Way back in the halcyon days of 1998, when Daikatana was only slightly delayed, was just a twinkle in Software's eye, and Quake 2 was still the best first-person that money could buy. A company called Megagames, previously only noteworthy for a game involving a green cartoon rabbit, released a game called Unreal. It was widely anticipated as 'the next big thing' in the genre; and it was.

Back in those days I wrote for Ultimate Games, a site you may remember for a couple of half-decent previews and one or two reasonable interviews some years back, and I too was part of the wave of hype that eventually washed a review copy of Unreal (then published by GT Interactive; before the buy out by massive French publisher Infogrames) up on my doorstep. It was the moment that even the most cynical of games journalists had been waiting for. The next big thing. Even the box practically had me in fits of orgasm, sad as it may seem, but it was finally here and the revolution was about to begin. Of course the on-line community was already in spasms of excitement over it, one way or another, as fans of Quake 2 and Unreal argued bitterly over which was finest, and which was the most desirable experience.

But it was with child-like glee that I tore the CD from the box and flung it into my CD-ROM, eager to experience what all the fuss was about. Naturally, the opening level had me in fits of excitement as for the first time my escaped prisoner emerged from the crashed spacecraft into the sunlight of a bizarre and beautiful alien planet. It wasn’t brown. Things would never be the same again…

So here we are several years on and several years older. Nothing’s really changed in the arguments of the community, just the brand names being tossed around, and bickered over. Epic Megagames have dropped the ‘Mega’ bit, which sounded pretty lame anyway. GT Interactive are no more, and Epic have commissioned Legend Entertainment, under their own watchful eye, to create the sequel to that game that caused such a stir all those years back. So lets have a closer look at Unreal 2.

Firstly, from what I can gather, Unreal 2 is a sequel largely in name alone as the Skaarj are the only returning foes from the original, along with few original weapons that may or may not make the cut. So everything’s changed; even the very structure of the game itself. Gone is the fluid though linear progression through the game from level to level as the storyline progresses, instead this is replaced with a mission-based set-up. The game will feature various missions with there own unique gameplay requirements, and between each the player will return to the Starship ‘Atlantis’ from which missions are researched and new elements of the storyline will unfold. These missions will be varied on their demands of the player; some will require the release of prisoners from an enemy base, another might entail a squad-based assault on an enemy, along with various friendly NPC’s, another still might find the player involved in desperate base defence. Each scenario should be very different, Legend promise.