Unreal. The birth of a legend

The word unreal is familiar today by almost anyone who is at least somehow interested in computer technologies and especially computer games. For many years, a myriad of video games for all platforms has been released on the engine with this name for many years. It is used by film studios and television. Learning to work with him is offered numerous online schools.

But many will not remember that the name of this technology has given a video game. Epic Games themselves try not to remember this particularly (it is better to look at the new event with Snup Dogg in Fotnite!). And only the recently published collection of shorts of Secret Level reminded some of the Olds that Unreal is not only about lumens, nanits and staters at 4090, but also about the unique universe and the sign of the Games.

In this material, I will talk about the first game in this series with which it all started. A video game, which was called simply – unreal. Video game, a couple with Half-Life, shaking the throne of the King of the John Karmak John King genre and his ID Software company. The video game that I passed after 26 years, and did not regret at all.

How unreal has become real

1991, USA, Maryland. Tim Suini, the son of an official and a florist, is studying at the Faculty of Engineering. He is fond of coding, but at that time the text editors for programming languages ​​do not suit him, and he decides to create his own. In order to add more than a fan to the process of writing the code, Tim makes a real controlled character from the cursor, works out conflicts for his interaction with symbols, and then allows him to shoot. Gradually, the editor turned into a game called zzt. Having received an approving feedback about ZZT from friends, Tim begins to sell it.

ZZT distributed in the then popular SHAREWARE model. Discits with demo versions of the game were distributed for free, and in order to get the full version, it was necessary to send a check to the amount indicated on the diskette at the specified address (House of Parents Tim) to the company Epic Megagagames. Having received the check, the company representative (Tim) sent back the full version.

But there was something on the free zzt demo that allocated it against the backdrop of other shareWare releases. A certain program, learning about which today, you will think immediately: “Hmm, yes, here the guy who will make Unreal Engine is definitely involved here.

In addition to the fan from the very gameplay, Suini wanted to introduce the audience to the plya from the process creating your own games. Designer of levels and a script editor ZZT-OOP (you did not think that it would do without a reference to the ZZ-Top cult group?) allowed to do something completely new on the ZZT basis. And the community of games actively used this, creating not just new levels, but new games in a variety of genres.

After the success of the ZZT, Epic Megagames has doubled. Well, in the sense, another person joined Tim – entrepreneur Mark Rein. He just recently left the company of another young programming genius – John Karmak Id Software ID.

Over the next couple of years, the company has grown up to thirty people. Several games of different genres were released-platformers, scroll shutters, quests and … Pinball. The company grew up, popularity grew, income grew. Tim’s ambitions grew and ambitions. All the games released by Epic Megagames were two -dimensional, and he had long watched 3D. It was necessary to show the Karmak himself and everyone else how to make the coolest and most technological three -dimensional game.

1991, USA, California. The 15-year-old schoolboy Cliff Blezhinsky creates his first game-The Palace of Deceit: The Dragon’s Plight-and begins to spread it from the SchareWare Model already familiar to us. The game is a Point-And-Click quest in the setting of the fantasy Middle Ages. The player in the role of a good dragon explores the castle of an evil wizard who wants to destroy all the dragons.

The next game Blazhinsky was again the quest. Now there was a trip to the injured consciousness of a ten -year -old boy who survived the death of his father. With this game, called Dare to Dream, Cliff came to Epic Megagames, and became a new member of the young team. Dare to Dream was not sold very well, but the next project – the Jazz JackRabbit platformer – not only became the best -selling game Epic Megagames, but also allowed Blezhinsky to get an apartment and machine at the age of 19.

Around the same time, Cliff’s colleague – James Shmaltz – shared the sketches of the game with him, which he wanted to make.

Shmalts can be called a child prodigy even against the backdrop of Suini and Blazhinsky: he made his first game when he was 12. Let it actually was the Ultima clone – it is impressive that the schoolboy from scratch recreated him on Apple II (it was in 1982). Like Cliff, James in the early nineties turned to Epic Megagames for the services for publishing his projects. His hit was Epic Pinball, the money from which Schmaltz, unlike Blazhinsky, was spent not on an apartment and a car, but on the foundation of his own Digital Extremes studio. Until the middle of the zero, the company worked closely with the Epicians and acted as a co -author of the majority of the Unreal series games. However, the studio remained independent, which subsequently allowed her to go into free swimming and create her own hit Warframe (and several smaller games – from Pariah to The Darkness II).

