The Future of Unreal - Epic Designer Speaks

Steve Polge is the lead designer on Unreal Tournament 3, and a veteran of all things Unreal. Last week we spoke to the man himself at Epic Games' HQ in Cary, North Carolina, while checking out the new Titan Pack expansion. Read on to hear his views on the FPS genre, Epic's future plans and the potential of handheld gaming.

http://www.videogamer.com/news/26-02-2009-10764.html

I would love for Epic to go back and create a 'proper' sequel to the original Unreal, but I fear they may have forgotten how to.

Unreal was an FPS that was all about the experience of being on an alien planet, all alone with no-one to talk to. There were no stupid quips from the main character, no cutscenes interrupting the gameplay and no real objective other than to explore the planet and find a way to survive and get off it. You didn't need to have a character that had to talk, as it would only break the immersion.

Unfortunately, the sequel ruined anything that was great about the original. The basically shat on it, then shut down the people who made it. The game's they make nowadays consist of characters who are loud-mouthed, bulking and overly enthusiastic and I fear that if they go back to making a sequel to Unreal, they'll stick in a character that just won't fit in. If they ever do a sequel, the character would need to be voiceless imo.

Truth be told I don't see that happening. Unreal was an old-school FPS that was really something at the time, and even nowadays it's a beautiful game, with a great atmosphere to it. Chances are the sequel would become a mission-based game with generic bulky characters and a dire story, which is exactly what the sequel was. Nothing like the original in other words.

Here’s hoping they have a good long hard think about what made the original so great, and stick to making it faithful to the original. He makes a comment on the ‘amazing vistas’ that the original had, so there’s a small glimmer of hope.

Razilez wrote:...there’s a small glimmer of hope.

Admittedly a very small one. But I share your sentiments for a new Unreal game. Sadly, I think it as unlikely as you that it will ever see the light of day in the form you suggest.

Is there any news on the 4th iteration of Unreal's engine? The current one is looking a bit old hat tbh. Especially, when compared to Id's new beast and CryEngine 2.

Cal wrote:

Razilez wrote:...there’s a small glimmer of hope.

Admittedly a very small one. But I share your sentiments for a new Unreal game. Sadly, I think it as unlikely as you that it will ever see the light of day in the form you suggest.

Indeed. Unreal 2 makes me so damn angry, as it had so much potential to be an excellent game. They made some very, very bad decisions and it suffered because of them. It's an even bigger strawberry float up than Deus Ex: Invisible War, as at least that game had similarities to the original game, whereas Unreal 2 had absolutely bugger all besides an enemy type.

Drunken_Master wrote:Is there any news on the 4th iteration of Unreal's engine? The current one is looking a bit old hat tbh. Especially, when compared to Id's new beast and CryEngine 2.

I know you're just fooling about, right? Unreal3 is the current King of console game engine technology right now. TBH, although it's thoroughly decent of you to namecheck id, they seem typically reluctant to show off too much of just what their new RAGE engine is capable of. As for CryEngine - isn't it the undisputed king of PC gaming engines? That thing is amazing...

Cal wrote:

Drunken_Master wrote:Is there any news on the 4th iteration of Unreal's engine? The current one is looking a bit old hat tbh. Especially, when compared to Id's new beast and CryEngine 2.

I know you're just fooling about, right? Unreal3 is the current King of console game engine technology right now. TBH, although it's thoroughly decent of you to namecheck id, they seem typically reluctant to show off too much of just what their new RAGE engine is capable of. As for CryEngine - isn't it the undisputed king of PC gaming engines? That thing is amazing...

I'm not you know. I'm getting a bit bored of all these identikit Unreal 3 games. They all look the godamned same. And the majority of the games, seem to share the same art director. It's all rather uninspiring.

Drunken_Master wrote:

Cal wrote:

Drunken_Master wrote:Is there any news on the 4th iteration of Unreal's engine? The current one is looking a bit old hat tbh. Especially, when compared to Id's new beast and CryEngine 2.

I know you're just fooling about, right? Unreal3 is the current King of console game engine technology right now. TBH, although it's thoroughly decent of you to namecheck id, they seem typically reluctant to show off too much of just what their new RAGE engine is capable of. As for CryEngine - isn't it the undisputed king of PC gaming engines? That thing is amazing...

I'm not you know. I'm getting a bit bored of all these identikit Unreal 3 games. They all look the godamned same. And the majority of the games, seem to share the same art director. It's all rather uninspiring.

True - one would be hard put to tell the difference between the characters in UT3 and GoW, for instance. But UT3 is very flexible and capable of quite different results - it'sall down to the flair and imagination of whoever is using it. Sadly, too many devs opt for the standard 'chunky space marine' cookie cut-out, along with shiny textures and irritating bloom FX. Shame - the engine really can do so much more.

Wasn't Lost Odyssey done in Unreal engine?

Henke wrote:Wasn't Lost Odyssey done in Unreal engine?

I thought it was the other one, Last Remnant?

Epic Games is a fine example of a "One Hit Wonder" company. They released the truly fantastic Unreal Tournament in 1999 and everything before that and after it was pretty gooseberry fool.

If they just created a decent sequel to Unreal Tournament (there are no strawberry floating vehicles in Unreal Tournament!!!!) then I would be very happy. I don't see that ever happening though, and we're stuck with poor level designs which sacrifice gameplay for looks.

Fishfingers wrote:Epic Games is a fine example of a "One Hit Wonder" company. They released the truly fantastic Unreal Tournament in 1999 and everything before that and after it was pretty gooseberry fool.

If they just created a decent sequel to Unreal Tournament (there are no strawberry floating vehicles in Unreal Tournament!!!!) then I would be very happy. I don't see that ever happening though, and we're stuck with poor level designs which sacrifice gameplay for looks.

But the vehicles are great. If you don't want to use them, then you can always just do some DM.

TheTurnipKing wrote:

Henke wrote:Wasn't Lost Odyssey done in Unreal engine?

I thought it was the other one, Last Remnant?

Having checked I think they both do. Surely that shows a bit of variety in UE3?

Henke wrote:

TheTurnipKing wrote:

Henke wrote:Wasn't Lost Odyssey done in Unreal engine?

I thought it was the other one, Last Remnant?

Having checked I think they both do. Surely that shows a bit of variety in UE3?

It's not UE that' the problem, it's the artists.

The reason Gears and UT look the same is that they're literally the same designers at Epic on both games. And naturally, working in-house with the engine they created, they tend to get the best out of it. Third party publishers don't quite have that same luxury of familiarity.

As those games you namechecked go to prove though, yeah, it's possible to create very different looking stuff using the engine.