Unreal | Epic's Triumph (from 1998)

[@THEBaratusII]

Notes : - A friend has told me that the 64DD didn't release in the US, forgot to mention that instead. - Epic should've made the Unreal games freeware instead.

[@kylepena8908]

What settings / build did you use to capture the gameplay? The colors are just like how i remember them.

[@THEBaratusII]

I used a Datapath VisionRGB E1 and my HP Z230 (Windows 10 and dgVoodoo2) to record this playthrough iirc.

[@ArnieMcStranglehold]

This was actually the game that TRULY got me into FPS games. I came about in 89, so I grew up with Doom, Wolf, Duke, Shadow Warrior, Goldeneye... but one day when messing around in Duke3D, I saw my dad playing this game. Doing a botmatch on Ariza, which is still one of my favorite FPS maps that has ever existed. I remember thinking the water effects and lighting were so amazing. Then i PLAYED the game. It genuinely changed everything. Everything about this game fell together in a way I had never experienced a VIDEO GAME, let alone a shooter. To this day there are few comparisons to how it felt to truly experience something like this when nothing else on offer was similar at the time. and OH MAN, the Botmatch. Now, the only thing I had ever played up to that point with "bots" that displayed any kind of mild intelligence was Duke3D. They moved and aimed like cyborgs. It was fun but extremely hard. So going into Unreal, and having players that led targets, jumped around, dodged attacks, and, my favorite, would arm-flex taunt you while mid-fully automatic minigun blasting you, was just outstanding. Several of your points in this video threw me way back in time. Spawning a ton of enemies so they'd infight due to projectile overload? OH YEAH. Especially on multiplayer maps where they weren't designed for it. Everything about this game and its engine was discovery to me. To this day my sisters remember me trying to "train" them by putting them on a multiplayer map with one or a few enemies they had to find and eliminate, noting that they would have been between 5 and 8 years old. I can't imagine how terrifying this game must have looked to them. Additionally, while I could rant about my dislike for Modern Epic, and the way they treat their legacy, playerbase, games, and partners, it would easily hit the character limit of at least three posts so I will refrain. Wall of text for The Algorithm.

[@ZNukem]

For sure, I completely agree. Epic Games should have shown more respect to their longtime fans and made all the Unreal games freeware, especially after removing them from digital stores. It would have been a great gesture, similar to what Bungie did with the Marathon trilogy. I really hope they receive this message loud and clear. Unreal fans, let's upvote this if you agree and want Epic to consider making the games freeware. 😉

[@Quiver333_real]

Spot on. They should've made it freeware if they didn't want to maintain servers for them

[@defaultdefault812]

It is. Unreal's atmosphere is simply... Unreal. It's still one of the most atmospheric games I've ever played.

[@Number767]

Random stuffs. The Eightball has a cluster shot mode, start loading rockets then at some point before you fire use and hold down the alt fire and it shoots all rockets in a circle pattern that on impact releases a shock wave like the ASMD. I used to make mods and levels for this game as a kiddo, mostly just group chat rooms though with a secret area here and there and joke traps for my friends. I used to admin a few servers as well and would play jokes every so often like . Admin spawn biogel followed by Admin set biogel drawscale 100 THEN Admin set stringer altprojectilclass biogel. Even if you survived it would cause a permanent screen shake. Also Admin set eightball meshnali since the fire rate is linked to the animation and no animation means back in the day you could crash the server if more then one person went a blast`n. You could also invert meshs by admin set human drawscale -1. I was a good admin till I felt like leaving a joke here or there during the day. Who knows or remembers the Nali Book of Death at the spawn of Spire?

[@epicfightstonyjax2.026]

Epic review for an Epic game!

[@theopenrift]

Unreal is a truly religious experience for FPS fans and PC gamers as a whole. There is a certain majesty this game had that no other game has had before or since. It truly was a journey of epic proportions, back in a time when Epic Games was actually deserving of such a name.

[@voidythevoid]

15:25

[@dualpapayas]

Spawning enemies on top of each other and causing infighting was also one of my favorite things to do as a kid.

[@RetroDeathReviews666]

Great review. Funny, I'm actually working on a huge Unreal review right now too.