So, Schmaltz turned to Blezhinsky and showed him sketches of the game about … a trip on a carpet carpet through caves filled with robots. Of course, this is far from what UNREAL eventually became, but one of the central topics of the setting of the future game has already appeared here: the combination of fantasy and science fiction. The concept was no longer new then (recall the Might and Magic universe), but still fresh, especially for the shooter. However, in this regard, Karmak and Romero still ahead of Epic Megagames, releasing the first Quake.

The ambitions of Tim Suini, on the creation of the most technological 3D-engine, fell well on the ideas of the shmalz, who finalized them with Blazhinsky. Epic Megagames in tandem with Digital Extreme began to work on a new game. During the choice of the name, such options as Sin or Dark Earth flashed, but in the end the whole team agreed that Unreal best reflects what they want to do their project. And games with the names Sin and Dark Earth eventually left the pen of other studios, and even did not leave such a trace in the history of the video game as the creation of the Suini team.

The first screenshots of the game and the Unreal Engine engine were published in 1995. The impressive picture attracted the attention of the players. And capable of issuing such an impressive picture, the technology attracted particularly insightful developers, and the first licenses for Unreal Engine were sold even before the release of the first game on it. In addition to cool graphics, another feature of the engine played a role: ZZT experience and the desire to make the process of developing games fascinating and convenient led to the fact that the engine had a very convenient and intuitive interface for those times.

The release of the game was declared for 1997, and at the GDC exhibition this year, the playable build Unreal was represented by the public. However, this time the team was faced with the disappointment of the public – the assembly was too raw.

To bring the game to mind to release, the developers began to work in an enhanced regime and even … go to work! Yes, until that moment, the team worked on the remote, being scattered through various corners of North America and Europe, and coordinating work via the Internet. Yes, through the Internet in the mid -nineties. By the final jerk, everyone gathered in the Digital Extreme office in Waterloo. True, not in the vicinity of which Napoleon suffered its final defeat, but a little northwest. In Canada.

Despite all efforts, the release date had to be postponed. Finally, on May 22, 1998, Unreal saw the light.

The game was recognized both from critics (all https://magic-win-casino.net/login/ relevant publications were put “eights” and “nine”), and from players (88% of positive reviews in Steam). NEXT Generation magazine placed a screenshot with Skaarge on the cover – one of the widespread opponents in the game – providing it with the signature “Yes, this is a real screenshot from the game for PC!”. Respect of the technical side of Unreal was expressed by John Karmak himself. The head of ID Software noted that the Suini team was ahead of him in the implementation of some things (for example, the spheres of light and volumetric fog), and suggested that Unreal raised expectations from the visual level of all future action games.

What is unreal?

So what is unreal?

You are a prisoner (by default, your character is a girl, but the avatar can be changed in the settings). The spacecraft on which you were escorted was crashed on the planet Pali. You come to your senses in a destroyed cell and witness the last minutes of the life of other prisoners, personnel and commands of the ship. You are surrounded by destroyed metal corridors and halls, sparkling wires and disfigured corpses are everywhere, in short, a completely standard environment for FPS from nineties.

But everything changes, if you go to the surface of the planet. Unreal immediately impresses with the scale and beauty of the foul: after a close ship, I naturally want to breathe deeply.

At that time, no shooters could immerse the gamer in such a cupually beautiful world. Quake was about gloomy locks and space stations, and sections of levels in the open air were extremely compact. The sequel, which went into pure sai-fi, also went nearby. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 also held a player on corridors and city streets. More exotic locations were in the series Tomb Raider and Turok, but they were console projects that, in terms of the level of graphics and study of locations before Unreal, was like before the moon.

According to Suini, during the development, the team was inspired by the Myst quest and his Riven’s sequel, and this is really felt. The player had to go through magnificent valleys and canyons, visit the villages and castles of local residents, swim a boat into the temple of the god of water (through the stained -glass windows of which sunlight breaks through), climb the Minor Monastery, which stands above the clouds, and explore another collapsed ship, on which a significant part of the team, by the way, was Russian. The journey itself is seamless: the inscription “Loading” still appears, but each next level begins in the same place where the previous one ends, without distracting the player with additional screens of statistics or briefings. Now many people think that the first to come up with Gabe Newell in Half-Life, but Unreal actually came out six months earlier. The continuity of the trip, among other things, plays the feeling of the scale of the world built by developers. Despite the fact that most of the levels (especially those in the open air) are very large.

