Unreal II: The Awakening
World Press Preview Event: November 7, 2002
Chantilly, Virginia, USAThe TrailerAt this point, Glen showed us a short trailer of the game, apparently to get us in the mood to play (like he had to work at that even a little!) By the way, the trailer we saw will not be the one they will be releasing prior to the game hitting the shelves. One other important point is there will not be a demo for this game.The trailer was pretty excellent, showing various missions, weapons and NPCs throughout the game. The total number of missions/NPCs was not available at the event, but Legend indicated it was pretty much the same as previously reported. The trailer made it pretty clear that U2:TA was a story-driven game with lots of action and strategy, with bosses to beat, obstacles to overcome and puzzles to solve.Gameplay - StorylineThe next five hours were devoted to gameplay. Before we started, Glen Dahlgren pointed out that, while this is a very stable build, there were some issues they were still working out. Shadows were disabled, as was dodging. Final detailed textures were not included in this beta build (and it still looked great). In actual gameplay, I noticed a couple of things. First, if you shoot at a door, then immediately open it, the decal stayed in mid-air, until it eventually vanished. Water actually reflected the build info from your screen (yikes!). Also, the audio commentary of my teammates, including Aida (who runs the ship), Isaac (your alcoholic, chain smoking mess of a weapons expert) and NeBan, your ship's pilot (not the brightest bulb in the cosmos, or is he?), bugged out into short clicking noises at times. Still, there was nothing I ran into that prevented me from successfully completing missions.You play as Marshal John Dalton, an ex-marine with a lot of emotional baggage to carry, but he's determined to get back into the service of the Terran Confederate Authority. He succeeds in this, only to end up running missions in very desperate sections of the cosmos. Basically, he and his crew (Aida, NeBan and Isaac) end up with the jobs no-one else can or will do. As the storyline continues, you begin to see how utterly important it is for them to complete these missions, and the ramifications if they fail. The basic idea here is there are 7 artifacts that, once combined, will proportedly create a super weapon. Trouble is, the TCA is not alone in coveting them. Compounding the urgency of the missions is the fact that John Dalton isn't the only one who's carrying around some luggage. Each of the crew members has their own personal issues to overcome if the team is to be successful. It's a complex, rich tale that plays like a good book.