[@THEBaratusII]

Thanks! Hope to check out your review when it comes out.

[@Quiver333_real]

Waiting for it!

[@TaglesMalsto]

if you want to know Unreal Tournament is actually a mod by Unreal98 and was supposed to be an expansion like ReturnToNapali/Mission Pack1 So it had to be called Unreal: Tournament Pack code name BotPack In Unreal Tournament 1 only Engine changes, always Engine 1 modified or improved and contains Unreal98 hidden from the game and only removed Maps and Music

[@3dfxvoodoocards6]

Like! For mid-1998 Unreal was no doubt a fantastic shooter. The graphics, the music, the gigantic outdoor levels, it was like nothing we have seen before.

[@DominikSobolewski]

Could you say it was unreal?

[@65scribe]

I liked how you synced the Rikers bridge member death rag doll animation with saying “I mean,hey…”. at 12:52. I much more appreciated this game than HalfLife because they at least released a Mac version. Unreal was an excellent ‘bridge’ game for me between Bungie’s Marathon trilogy and Halo. Excellent video!

[@THEBaratusII]

Thanks! Also enjoyed your content too. ^^

[@enricofermi3471]

Its funny how creators so often title their videos "X is a masterpiece / hidden gem / the best game you never played". As a person who grew up playing games of that era, it's pretty damn obvious. Quake, Quake 2, Unreal, Half-life, Deus Ex, Return to Castle Wolfenstein; then FarCry, Half-life 2, Doom 3, FEAR - those are all legendary titles which were played and loved by overwhelming majority, that's the reason they are well-rememberd by the contemporaries and inspire a whole "boomer-shooter / imsim / antyhing-else-boomer" sub-sub-genre. I would also add Dusk there. Despite being a (relatively) new " inspired by" game, it has that everything which 1998~2002 fast-paced shooters strived for, and then some because modern technologies.

[@alewis514]

Yep these were pretty mainstream titles back then, not any kind of "hidden gems". Want to play an actually obscure game from these times? Go play something like KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child. A LithTech 1.5 game from 2000. It's a fairly competent FPS even though it looks like a piece of KISS merch. I remember it released alongside Daikatana and was actually a much better game than Daikatana.

[@ndowroccus4168]

Gaming has never beaten Unreal or Unreal tournament

[@Quiver333_real]

Really nice video! The editing and strive for getting authentic footage is topnotch. Epic really should've treated Unreal better at the end of the day (and released the damned source code!!!).

[@Demonanimator]

I just barely got to playing Unreal after many years of forgeting it even existed. I was too young for PCs in the late 90s when I first saw an Ad for it. It's heart break how fast technology leaped at the time which caused this game to be forgotten a mere 5 months after launching.

[@Djare915]

Nothing beats the looks and sounds of weapons from the 1st Unreal!

[@drgrindxl]

This music at the end... Always a resume of an epic aventure, a sacred& secret place from then past, wich you have to leave now, mysterious and heartbreaking, you wish this journey will never end and the time is standing still for a while.. Thanks for that good video!!

[@sickbump]

Thank you for reminding me of the bot rename feature. We used to marshall the whole IT department as bots for slaughter by deathmatch in 1998. 😂 You brought back some dearly missed memories.

[@jeanfrarugama3423]

Your voice reminds me of civvie 11! Great video as always thanks for spreading information of Unreal 1998 to get more people aware of this masterpiece !!

[@THEBaratusII]

Your welcome! Also not only my voice reminds people of Civvie11 but Hank Hill too lol.

[@jeanfrarugama3423]

@@THEBaratusII 😂

[@captainwasel8377]

I got lost in the same level too lol but the music surely helped me being more patient. Even though i played the game this year it is one of my top 3 games.

[@quaker2636]

Can't believe i havent seen this video yet, great summary and review Baratus! Just as I'm finishing my marathon of Unreal/UT SP mods too. Epic delisting Unreal from online stores is what made me lose any respect i had left for them. Unfortunately, it was UT99 that already revealed their tendency to follow trends and completely forget about the past. If the franchise isn't popular enough then forget it even existed. It happened to Jazz Jackrabbit, Unreal, UT and now Gears of War is also starting to get forgotten by Epic, and the pattern keeps repeating, one day when Fortnite becomes obsolete Epic will treat it the same way it treated Unreal. I wonder if people who used to work for Epic left for this reason, almost nobody that worked in Unreal are still in the company.