The impressive visual perfectly complements the music: being completely electronic, it manages to give out an orchestral epic, when necessary-a futuristic sound with a quick rhythm, and sometimes something close to ethnic motives. The title theme of the game made me recall the title theme of the original Deus Ex. It turned out, for a reason: both tracks were written by Alexander Brandon, who for some reason created music only for games on Unreal Engine (yes, Magnum Opus Warren Spector was also created on the engine of Tim Suini). Generally for music in Unreal, and in Deus Ex, and in several other games, the Straylight Production musical team was responsible for, part of which was Alexander. Danish musician Mihil van Den Bos a has also handed many tracks to many tracks.K.a. Mike Boss.

Let the Unreal world sound and looks magical, it is by no means friendly. Yes, once I was, but it was long before the events of the game. The indigenous people of the planet, four -armed there, They were enslaved lizard -like Skarjami – a warlike race leading active expansion in space, and the fighting, including with people. Skarji will become our main enemies. In addition to them, it will have to be opposed by the predatory fauna and the enslaved canned races Brutov (Bugai with powerful weapons) and Krallov (more thin lizards with energy staff).

But you will not have to fight with there: the race is very religious, and their faith does not accept violence. Even the forced position could not change this, so Skarji use natives as labor in mines. In relation to the player, representatives of this people are revealing reverence and try to help: they decided that Skarji is the punishment of the gods for their sins, and the player’s character – the savior sent to him. Therefore, at a meeting, they will worship you and open hidden passages and secret diles with ammunition. But you have to be careful: these creatures are shy, and if you shoot from weapons next to one of them or even more so wound it, he will run away.

There are responsible for the “medieval” part of the unreal setting. Temples, castles, monastery, villages – this is their hands business. For sai-fi, of course, people and Skarji are responsible. An interesting combination of these settings is not limited to the landscapes of spaceships against the backdrop of wooden huts: aliens technology let their tentacles into different spheres of the life of Na-Pali. I especially remember the secret room in one of the barns in the village of I. Against the background of a village that transfers the atmosphere of some Thief or Morrowind, the contrast played very strongly.

If the visually unreal is the perfect symbiosis of the most breakthrough technologies of its time and magnificent art design, then things are different with narrative. The plot of the game itself is as simple as possible: the protagonist seeks to escape from the part, and in his search travels through various locations. In the end, he penetrates the Skyarja ship, destroys their queen, escapes on a rescue capsule and … hangs in orbit with an empty fuel tank. End. There are no dialogs and plot scenes in the game-only one paragraph of the text before the final credits, as in the first quake.

At the same time, from the very beginning, the main character is equipped with a special device that allows you to decipher notes in an alien language. It, firstly, has a purely utilitarian function: it helps to navigate in alien buildings and solve simple tasks. Secondly, a variety of notes, diaries, logs and other text sources that inhale in the world of games that reveal the ENT and sometimes hinting at secret passages in locations become available to us.

Carefully examining the levels, you can discover whole integrated stories. For example, to find out the fate of the scientist Kira: the girl was a member of the predominant Russian crew of that same ship “Kran”, was captured by Skarjam, was abused by the Krallov in the cellars of the old castle, fled with one of the secret corridors of the castle, and died, and failed to break out of freedom. The texts are well supplemented by the scenery in which the player finds them – it seems that this is called the smart term “narration through the environment”.

It cannot be said that Epic Megagames became pioneers in the presentation of history through notes in shooters: at that time there were already System Shock from Warren Spector and the Marathon series from future Halo developers. You can, however, say that Unreal was the first to tie up such a mechanics to the classic fast shooters in the spirit of Doom and Quake. Although, is it so classical and quick?

The first enemy who meets us at the exit from the prison ship and blocks the chic views of the folla, shoots from the rocket launchers with two hands and surprises with its vitality and danger. Well, you know, to acquaint the player with the combat system is accepted on less serious opponents – rats there, ordinary soldiers with pistols, emphases, heads … But the first skirmish sets the tone for the whole game: most opponents will be thick and inflicted a lot of damage. But they will not appear even familiar to the “classic” jewelry in crowds, but in small groups. In addition, many enemies, and especially Skarji, are also cunning: having lost a lot of health, they run away and hide from us, sometimes luring their brothers into the ambush;And when a player finds himself in a weak position, they jump and seek to quickly destroy him in close combat. However, sometimes AI seems to be Chitersky: for example, I got the feeling that Skarja always occurs at the moment of the first shot at him, and when you cannot get an advantage over the enemy, even getting from the back, it annoys it.

