About Unreal […]
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About Unreal
Introduction
This is a little game we are creating for a Fall ‘96 debut. Unreal will be published in shareware by Epic MegaGames and distributed in retail stores worldwide by Electronic Arts.
Unreal runs on the Windows 95/Windows NT platform and requires a fast Pentium processor. No DOS or home console versions are planned. Unreal will be a large-scale network action game, and the server will be ported to the MIPS and DEC Alpha Windows NT platforms to enable large (20- to 100-player) games to be set up on Internet and online services.
The Game
This is an immersive game that thrusts you into an alien world and leaves you with nothing to survive on except for your instincts and an arsenal of really cool weapons.
There is an intricate story in Unreal, but it’s unwritten. You will piece it together as you explore the new, uncharted world.
The Setting
You awake in a small, enclosed room with metal walls. The floor and walls are notably titled at an odd angle. The room is illuminated by a dim light flowing through a crack in the ceiling. A minimal fold-out bed is attached to a wall. Though you have no recollection of where you are, it might appear to be a prison cell. An angled metal door is ahead. With effort, you push it open, and it emits a dull creaking sound.
You’re in a small, metal-enclosed hallway. Lights on one of the walls are blinking, and you hear the dull sound of machinery. Exploring the tight metal corridors, you find a closet amply stocked with weapons. Instinctively, though rather stereotypically, given the setting, you grab a shotgun. Nothing here to shoot... You continue exploring.
You come to a large metal door. It’s partially open, revealing light behind it. Pressing a switch on a nearby wall, it slowly and noisily opens.
You see a bright green landscape and lake beyond. You walk out into the middle of a small peninsula within a lake surrounded by mountains.
This is not at all what you expected. The “prison” you just exited seems to be a small, badly-damaged spacecraft. You see a trail of debris along the crash site; the craft itself is wedged halfway into the ground around it, forming a crater.
Though you have no recollection of where you are or what your purpose here is, you walk along a trail in the landscape, shotgun in hand, searching for the answers.
You have thus found yourself in the entryway into the world of Unreal. From here, you will discover the intricately detailed, elegant architecture of an unknown alien race that once lived here.
Monsters
The present inhabitants of this world which you’ll first encounter are an interesting mix of fantasy creatures with an insectoid look to them--including an alien dragon, a deformed alien minotaur, and many others of the same style.
However, this is just the beginning of the Unreal story. As you journey deeper into the world of Unreal, you’ll discover something far more shocking. You won’t see what it is for a very long time, perhaps not even in the initial release -- though you’ll see its effects, in the pre-existing slaughtered monsters and humans you’ll encounter, in the shocking screams you’ll hear as you explore the world, and in the mysterious shadows you see from time to time.
Gameplay
100% action and exploration.
The Environment
The Unreal environment is continuous. Though “levels” do still exist, you travel between them smoothly, meaning that the entire world--whether you’re playing by yourself or you’re on a large network game server--is melded into one big, continuous environment.
The Unreal environment is permeated by music and sound. The sounds of wind, flowing water, torches, footsteps, and monsters flow throughout the Unreal world.
The Unreal environment is richly illuminated. Torches flicker and lightsources cast realistic shadows on their surroundings. Monsters, as well as players, cast shadows, which can often be seen around corners before their presence is fully revealed.
The Unreal environment uses a full, six-degree-of-freedom geometry and physics model, which means that you can look at the world from any angle, explore complex architecture with multiple overlapping bridges, domed ceilings, and the like--in other words, if a designer can envision a level, he can build it in Unreal.
Network play
In addition to supporting small (2- to 10-player) games on a local area network, Unreal enables large-scale modem and network games. An Unreal server can be set up on a fast Pentium, P6, MIPS, or multiprocessor DEC Alpha machine running Windows NT, and can serve 20 to 50 players. Multiple servers can be networked, with each server handling several game levels,