[@MrDoomGrey]

Seriously, why do you have sub 300 view and so few subscribers when you make excellent videos like this one? Hopefully one day the almighty algorithm will finally bestow a blessing or two upon you.

[@jeanfrarugama3423]

I was thinking the same thing!

[@marcuslind3108]

The first unreal is a masterpiece, played it with a voodoo 2 and pentium 450 mhz. There is hope nightdive studios will remaster the first unreal.

[@DanielLopez-zt4ig]

This game made me feel that I could visit another planet.

[@scotthintze5901]

I have played Unreal Tournament back in 2000 when I bought my first build your own Gateway CPU. I didn't play Unreal until around 2005 or 6. Very interesting on the sound effects and graphics. However, I still play ID Software games like Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake. I also enjoy Duke Nuke'm.

[@chrispbacon4519]

Excellent video! Unreal was such a brilliant game. You mentioned how the only way to get a version that works on a modern computer (without a lot of technical work that I'm not sure I'm up to) is from a 'rather familiar source' - illicit clearly, but could you perhaps hint a bit more for those of us who're not up with that? I'd love to go through that beautiful game again on my current setup.

[@THEBaratusII]

Thanks! The "rather familiar source" I'm referring to is piracy. (Hence the barely visible pirate flag) The game is practically abandonware since the delisting and sites like MyAbandonware put the game back on iirc.

[@matthewlyonsakadeathtodogs5730]

Enjoying weapon sounds from patch updates is great if you personally require to optimize your game for Athlon, PII or PIII CPU's but if you retain the original CD version on a Celeron, it's okay to do so unless you're into LAN parties.

[@CYON4D]

Such a classic. Good times.

[@geraintwd]

Diamond Monster 3D II. I remember that card. Not sure if mine came with a copy of Unreal or not, though it was definitely because of Unreal that I bought the card.

[@THEBaratusII]

The OEM versions of Unreal were interesting to look at considering it's bonus content like the Deathmatch levels. Still a shame that the network code wasn't really great for dial up users when it first came out.

[@mindego1979]

It is rather strange that nobody mentioned that unreal singleplayer is compatible with Unreal Tournament, so you can fight Scaarjs with UT weapon. Well, you can even use a UT mutators and kill that Skaarjs with AK ( using cs-like mods) or even tanks (using "flight simulator"-like mods)

[@joel6376]

Its even wilder when you think why that is possible. UT99 is simply reskinned+tweaked unreal. Epics track record with this is quite interesting. Unreal -> UT99 (unreal was.. very average for multi, UT99 by comparison is superb. It also boasts significantly more content that is multiplayer specific out of the box) 2k3 -> 2k4 (again, a large improvement on its predecessor, better tweaked/bugfixed as well as much more content) Ut3 -> ? (Ut3 was eventually patched and maintained to a level that satisfied the then dwindling player base. But this took years. This could be considered the same as the above two). UT4 -> Death Then Fortnite -> FNBR (Fortnite as envisioned by epic was an abject failure) I'm not sure what it is exactly but they can't get things right first time, although Unreal 1 was pretty good single player.

[@ArnieMcStranglehold]

I did this a lot, actually. I copied all my Unreal maps over at one point, and all the deathmatch maps mostly work fine, I tried almost all of the singleplayer maps with U4E Gauntlet, big fun on Bluff Eversmoking trying to find everything. God it's been like 15 years since I've done that. I remember trying to convert many Unreal maps for good function in UT99. Like many projects in my teens, I probably did about 20% then stopped.

[@THEBaratusII]

I remember when people where backporting UT99 maps to regular Unreal as well. I even recall backporting CanyonFear (a console-exclusive Deathmatch level for UT99) to Unreal for my game events too. It's interesting.

[@Drunde]

Thank you for reminding of this important masterpiece to the gaming industry, i was also going to do a review similiar to yours on the 25th birthday last month, but KZbin deleted my channel months ago, lol.