UNREAL combat gameplay at its slow pace and smart and thick enemies resembles Halo, let there be no transport and a complex subordination system between opponents. There are no restrictions on the number of wearable trunks, and in their variety the game is in no way inferior to other representatives of classical shooters, except, perhaps, Half-Life. As expected in a good game design, with the opening of new trunks, the old ones do not become forgotten ballast: almost every gun has a scenario of application in which it will be more effective than others. Even the starting energy pistol is pumped over time, and in alternative fire mode in skillful hands it becomes a terrible weapon (just like a plasma pistol in Halo, yes). My favorite weapon is an eight -shot rocket launcher from which all eight missiles can be released at the same time. Perhaps she was the coolest weapon in video games, until the same cliff Blazhinsky in 2006 came up with an assault rifle with a under -barrel chainsaw for Gears of War.

In addition to arsenal, we also have ordinary inventory. Part of it is quite standard: for example, a flashlight and a breathing apparatus under water. But there are interesting items: a flyer (in order to finish the lighting in your engine not to spend a charge of a flashlight), an amplifier for energy weapons (with it you can bring down the bosses with a starting gun) and, in my opinion, the most creative thing: seed. Small trees grow on the follars, the fruits of which can be restored health. They grow incredibly fast, and if you throw it away, it will germinate in just a few seconds. The more mature fruit from such a tree to eat, the more health it will restore. I generally grabbed the first -aid kit, so I always dragged a lot of seeds with me, and once it helped me out: before the battle with the boss, I planted my rear and periodically ran back to the huddle. One of the most unusual experiments in shooters.

The rest of the Unreal gameplay does not differ much from other shooters of those years: we run by locations, destroy the enemies, look for the keys and activate the mechanisms (stone and wooden mechanisms are much slower than the metal structures: trifle, but nice). The bosses here are also quite classic: they beat the most powerful attacks and demand that thousands of damage points do not matter from which weapons.

Multiplayer offered two modes. The first is a familiar to any fan of ID Software Deathmatch. The second – DarkMatch – was unique: the participants rushed along a map immersed in complete darkness with powerful lanterns. The player always had a choice: turn on the flashlight to navigate or stay in the dark, so as not to detect yourself? The regime was inspired by one of the levels of a single campaign.

Unlike the single, the multiplayer mode of Unreal did not gain popularity: unbalanced and bad network code did not allow the players from Quake 2.

Unreal return

A year after Unreal, the light saw an addition to her – Unreal Mission Pack: Return to Na Pali. The development was engaged in the Legend Entertainment studio, which was noted by Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time Cycle.

The plot of the addition begins exactly in the same place where the original unreal campaign ended. We will drift in outdoor space in the orbit of na-Pali until the ship passing by. This time, the introduction is accompanied by pretty kat-scenes: at the first our rescue capsule is taken aboard, and then we are shown several short sketches from the locations we have released (the prison ship on which we arrived, and the castle is, from which Kira did not get)). Next, we hear the audio day of the protagonist (voiced both the male and the female version) with a brief synopsis. We were offered a choice: as an expert on the flora and fauna of the foul to return there and find the wreckage of another ship with some secret data or … go back to outer space, but this time without a capsule.

Having chosen the first option, we break through through the mine captured by the Scarjams and find the same collapsed ship. Taking advantage of the surviving transmitter, you can intercept the negotiations of our “employers” and find out that after we install a radar lighthouse on the ship, we intend to eliminate us. But the hero has no choice: other ways to get out with the part is not observed. Therefore, the only way out is to hide the transport on which the detachment of mercenaries will arrive in order to kill us and pick up the data. This is not possible to do this: transport flies away before the protagonist manages to deal with the mercenaries. However, he manages to find out that there is another human shuttle on the planet. The road to it leads through the ancient temple, the Skyarja plant (from which nothing remains after our visit), the ice mining pass and, finally, the teleport. As a result, our prisoner manages to safely fly away from the planet.

This time the plot is revealed through the audio days of the protagonist, which are included after each level. This adds a little (to her) character: you can find out that he was sincerely glad to meet again and save them from thirst, restoring the water supply in their village (this is not a quest, we do it in order to move on). Or, for example, you can hear how, after the betrayal of the ship’s command, the character almost lowered his hands, but found the strength to move on. On the other hand, the Half-Life Continuity from the story of the game has disappeared.

Not to get anywhere and notes. Carefully studying the environment, for example, you can find out the fate of the team survivors from that very ship: hostility and distrust grew between them, which ultimately led to sad consequences.

Gameplain is the same Unreal with small changes: several new trunks and a couple of new opponents (including the most bastard type “small and fast”, damn them). And another new biom – winter mountains – in which the character control radically changes: with such sliding, aim at the enemy is a real adventure, and cliffs from which – like two fingers are the most terrible threat.

