least, not yet.) The point
seems to be to finish the story, not compare your time against par.
Other Tidbits
I've just kept playing. The game isn't particularly tough to get through, but
it's certainly taken longer for me than many similar first person shooters.
In fact, I'd almost label this one an adventure game - I have yet to encounter
a "level" that requires you to negotiate mazes, jump to certain heights or
engage in much trickery - the gameplay is more about getting from one
challenge to the next. And although the monsters are certainly hideous, there
are enough people in the frames to make this feel rather real - like you
really are marooned, there really are others out there and, at some point,
you'll meet up.
 
As far as the gaming experience itself, the interface promising sophisticated
network play that can be optimized for LAN or modem connections. You're
able to create a number of different looks, including male and female
personas wearing a wide enough variety of garb to differentiate players -
with style. There's also promise for a feature that allows you to individually
configure "Bots," allowing you to control an entire team of characters in a
deathmatch against others. Unfortunately, network play is nonfunctional in
this early beta.
All in all, I'm really impressed with this early look at Unreal. This is the
closest any game has ever made me feel to being in an interactive movie that
conjures the realism and the giggle-inducing fear I'd associate with Aliens
or a similar flick. And the combination of sound, visuals and a real live plot
make it a game that's more than moving the fastest or getting the best time.
It's entertaining.
If you've been looking forward to Unreal impatiently, let me tell you that
such impatience is completely warranted and will be justly rewarded. My
only admonishment - if you don't yet have one, get a Voodoo card before your
final version of Unreal arrives. And if anyone else lives with you, invest in
some good headphones - the sounds will surely freak them out. As our
fearless interim leader Steve Jobs might say, Unreal is real.
Enjoy the wait!