[@THEBaratusII]

No problem, at least people are doing their best to make sure games like these aren't forgotten. Also sorry to hear about your channel's deletion.

[@Kynos1]

The way they treated Unreal tells you a lot about Epic as a whole. I will stay away from them in the future. Valve celebrates its legacy, Epic spits on it and on its fans as well.

[@babbygremlin]

all 3 of their fans who play UT, which had 1 server with 3 people in europe from 2021-2022

[@Kynos1]

@@babbygremlin Many more people play the original Unreal and UT99 offline.

[@AlphaZeroX96]

Unreal Gold is great, but Unreal Tournament 2004 reigns supreme.

[@Danlovar]

If you press shift to walk and you walk and try to to fall from an abyss, you do not fall.

[@RomanoBeezyaew]

Great game, thx!

[@illyay1337]

Wow, had no idea about the sound effects

[@Alex_D_Vasilkov]

The 227 OldUnreal patch has a mutator to play with old sounds (and a fancier Dispersion Pistol projectile)

[@victory4me1]

18:35 I wonder if the 3DS is powerful to run Unreal

[@THEBaratusII]

That would be an interesting attempt because I know somebody made a port loader that runs 227 on the Nintendo Switch with some varying results.

[@dylanbarnett6099]

Masterpiece hands down no question

[@voidythevoid]

15:25 The timestamp explains itself lol

[@Number767]

Used to kill my friends alllllllllllllllllllllll the time, friendly fire off or not. Also used to use the fact that Zora turned off friendly fire to cheese her levels at times by launching people across the level while telling them to "Aim for a step grade or you`ll die." She later turned FF on then I had to prep for two levels to cheese that volcano level.....................it was a latency nightmare.

[@JohnDoe-ip3oq]

I love version 219, but it's super broken and unplayable on modern systems. You need the old unreal patches, which really fix everything.

[@THEBaratusII]

I like version 219 as well, but it seemed playable on my end after using dgVoodoo 2 as a Glide Wrapper. (I recorded the footage on a another PC with Windows 10 (Tiny10 installed) with a little bit of footage from a Pentium II in the mix. I would've recorded this playthrough on my Pentium II (with Windows 98SE) but the game had some graphical issues and Unreal was made for Glide API in mind and I don't have a 3dfx card as they are about as expensive as a RTX 3060 Ti, plus there are not any good Glide Wrapper that works well on my Nvidia Riva TNT. Or it might also be because I wanted the footage to contain the effects only shown in the Glide API. Though for those wanting to play the game and not be total purist like me, I recommend 227i or 227j as well.

[@joel6376]

The network code was trash. It went from unplayable to possibly playable if you could put up with total garbage when compared to quake. It didn't get enough play to call it "so good". The other main issue as the hardware requirements compared to quake. For most it was beyond what was reasonable. Another part of multiplayer that is overlooked is the "classes". The male/female/skarrj had different sized hitboxes and different speeds. The female could fit through a few narrow gaps the other two could not. I believe the skarjj had a higher max health? Maybe 120. This was also not an optional thing, which looking back is quite wild.

[@THEBaratusII]

I agree, Unreal felt rough when it first came out and it took a good amount of patching to get most things like the network code playable, which by that point Unreal Tournament had already come out, refining the experience and overshadowing it's predecessor's multiplayer in the process. Outside of the rough network code, I recall there was the lack of support of other APIs outside of Glide (3dfx) There's no denying that 3dfx was the best of the 3D accelerator market at that time, but Epic designed Unreal for Glide in mind which in my opinion hasn't age well. With the fall of 3dfx leading up to Nvidia acquiring them at the near end of 2000, plus the demand for vintage computing as a hobby made things harder to experience Unreal the way it was intended. (Imagine purchasing a used 3dfx Voodoo 2 for the same price as a brand new Nvidia Geforce RTX GPU) Now Epic did bring in support for Direct3D and OpenGL sometime later in patches but they were experimental and had it's issues from visual glitches to performance issues, combine that with the fact that Unreal is more taxing for your processor. Unreal was a really demanding game at it's time. I don't remember the different speeds but I do remember the Skaarj having more health than Male/Female and a bigger size/hitbox. (It really shows when you play as the Skaarj player class inside the Vortex Rikers)

[@Number767]

I remember the Skaarj being too big to fit through player intended areas every so often, I never bothered to see how the Skaarj players handled those areas in Co-op. Also the Female classes had a high ground speed then the male classes if I remember right as well with Skaarj being the slowest of the three.