Return To Na Pali received lower marks than the original Unreal – in the region of seven points. But in my opinion, if there is a desire to get acquainted with the original game, then the addition is also worthy of passage.

On this the story of the original unreal ended.

In November 1999 – a year and a half after Unreal and six months after the release of Return to Na Pali, Unreal Tournament was released. It was a purely multiplayer project, with very pumped graphics and completely different gameplay (speed and jumping is much higher, TTK is much lower). Oddly enough, with the transition from Single to the multiplayer, the ENT was deepened: the entrance video and biographies of the fighters contained a lot of information about the iconic events that occurred in the universe and the main characters. In addition, the game contained many modes, the most interesting of which, of course, was Assault – a staging of complex operations to capture (and, accordingly, defense) of important objects: a warship, an underwater station or a train rushing at full speed, for example, for example. Even the “plot mode” (read “set of matches with bots”) is quite interesting and worthy of passage. And in the same period, Tim Suini gained modesty and renamed Epic Megagames into Epic Games.

In 2003, the Legend Entertainment already familiar to us released Unreal 2: The Awakening. The game could not repeat the success of the predecessor. The graphics were still impressive, but everything else was awarded quite average assessments.

Wonreal Tournament and its Xbox-spinoffs Unreal Championship have better. UT2003 and 2004 (and UC1 and 2) developed the ideas of the original game, adding new modes, making cards more and most importantly, placing transport on them. Games received high scores in the press, and by the attention of the players they completely competed with Counter-Strike and Halo.

Unreal Tournament 3 in the Holy 2007 of such successes no longer achieved. There were not so many innovations, but those that were, did not like players. The visual style, practically unified with the GEARS of War series, which was then largely an antipode of the original Unreal (remember about inspiration Myst, yes, yes?). Meanwhile, in the same 2007, such mastodonts as Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3 entered the multiplayer scene (and a year later Battlefield: Bad Company).

In 2014, it was suddenly announced to create a new game in the Unreal Tournament series. Pre-alpha version has become available for free download on the Epic Games website, and the source code appeared on GitHub. A very small team was allocated for the game, so the bet was made to participate in the community: the developers took the additions to the core proposed at the Hithabe, and if they liked them, added to the game. All this was called the smart word “crowdsourcing”. The project, apparently, was conceived more modest: there was no transport and did not plan to. But the movement system was supplemented by running along the walls. In 2017, the royal battle for Fortnite was incredibly fired, and the remaining developers were transferred to him, and Unreal died without getting out of the pre-alpha and remaining with plugs from previous games instead of models. In 2022, Epic turned off the project server. Now life in it supports community, raising its own servers for the UT4U (Unreal Tournament 4 Unofficial Update) project.

Unreal Engine with each new iteration continued to gain popularity. At the first version of the engine, in addition to the already mentioned Deus Ex and The Wheel of Time, for example, the PC versions of the first two Games about Harry Potter and the cult horror Clive Barker’s Undying worked.

UNREAL Engine 2 fell in love with Ubisoft: the engine was purchased for the first game in the SPLINTER CELL series, and then was finalized up to BlackList. It was also used in the series Brothers in Arms, Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six. Another capacity of the Tim Suini engine was demonstrated by the DEUS EX Immersion-Sims: Invisible War and Thief: Deadly Shadows, Bioshock, as well as Postal 2 and several picking games games.

Unreal Engine 3 has completely become the most popular engine of its time, taking the place for the falling off IDTech and Renderware. He did not show a completely fantastic graphics against the background of the same Cryengine, but it was quite flexible and well optimized, including for consoles and even mobile devices (which Epic Games themselves demonstrated to their Infinity Blade). The fact that Suini and Ko proposed very attractive conditions for licensing, including indie developers. Therefore, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 era is associated with a typical “game on Henrila”: something from a third person with shelters, in yellow-brown color filter and with blinding oil textures (technology was not without minuses).

Unreal Engine 4 got rid of many sores of its predecessor, offered even more tasty conditions (for free, until you earn the first million) and began to actively penetrate the cinema and other areas of work with graphics. But on the game field, a competitor came to him in the person of Unity.

The fifth engine is relevant today, so far has many problems with optimization, but still remains very popular technology with pleasant licensing conditions.

Today, unreal as a series of games has long been dead, and Epic Games as a game developer invests all its resources in Fortnite.

But now you can completely familiarize yourself with the game that has forever changed the Epic Games studio and the game industry as a whole 26 years ago. Recently, Epic Games was officially allowed to place Unreal Gold (turn on Unreal and Return To Na Pali) and the original Unreal Tournament for Internet Archive for free download.