[@HoD999x]

i always assumed na pali was the floating island.

[@geraintwd]

The Skarj were a$$holes in Unreal. It does not surprise me at all to know that their AI was programmed by the creator of the Reaper bot.

[@MrNihilist74]

I bought unreal when it first came out. It was highly touted in the computer game magazines. I never got into it much. The graphics and sound were great. I didn't like the weapons in the game much. I loved unreal tournament and unreal tournament 2004.

[@Robert-un5zo]

Hola, Somebody knows how to activate in newer versions, the original particle tail (4:10) on the dispersion pistol. Best Wishes.

[@THEBaratusII]

In older versions, you have to enable HighDetailActors inside the Advanced Options menu but that depends on the renderer you are using. It may or may not work as DirectX/OpenGL renderers were kind of unfinished compared to Glide. In OldUnreal 227 however, you will need to enable the OldWeapons mutator to bring back the particles tail. I don't know if 224v to 226 got rid of the particle tail, I will have to check.

[@Robert-un5zo]

@@THEBaratusII It works 😀, with the oldweapons mutator. GOG Version plus 227J patch from old Unreal. Searching that effect for years . Super nice seeing the effect again. Last time i've seen that particle tail was with a pair of Creative Voodoo 2, years ago. Many Thanks ✌.

[@Monsterinabox89898]

rip quake 2 huh.. well the same quake 2 that just got an update.. seems a shame this nice vid

[@Izelor]

Unreal did Metroid Prime correctly before Metroid Prime was even a thing. Plus it's a far more interesting setting with better battles, weapons and lore.

[@stephanfrenzel5782]

I can't ad any thing to this review. This was my first FPS and deep inside i hope for some kind of remake, knowing it would never be Unreal. Just one thing: SETI 😜

[@blasturd]

Play Rosebum?

[@EndriuC]

@open source and ports: Unreal in VR, anyone?

[@Andriej69]

Damn right it is

[@HeavenlyWarrior]

Unreal is so good that only Unreal Tournament 2004 and Unreal 2 are better in my opinion. But those games don't beat the music from Unreal.

[@THEBaratusII]

I really love Unreal's OST. I have planned a video talking about Unreal Tournament in the future. Also interesting to say Unreal 2 is better considering that many didn't like the game. Though I'll have to give it a proper playthrough one day.

[@HeavenlyWarrior]

@@THEBaratusII I also really love Unreal's OST. It's easily the best OST in the history of video games, in my opinion. I know many didn't like Unreal 2 but that's because they view Unreal 2 just as a video-game. I don't see Unreal 2 just as a video game, I see it as a masterpiece of digital art. The scenery, the music and design of Unreal 2 is truly an artistic masterpiece, it's my favourite video game ever. And Unreal Tournament 2004 is my second favourite game ever. UT2004 is a mix of art, pure fun, many gaming varieties, including vehicles and extremely good gameplay. I love Unreal 2 so much that I already finished the single player story like 60 times or more and I have to play once a year or 2 just to feel the extremely excellent vibes of that epic and profound experience.

[@aaronpriestley1500]

id games really weren't the same as unreal not saying either one is better just the gameplay is alot different

[@THEBaratusII]

Fair enough and you're right. While Unreal felt like a better game than Quake II in terms of singleplayer in my opinion, they are different games in their own right. I feel like critics did compare the games based on it's game engine more than gameplay. I do hope to cover Quake II in the future as well.

[@Number767]

Unreal focused more on exploring and wonder while Quake focused more on grime and grim. Q3 was focused on the sweats.

[@Djare915]

Original sounds better!It's brutal as fuck!

[@sandwichesrockmusic]

Skaarj brother help me

[@dantheman1337]

Played it the year it came out. Single player was boring. Bot matches were ok. Visuals were impressive at the time but whatever.

[@Danlovar]

Unreal's physics are worse than Doom.

[@shodan2002]

Epic fail these days